Recent Changes

- Improvment of urban schools
-
Sources:
http://www.hepg.org/her/booknote/293
http://www.hepg.org/her/booknote/78

* Please note that I have this on a word file and it looks a lot better with pictures of every person and I think that it looks good! let me know what you all think and I can make changes as needed.
Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934)
Lev Vygotsky was born in Russia and grew up shortly after the Russian revolution, when Marxism and socialism were prevalent. He received a degree in law from Moscow University and got his Ph. D. in literature and linguistics. He lived in Moscow for the last part of his life, where he directed a program to help teach handicapped and special needs children. Vygotsky's theories played a huge role in shaping education.
Quick Facts
· A child's behavior is shaped by his or her culture.
· Children learn best by working with someone who is already experienced in any given task (for example, a teacher). Gradually, the child is able to do the task alone, without the teacher's help.
· Vygotsky came up with the idea of the Zone of Proximal Development, or ZPD, which refers to the span between what a child can achieve on his or her own and what the child can achieve with guidance from a teacher (or other more skilled person). Vygotsky was interested in children's innate problem-solving skills, but more interested in their potential after receiving assistance from someone else.
· Use of language is the primary way in which children learn, and what sets human learning apart from animal learning. Language is needed almost solely for social interaction.
Lisa Delpit
Lisa Delpit is a woman of color who grew up in a segregated community in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She earned her bachelor's degree in education from Antioch College and her master's and doctoral from Harvard University in curriculum, instruction, and research. She has been hailed as a visionary and written numerous books and articles on the perspectives and motives of teachers of color. She currently is the professor of Urban Educational Research at Georgia State University and the director for the Center of Urban Educational Excellence
Ten Factors Essential to Success in Urban Classrooms **
http://www.essentialschools.org/pub/ces_docs/fforum/1999/speeches/delpit_speech99.html
1. Do not teach less content to poor, urban children, but understand their brilliance and teach more.
2. Whatever methodology or instructional program is used, demand critical thinking.
3. Assure that all children gain access to "basic skills," the conventions and strategies that are essential to success in American education.
4. Challenge racist societal views of the competence and worthiness of the children and their families, and help them to do the same.
5. Recognize and build on strenghs.
6. Use familiar metaphors and experiences from the children's world to connect what they already know to school knowledge.
7. Create a sense of family and caring in the service of academic achievement.
8. Monitor and assess needs and then address them with a wealth of diverse strategies.
9. Honor and respect the childresn's home and ancestral culture(s).
Foster a sense of children's connection to community - to something greater than themselves.
Mortimer Adler(1902-2001)
Mortimer Jerome Adler was an American philosopher, educator, and popular author. As a philosopher he worked within the Aristotelian traditions. He lived for the longest stretches in New York City, Chicago, San Francisco , and San Mateo. He worked for Columbia University, the University of Chicago, Encyclopedia Britannica, and Adler's own Institute for Philosophical Research. Adler was married twice and had four children.
Educational quick facts:
1. Adler believed that all students should receive a classics based education where literature, science, philosophy and the arts were integrated. He promoted a universal humanities program where all students were offered the same rigorous basic education. He was not in favor of vocational and electives that differentiated among students and diluted what he felt was true learning. The Great Books program where the Socratic method is used is an example of a model he developed, and many variations came off of this as well.
2. He placed an emphasis on critical thinking, in which young people are asked to seek genuine understanding of material, rather than simply memorizing facts. His goal was for students to become critical thinkers and to learn how to think. This is something schools all across the nation have begun to adopt as part of their standards.
3. He promoted lifelong learning, and believed that education should teach people to use leisure time well, to earn their living ethically, and to be responsible citizens in a democracy. This influence is evidenced by the surge in adult education, and non-traditional students entering schools.
4. Adler questioned the value of the huge number of standardized tests, and challenged whether they were assessing true learning or were just measuring short-term memorization. He believed valuable time and learning were lost because of them.

