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MODULE 8: RECOGNIZING AFFECT IN TEACHING
- In this module we will learn about:
* The affective component of reading
* Creating learning communities
* Teaching at-risk learners
* Bibliotheraphy
- We will:
* Look at the learner in terms of affect
* Examine ways to use literature to heal
* Adapt instruction for at-risk learners
- Written Assignment:
None
- Discussion Topic:
To be posted in Oncourse.
- Profess Check-list:
You may submit the theme study when complete.
- Comments:
Addressing the Affect During
Instruction
We often speak of language learning using terms such as
active engagement in meaningful tasks, personal relevance,
problem solving for real purposes, collaboration, learning
communities, multiculturalism, and appreciation of
diversity. What do these terms have in common? All add a
significant affective or emotional component to learning.
Have you ever memorized facts about an uninteresting topic?
You probably worked alone, and after a period of study, you
were tested. The test was probably multiple choice or short
answer. After more time, the marked test was returned, and
you learned the number of questions answered incorrectly.
Did this experience engender any strong emotions in you
other than fear of failure or a sense of elation on learning
you passed the test? Now, think about a time when you
explored with others of similar interest a topic that really
mattered to you. Through the entire learning experience, you
talked with others, searched for answers to fascinating
questions, developed new questions and creative ways to
solve problems. Your entire psychology was involved, and
through the experience you might have experienced a wide
range of emotions depending on the topic and social dynamics
of learning.
There are definitely times when learning isolated facts is
appropriate, but too often this kind of learning dominates
the classroom. We question why some students refuse to
learn, but when we examine our instruction, it never reaches
the learner's emotions; never touches him as a feeling human
being. Our learners are not machines. They are people with
minds, emotions, and wills. Very often affect drives the
will. It is common, for example, for struggling readers to
resist reading because they feel like failures. Newman
(1978,1980,1985) carried out a longitudinal study with a
group of 20 learners who, in the first grade, were predicted
to fail as readers. She found that five variables seemed to
make a positive difference in the lives of those readers who
eventually became successful: 1) model, 2) motivation, 3)
interest, 4) perseverance, and 5) positive pressure. We
cannot ignore the affective component in learning.
Lee and Anderson (1993) identified four types of motivation:
1) intrinsically motivated, 2) motivated, 3) task-avoidant,
and 4) task resistant. The researchers found that
intrinsically motivated students attempted to understand the
material and integrated it with their personal knowledge of
the world around them. They initiated their own learning,
enjoyed asking conceptual questions, made connections among
topics in a variety of lessons, and displayed high interest
in the material. At the other extreme, task resistant
students were disruptive, noisy, contrary, showing a dislike
of the material and general disinterest. This group gained
no conceptual understandings during the lessons.
Cognitive psychologist John Guthrie studied literacy
engagement (Guthrie et.al., 1996) and noted that research
(Meece, Blumenfeld, and Hoyle; l988) points out that
students' intrinsic motivation to read and write depends on
interest in learning rather than interest in demonstrating
competence to the teacher or peers. Students also display
higher level thinking skills when they find material
interesting and relevant. Pintrich and De Groot (1990)
concluded that children are motivated to read and write when
they perceive the task to be important for them and when
they expect to do well.
Irene Gaskins (1998), long-time director of the Benchmark
School for at-risk, delayed readers, found that even after
intensive help, former Benchmark students had trouble
succeeding in regular schools because they continued to
employ unproductive strategies and failed to remember and
complete assignments. Studying the literature Benchmark
staff concluded that delayed readers have difficulty
identifying on their own strategies that are used by
successful readers. They are also unable to take control of
their own learning. Beginning in 1978, the Benchmark staff
began gathering data on what they perceived to be 32
possible academic and nonacademic roadblocks to school
success. Academic roadblocks included such variables as poor
comprehension, poor handwriting; non-academic roadblocks
such things as impulsivity, poor home support, and
absenteeism. After analyzing five years of roadblock data,
researchers found it is unlikely that just addressing
academics will meet students' needs, and providing two or
three years of remedial help is not sufficient to help
prepare students for academic success. What is needed
throughout elementary and middle school is an integrated,
full-day program taught by well-trained, caring teachers,
collaborating with parents, and orchestrating motivating
instruction with much support in teaching students how to
take control of their own learning. Also recommended was
on-going, reflective professional development for teachers,
including follow-up on former students.
Louanne Johnson, well-known teacher of inner city schools
has learned that pure academics will not reach at-risk
students. In her book, TWO PARTS TEXTBOOK: ONE PART LOVE
(1998), Johnson repeatedly makes the point that a strong
affective component must be incorporated into a strong
academic curriculum. The affective component, termed the
"optional agenda," provides a learning environment
fostering: 1) a strong sense of ethical standards, 2) an
unquenchable thirst for knowledge, 3) a desire to succeed in
terms of the student's definition of success, and 4) the
character to treat everyone with dignity and respect.
Johnson's instruction was characterized by a personal
interest in students' lives both in and out of school.
Johnson realized her students did not always have the
background and skills necessary to perform particular tasks,
so she provided both academic and affective support to
bridge experiential gaps and continually found ways to help
students believe in themselves.
