Key Vocabulary:
Behaviorism: A teaching theory that believes that a student’s behavior can be learned through the use of consequences. It is also the belief that teachers serve the role of giving information to their students, rather than guiding their students to finding the information themselves.
Constructivism: A teaching theory that believes that students construct their knowledge by building on what they have previously learned. Also known as “scaffolding.”
Schema Theory: The theory that people store information into different “folders” in their brains, called schemas.
Inquiry Learning: A theory by John Dewey that claims that students are naturally curious and learn best by working with their peers, rather than in competition with them, in environments that encourage asking questions and finding answers.
Engagement Theory: The theory that students who are engaged in the content of a class are more likely to be self-motivated to do the work.
Sociolinguistics: Learning through verbal communication with others.
Information Processing: Similar to the Schema Theory. The idea that people store information in their minds like computers.
Phonological System: The approximate number of sounds in any given language. In English, there are about 44.
Styntactic System: Also known as “grammar” or the order that words appear in a sentence. For example, in Spanish, “la manzana rojo” (literally “the apple red”) compared to “the red apple” in English.
Semantic System: The meaning of words depending on context.
Pragmatic System: The differences in a language between different social settings.
Common Core Standards: The standards of knowledge that students should know in a given subject by the time they reach a certain grade level.
Balanced Literacy Components: The practice of using aspects of several learning theories in order to teach. In my opinion, this is the only effective way of teaching.
Classroom Application:
In class, we learned about Phonological Awareness (the recognition of any given sound), Phonemic Awareness (the recognition of the different sounds within a word), and Phonics (the matching of a sound in a word to a letter or combination of letters). These concepts could all be taught in one lesson. First, have the students identify the sounds in each of the words sat, hat, dog, log, big, and dig (phonemic awareness). Next, have the students identify which of the words rhyme with one another (phonological awareness). Finally, have the students match the written words to a corresponding picture (phonics).
Morgan Wyatt 