"Behavior Aspects of Video Games"

1. The goal of the game is to earn all of the characters, scenes, and music of the game by defeating opponents.
2. The rewards of the game are to be able to fight opponents using any character, scene, or music you want. Each character has different powers and strengths that can be used to win battles.
3. Points are lost when the character gets hurt. They lose health and become weak. Only one player can win each round and when they do the round is over. The whole game ends when all of the characters, settings, and music are won.

The child described no definite goals or rewards for the game. Both the goals and rewards were to acquire all of the characters, settings, and music of the game. The child focused on the violence of the game and the thrill of hurting or killing another character. Each character had different strengths and actions that would aid them in battle. The child responded to positive reinforcements such as winning a battle or gaining a new character by jumping up or making positive comments such as "Yes!" He responded to negative reinforcements by sighing, groaning, or making negative comments. These reinforcements were fixed-ratio because the number of battles won caused the reinforcements after a set amount of times repeated. After one battle was won, a character, scene, or music choice was gained. These reinforcements seemed to be effective in keeping the child playing the game and returning to play it frequently. The reinforcements are extreme, either the child's character won or died. These effects seem to hold the child's interest and cause them to return to the game. The violence associated with the game also seemed to be a key enforcement in the game that kept the child entertained and interested in the game.

Option 3 Behaviorism
1 Hour Observation/Interview
Residential Supervised Recreation

"Cognitive Views of Learning"

1. Th teacher maintained the students' attention throughout the class period. When the students began talking or getting out of their seats, the teacher's signal for attention was standing up out of his seat and walking to the front of the class. He would then continue speaking or would ask the class a question regarding their work and the class would maintain attention. If the students seemed to lose interest in their work, the teacher would ask them personal questions about their previous writing experience. "Has anyone had any of their writings published?" "Have you ever submitted any of your work to your school newspaper or to a writing contest?" The class would have a brief discussion and then continue with their work.
2. The class would read science fiction stories together about dinosaurs, time travel, and space. The teacher would assign a specific topic for the students to write about. He focused on creativity and structure, not facts. He explained what a theme was and how to begin a paragraph. The teacher explained to the class that the goal of their stories should be to use unique creativity and to follow the structure that they had learned and not to worry about insignificant details and punctuation because those would be revised when the stories were completed.
3. The teacher helped the students make connections with information they had learned in school and at home with their creative writing stories. They were encouraged to write about their personal and home lives in their stories and to use any prior science fiction knowledge to build on their work. Students seemed confident in their writings because they had prior knowledge and experience in writing and science fiction.
4. The class began with a review of the stories they had read and the writing techniques that were learned. The teacher gave the class examples of different writing styles and techniques to stimulate their stories and to remind them of the writing structure they should follow. This made the students eager to start writing and to share their stories with the class.
5. The teacher gave hand outs and wrote notes on the board to outline previous information and the information necessary to complete the assignment at the beginning of the class. At the end of the class the teacher would re-cap what they had done during class and introduced the next topic and how it would tie into their work.
6. Due to the hands-on activities and class discussions, the class used different techniques to create their papers. They did not memorize structures and styles of writing.

- The teacher could have made actual outlines and goals for the students to work towards and hand it out to the students. If the students were able to choose the topics that they were to write about, they might have been more motivated to complete the task. Otherwise, I believe that the teacher's techniques were extremely successful in keeping the class motivated and holding their attention.

Option 2 Cognitive Views of Learning
1 Hour Observation
Gifted Youth Program Writing Class

"Observations of Vygotsky's Ideas in Teaching"

