Christian’s Blog

A)    Identify the problem presented in the case.

 

  The students do not understand the concept of symbolism and this is apparent when she asks her students what a symbol is and one of her students responds, “My sister plays one in the high school band” (Woolfolk, 2007 p.21).  She then makes another attempt to see if her students as a whole don’t understand or if it’s just a few.  She gives them an example of “a ring as a symbol of marriage or a heart for love” but this does not seem to work either.  Her students seem to understand the concrete object and what it is, but they do not seem to understand the concrete meaning.

 

B)     How do you know this is a problem?  Explain your rationale and discuss what evidence you have.

 

It seems apparent that the students don’t understand abstract concepts yet either because they have not been taught or because they are not ready to understand at that point in their cognitive development.  The students show they do not understand by their responses.  Piaget talks about assimilation, which is when people use their “existing schemes to try and understand something new by fitting it into a new situation” (Woolfolk, 2007, p.29).  This appears to be what the students are doing and this is shown when Trevor talks about the Olympic torch. When asked what it symbolizes he says, “a torch” (Woolfolk, 2007, p.21).  He has only known a torch as just that and therefore does not understand the symbolism because it doesn’t fit into his scheme.

 

C)    Based on the case as presented, is there an alternative interpretation possible about what is happening?  Explain.

 

Another possible interpretation is that the students just don’t have the cognitive development yet to understand this concept.  Piaget discusses children at this age being in the concrete-operational stage of development they relate to the physical world and that  at this stage children are not able to reason about  hypothetical, abstract problems (Woolfolk, 2007, p.34). This could be another explanation since it seems from this short article that most of the students in the class do not understand the concept but they all know the concrete meaning of each item.    

 

Vygotsky on the hand may relate this situation to a cultural issue.  Since we were not told what the make-up of the class is we don’t know if the students have ever been exposed to symbolism.  I t could be that depending on were they are from or how they were raised to this point, this concept may not be taught. Vygotsky explains that “cultures develop words for concepts that are important to them,” (Woolfolk, 2007, p.42) so in this case it may not be important to them.

 

D)  How would a teacher and a parent respond to this situation?  Would they respond differently?   Once the teacher realized that this was a foreign concept to the students she would need to find a way to help them understand, although this can be frustrating the teacher needs to be patient.  The students obviously know what a ring is, so using something they already know and understand is a good place to start.  If she makes it too difficult the students will not learn and may even get frustrated with themselves. That confusion will not help either the teacher or the student.  She can show them a ring and ask what they think it is, after getting these responses she could show them a picture of a couple getting married and exchanging their rings.  She could show them hers or have them ask to see their parent’s rings and ask them what they mean to them.  This is a good visual way to teach the symbolism in the ring.  I’m not real sure a parent would do anything different, start with something they already understand and then explain the symbolism.  They may not do a whole lesson on it, but they could give them a general concept.

 

E)  What information in Chapter 2 would help you to respond effectively to this problem?  Explain with examples and citation to support your statements. 

                                               

Chapter 2 would be helpful because it discussed the different theories on cognitive development such as Piaget’s idea of the concrete-operational stage of development and how in this stage children are not able to understand abstract concepts and therefore it could be too soon to introduce this concept to my students.  Whereas Vygotysky talks about the Zone of Proximal Development which is “the area between a child’s current development level and the level they could achieve” (Woolfolk, 2007 p.44).  This is when a student can succeed with instruction.  So with this concept a teacher would need to be patient and teach the student by using information they already know and what they need to learn. (Woolfolk, 2007).

 

Critical Thinking Questions:

 

A)    What do these students’ reactions tell you about the children’s thinking?

 

The students obviously did not understand.  It was apparent that they understood what the objects were, may it have been a torch, ring or heart, but they did not understand that these objects could also have other symbolic meanings. To me they are using assimilation, so they understand the objects as they already know them.

 

B)     How would you approach this unit?

 

    I would first talk to the students about symbols in general; maybe even starting with a simple one they may see everyday, such as the American Flag in the classroom.  Telling them that each stripe represents one of the 13 colonies and the stars represent the 50 states.  I would them read them a poem with symbolism in it and see if the students can identify the symbolism.  They could also do homework were they go home and either on their own or with the help of their parents find an example of symbolism.  It could be a picture of a ring, smiley face, torch, or anything else and the next day we could ask a few to share what they brought in and why.

 

C)    What more would you do to ‘listen’ to your students’ thinking so you could match your teaching to their level of thinking. 

 

  The homework I assigned would be a great way to see if the students grasping the concept of symbolism.  This would give me a clear idea of which students were properly understanding the concept or not.  If so we could move onto our poetry unit, but if I find they don’t understand then I can go back and use some of the homework they brought in and do a kind of question and answer, such as what is this,  what do you think it means and have then explain how they came up with the answer.  Of course I would help and ask guided questions and explanations when needed.

 

D)    How would you give your students concrete experience with symbolism? 

 

As I explained previously I would use the American flag, or even their smiles and frowns in order to give them examples.  These are items they know and see daily and I feel would help them understand the difference between just knowing what the concrete item is and the symbolism that is associated with it.

 

E)     How will you decide if your students were not developmentally ready for this material?

Once the students returned with their homework and we discussed it, if a majority of the class still does not understand I would at this time have to assume that the students are not ready for the material and come back to it at a later date.

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