Blog # 15 - Peer Relations and Moral Development
One main concept that they talk about in this chapter is "perspective-taking skills" and i think children have a very hard time understanding this. I have seen this during my internships and my younger siblings, they are very firm with their beliefs and are not willing to open up. To introduce them to this idea is to put a glass half full or could say half empty and survey how they see it. Another good activity i have seen done with kids is looking at pictures. I have seen pictures of the young lady/old lady, rabbit/duck, etc and these are mainly used for older students to show illusion but you could use this to show perspectives. Half the class may see it in one way whereas the other may see it the other way. This will also reduce tension in the classroom because you can use this concept for problem solving in the classroom to show misunderstanding or misconceptions.
Another very interesting thing i read in this chapter is about "Understanding race and ethnicity." I was born and brought up in Tanzania which is in East Africa in a International School so i was born exposed to different cultures and i thought race was not a big issue. After coming to the United States i have experienced alot of racial events that open my eyes. Children understand these things at a very early age and it is important to expose your students to it. I saw a video in another class where children were to choose between a "white" doll or a "black" doll and they were asked questions. Which doll is better? Which doll would you play with? Which one would you take home? Etc.. and believe it or not no matter what the childs race was they all the choose the "white" doll. Therefore i believe it is very important as teachers and parents to expose your children to different cultures and ethnicities.
Peer popularity and rejection
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Don't mind the last sentence.
ReplyDeletePost # 16 Response to Sapna Kanabar
ReplyDeleteSapna you have some really great ideas on activities to bring about multiple perspectives. I love the idea of using those pictures that show two images to have students become aware of multiple perspectives. As much as I would love to say race issues are not a part of schools and society that is just not the case. Student's who come into your classroom may still have views learned or taught from their parents that have been passed down. In order to address issues of race or differences in your classroom the teacher can have activities that do not focus on physical characteristics but rather work to help students see how much they have in common with their peers. The book had really great ideas about creating a positive and caring classroom environment. I believe you are right Sapna we as educators owe it to our students to embrace diversity and open our students to a plethora of new experiences and situations.
Blog # 16
ReplyDeleteSapna, you brought up an interesting point in how it was differnt from you in Tanzania then when you came here. It makes me think of what are they doing there that we could be doing here in order to try and get rid of the differnces people see in each other. Looking back on your schooling there are you able to pin point something that the teacher did to teach the students about the different cultures?