Scaffoldings
- The teacher provided examples and back round information in the beginning of class to stimulate creative writing ideas. The teacher broke up the class into groups and walked around to check on productivity. Teacher's assistants were stationed at each group to read over the student's work and to help improve their writings. The students worked alone to explore their individual creativity but were allowed to approach the teacher or the teacher's assistants when they needed help.
Material Tools
- The teacher went through the steps to organize their writings such as making paragraphs and indenting. The class had read science fiction novels as research for their writings. The teacher described what a theme was and how to carry the theme through the story. These science fiction novels became the stepping stone for their stories.
Cultural Knowledge
- The teacher did not identify or encourage cultural knowledge in the classroom. He did not try to relate the student's writings to their personal or home cultural life. He could have asked the students to gather information about their home culture and to write a story or poem about it. The students may have been more interested in their writings if they could have incorporated their home culture and back round to them.
Dialogue
- The students were broken up into groups where they were able to give each other suggestions on how to improve their stories. They asked the other members of the group questions and discussed each other's stories. The students were allowed to make collaborative stories with a partner or in a group to tie in everyone's ideas. The teacher checked on the student's progress while students were improving their social skills by helping each other.
Proximal Development
- All of the students are capable of writing stories and poems with a little assistance from the teacher and teacher's assistants. The students produced remarkable work but were given assistance with grammar and writing structure to perfect their work. The teacher provided examples and suggestions to increase creativity. He goes over information from previous classes to refresh the students' memory. The stories and poems that the students read aloud were incredible, this is because of the tools and strategies the teacher used to promote the structure and creativity of the class.

Option 3 Cognitive Development
1 Hour Observation
Gifted Youth Program Writing Class

"Observations of Adapting Instruction for Different Learners"

In this writing class all of the students were labeled as gifted and one was labeled as special needs as well as gifted. Each student was at a different level of intelligence, some were extremely gifted and others needed a little help to get to that level. The extremely gifted students preferred to work alone and not in groups, but were the first to offer to read their work to the class. The special needs student was extremely brilliant but did not associate with the other students at all. He sat all the way in the back of the room and frequently confided in the teacher, the teacher's assistants, and even myself. Because this was a writing class and students were encouraged to be creative, the work was not modified for the exceptionally gifted students of for the special needs student. The teacher was more understanding and lenient when the special needs student presented his work. When the extremely gifted students presented their work, the teacher did not overly praise them. This class was full of options and creativity was encouraged, I do not believe that the class was differentiated or that the lesson should have been redesigned. If there was anything that the teacher could have done differently it would have been to try and get the extremely gifted students and the special needs student to work with the groups to better themselves and to help the other students. This may have made the special needs student feel more comfortable with other students and the gifted students could have given assistance to the other students to balance out the different levels of intelligence in the class. Students were allowed to work in groups, but did not have to and they were given a lot of freedom when writing their stories. The teacher's techniques seemed to be effective with dealing with extremely gifted students and special needs students.

Option 2 Learning Differences
1 Hour Observation
Gifted Youth Program Writing Class

"Observations of Motivation Strategies"

Behavior /Observed?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-Promises Rewards /He did not promise rewards
-Threatens Punishment /If they were loud or did not pay attention they could not
draw on the board
-Provides Goals For A Task /He did not provide goals for the tasks
-Provides Rewards /He smiled and allowed them to draw on the board
-Provides Praise /He said "Good Job" on occasion
-Stimulates Interest /He used humor and hands-on activities
-Uses Challenging Tasks /He took them out of their element and allowed them to
express themselves
-Verbally Challenges Children /He described actions and situations and verbally
prepared them for the activity
-Gives Students Choices /They do not have to participate if they do not want to
and they can choose the activity they want to do
-Lets Students Set Goals /He did not have goals for the students to set
-Lets Students Evaluate Their Own Work /He did not have students evaluate their own work
-Stimulates Curiosity /He provided an AIM at the beginning of class
-Stimulates Questions /He did not stimulate questions
-Allows Free Time /Students were allowed a 15 minute bathroom/snack
break. Students were also allowed to draw on the
board.

These strategies increased motivation because the students were encouraged to express their individual creativity. The students were not forced to participate but were provided praise when they participated and gave unique responses to the activities. The teacher allowed the students to choose the activity they wanted to do and had index cards prepared with different options. The students were given hands-on activities for the whole class period and were alloted free time to draw on the chalkboard and have a snack. With all of the options and encouragement of creativity, the students were motivated to participate and to perform in front of the class. Even though the teacher did not provided significant rewards or praise I believe that his techniques increased motivation for the class that he was teaching. These techniques gained confidence and self-esteem throughout all of the students. These students may feel more inclined to participate in their other classes and may work harder to succeed because they know that achievement is within their reach.