Purcell-Gates (ibid) believed we must learn to understand
students' cultural contexts and seek to understand how they
perceive, interpret, and evaluate their world. Sometimes
without our realizing it, the school culture serves to admit
only a favored few and blocks access to others who see the
world in a different way. Alfie Kohn, longtime
educator/lecturer and author of WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN THE
CLASSROOM (1998), states that teachers think too much about
teaching and not enough about learning. Rather than
well-intentioned efforts to get children to read, we need to
understand what our language arts strategies are doing to
how and why students read. Kohn believes that a good
classroom can be identified by its warm, caring atmosphere,
open communication among students and the teacher, and
evidence of active engagement in learning about things that
matter. Cooper and Simonds (2002) state that communication
is the essence of education and list several teacher
competencies to effectively communicate with at-risk
students, all of which emphasize understanding and caring
about learners, supporting their learning endeavors, and
helping them believe in themselves. Education is much more
than "going to school." It is actively participating in the
educational culture, and we must allow each child a voice in
that culture. How can we do this? By making sure our
instruction supports both the academic and affective sides
of learning and connects with students' interests and
purposes. *
For some time I have worked in a prison setting teaching
at-risk adolescents who could not succeed in the center's
regular curriculum. My students' ages generally range from
15 to 17 with a few as low as 13. Among the students are
those with emotional handicaps, learning disabilities, and
young men who feel a total sense of failure. A challenging
group to say the least. I went into this situation
believing, like many teachers, that my students needed more
skill practice. What I learned was that yes, they needed
help with skills, but they were unable to respond to
structured practice. They responded first to my caring for
and respecting them. When the students realized I perceived
them as valued people with great learning potential, they
immediately began moving toward my expectations.
My next move was to gravitate toward more holistic,
student-centered language activities that involved
integration of reading, writing, speaking, listening, and
art. I encouraged students to give their opinions on topics
and asked them what they wanted to learn. We did many
hands-on projects that required not only reading and
writing, but problem solving (Elkins, 2002). Our projects
were relevant to what students wanted to know, and all
learning was carefully scaffolded and monitored so each
student could achieve success and gain a sense of
self-worth. This attention to the affect paid off as
students began to take an active interest in language arts.
And yes, we worked on skills but not in practice sheets. We
addressed skills as needed in mini-lessons. Watching these
young men carefully edit a summary of one of our learning
experiences, I realized that we sometimes shortchange our
students by not realizing their capabilities. When working
with at-risk struggling readers, always maintain high
expectations but also provide the support needed to reach
them. Don't forget to value learning for its own sake. More
than anything our students must learn how to learn in a
safe, self-affirming way.
____________
* The first section of Comments was written by Hope
Elkins, Judith Lysaker, and Marcia Davis as background for
the Indiana Rural Literacy Initiative, 2002.
References
Cooper, P. & Simonds, C. (2002). Communication for
the classroom teacher. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
Elkins, H. (Summer 2002). Connecting and supporting for
at-risk learners. Indiana Journal of Reading.
Gaskins, I. (1998). There's more to teaching at-risk and
delayed readers than good reading instruction. The Reading
Teacher, 51, 534-547.
Guthrie, J. et.al. (Spring 1996). Growth of Literacy
engagement: Changes in motivations and strategies during
concept-oriented reading instruction. National Reading
Research Center Universities of Georgia and Maryland Reading
Research Report No. 53.
Johnson, L. (1998). Two parts textbook, one part love. New
York: Hyperion.
Kohn, A. (1998). What to look for in a classroom. San
Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
Lee, O. & Anderson, C. W. (1993). Task engagement and
conceptual change in middle school science classrooms.
American Education Research Journal, 30, 585-610.
Meece, J. L., Blumenfeld, P. C., & Hoyle, R. H. (l988).
Students' goal orientations and cognitive engagement in
classroom activities. Journal of Educational Psychology, 80,
514-523.
Newman, A. (1978). Twenty lives: A longitudinal case study
of the effect of five variables on the achievement of 20
students who were low readiness in first grade (1964-76).
Bloomington, IN: Indiana University.
Newman, A. (1980). Twenty lives revisited: A longitudinal
study of the impact of literacy on the occupations and
schooling of students who were low reading readiness in
first grade (1964-1978) with special attention to model,
motivation, interest, perseverance, and pressure.
Bloomington, IN: Indiana University.
Newman, A. (1985). Twenty lives, nineteen years later: A
longitudinal study (1964-1983) of the impact of literacy on
the occupation, schooling, and educational growth of young
adults who were low reading readiness in first grade with
attention given to model, motivation, interest,
perseverance, and pressure as aspects of background and
mental environment. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University.
Pintrich, P. R., & De Groot, E. V. (1990). Motivational
and self-regulated learning components of classroom academic
performance. Journal of Educational Psychology, 82,
33-40.
Purcell-Gates, V. (1995). Other people's words. Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press.
Bibliotherapy
In this section of Module 8, the topic of BIBLIOTHERAPY
will be explored through a series of questions and answers.
Begin this section in PART 1 by testing your knowledge about
this relatively under-discussed concept using the True-False
Quiz. (You will take this same quiz as a post-test in PART 3
after you readabout bibliotherapy in PART 3. Answers are
provided at the end of the post-test.)
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Department
of Language Education