Vygotsky (1896-1934).
Vygotsky
Vygotsky was born Miller,S.A., 1995).
To
To understand Vygotsky´s Miller,S.A., 1995).
Vygotsky
Vygotsky incorporates these the culture.
He
He states:
Every
Every function in 1978, p.57).
Mental
Mental abilities and to think.
Vygotsky
Vygotsky viewed cognitive (Rogoff, 1990).
The
The second aspect H., 1966).
Vygotsky
Vygotsky refers to S.A., 1995).
The
The full development Proximal Development’.
In
In 1976 Wood, are related.
A
A parallel has Sylva,K., 1996).
If
If adults wish young learner.
It
It is interesting the course.
For
For Vygotsky, language social context.
The
The language is own behavior.
The socio-cultural aspects in Vygotsy´s theories are interesting when analyzing the learner in the information age society. How do we educate the child raised in a world of instant information, where interactive technologies have led them to believe they can act on the world with the press of a button?
Taken directly from:
http://www.vygotskydocumentary.com/images/vygotsky.jpg
http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/images/tanw/2008/12/21/vygotsky2.jpg
Info for Powerpoint:
The essentials of a Vygotskian Social Constructivist Perspective for Education For teachers:
- a belief that education is to develop a student’s personality;
- a belief that education is to facilitate the development of the creative potential of students;
- a belief that effective learning requires the active involvement of the learner
- a belief that teachers direct and guide the individual activity of the students but they do not
dictate or force their own will on them. Authentic teaching and learning come through a collaboration by adults with students
- a belief that the most valuable methods for students’ teaching and learning correspond to their developmental and individual characteristics, and therefore these methods cannot be uniform
- a belief that schools should provide the tools that learners need to internalize the ways of thinking central to participation in the cultural world around them.
(From http://educ-reality.com/jean-piaget-and-lev-vygotsky/)
task level: too easy
result: boredom
scaffolding: none
zone of
proximal
development
task level: appropriate
result: learning
scaffolding: some
task level: too difficult
result: frustration
scaffolding: much
(From http://www.athens.edu/vinsobm/research_6.html)

So for this week we need to make sure that we get this stuff done so that we can catch up to where we should be.
TO DO:
Handout(Kaylie)Handout(Kayli)
Powerpoint Started
organize all of the raw information here and decide on what we are going to put into the powerpoint

3. Vygotsky came up with the idea of the Zone of Proximal Development, or ZPD, which refers to the span between what a child can achieve on his or her own and what the child can achieve with guidance from a teacher (or other more skilled person). Vygotsky was interested in children's innate problem-solving skills, but more interested in their potential after recieving assistance from someone else.
4. Use of language is the primary way in which children learn, and what sets human learning apart from animal learning. Language is needed almost soley for social interaction.
Lisa DelptDelpit
Still living
Lisa Delpit is a woman of color who grew up in a segregated community in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She earned her bachelor's degree in education from Antioch College and her master's and doctoral from Harvard University in curriculum, instruction, and research. She has been hailed as a visionary and written numerous books and articles on the perspectives and motives of teachers of color. She currently is the professor of Urban Educational Research at Georgia State University and the director for the Center of Urban Educational Excellence. Some of her contributions to education include:
1. Delpit observed that the problems attributed to children of color are a result of miscommunication in the classroom. More white students succeed than black students because the curriculum focuses on middle and upper-class values.
2. She promotes the usage of non-standard English in school classrooms to reach as many students as possible. She believes that students should be allowed to express themselves in their native tongue while learning standard English in a systematic, academic way.
3.
Mortimer Adler
December 28, 1902 – June 28, 2001

1. A child's behavior is shaped by his or her culture.
2. Children learn best by working with someone who is already experienced in any given task (for example, a teacher). Gradually, the child is able to do the task alone, without the teacher's help.
the span of time between what
4. Use of language is the primary way in which children learn, and what sets human learning apart from animal learning. Language is needed almost soley for social interaction.
Lisa Delpt