Option 3 Motivation
2 Hour Observation
Gifted Youth Program Improve Class

"Observations of Classroom Relations"

@* #* @** @** @** #* $* $* $* @* $* @* @** @**

White Boy = A

Hispanic Boy = +
White Girl = ?
Asian Boy = +
White Boy = RR AA
White Girl = +
White Girl = RRR A

The problematic children were given the most attention. They were reprimanded and reminded to pay attention often while the students who participated and behaved well received little if any attention. The teacher focused on reprimanding the poorly behaved students rather than praising the well behaved students. All of the children did not participate equally. The poorly behaved students participated often, but usually in a negative way. They did not take the activities seriously and made a joke of the activity to show off to the class. The well behaved students participated less than the poorly behaved students but took the activities seriously. The well behaved students seemed to be intimidated by the poorly students. The teacher did not call upon certain ethnic groups more than others but students of minority ethnic groups more than others but students of minority ethnic and racial groups seemed to behave more appropriately than white the white students. These children participated more and were called on more because they behaved better, not because of their back round. There was no difference between the treatment of students based on their gender, ethnicity, or race. The teacher treated the students based on their behavior and participation. The white students seemed to behave worse than the other students and were given negative attention and reprimands while the other students were called on and participated more but were given little praise.

Option 3 Culture and Community
1 Hour Observation
Gifted Youth Program Improve Class

Can Schools Close the Achievement Gap between Students from Different?

The article "Closing the Achievement Gap by Detracking" discusses methods that can be used to increase academic achievement within all students, primarily those of lower economic classes and minority groups. It is expressed in this article that the amount of minority students are overestimated and disproportionately placed in that category. The article states that if students are given proper learning materials and opportunities their rate of achievement will increase and they will be successful. In order to keep lower achievement students at the right pace, lesson plans tend to be "watered-down" and not as challenging. This method brings down the achievement of all students rather than catching up the under achievers. Instead, high-track classes should be encouraged and integrated by higher and lower achievement groups. This challenges all participating students and encourages learning. There were examples of schools that tried the higher-tracking method and were extremely successful. The article states that the best way to close the achievement gap is by challenging all students with high-track classes.
The article "Bridging the Achievement Gap: A Bridge Too Far?" expresses the idea that schools can do a lot to solve the problem of the achievement gap, but cannot solve it alone. Problems of the society must be addressed in order to bridge the achievement gap. The media attempts to paint a picture in which minority groups succeed in achievement through hard work and effort. The message is that if they can do it, anyone can. Even though success is attainable for minority groups, schools will not have these results if they do not have the proper support and learning materials. Workshops were created to give structure and organization to bridging the achievement gap, but simply following the outline of the program is not enough. Schools that contain primarily minority students are less likely to reach "adequate yearly progress" because the same educational tools and resources are not available. Low income families are likely to use vouchers which push out higher income students. Teachers tend to focus and work more with students that are closest to proficiency to raise them over the bar and ignore the students that really need more attention. Schools can do a lot to help to bridge the achievement gap but need the help of media, educational money, programs, and incentives to provide more opportunities and aids for all students.
I believe that schools can do a lot to close the achievement gap between students of different back rounds, socioeconomic class, and cultures, but aid from other sources is essential. By putting all students in higher-track level classes, the achievement rate will rise. Teachers that attend educational workshops and obtain educational resources will be able to provide students more opportunities for growth and learning. Classroom motivation, hands on activities, and creative teaching styles can also greatly improve achievement rates. These factors are only one half of the solution. Schools need aid from higher educational authority to provide them with these resources and money. Media also plays a big role by expressing all people as equals and not different in terms of culture, race, and back round. Without outside help, schools will not be able to bridge the gap alone, but they can greatly increase the achievement rate with their techniques and motivational actions toward success.