Payge Rivord English Ed. 275-001
Principals 1-4
Principal 1: Effective Teachers Understand How Students Learn
Understanding how students learn is the most important aspect of teaching. There are multiple student-centered theories that advocate for students learning and have become very influential.
Here is a diagram of Behaviorism, Constructivism, Sociolinguistics, Information Processing.
Vocabulary for Principal 1:
- Schema Theory (Piaget) : This theory describes how students learn. This is the theory that learning is the modification of schemas as students actively interact with their environment. They learn through assimilation of familiar knowledge and accommodation of new knowledge.
- Inquiry Learning (Dewey): The theory that learners are innately curious and actively create their own knowledge and concluded that collaboration is more conductive to learning than competition.
- Engagement Theory: The theory that discovered engaged learners are intrinsically motivated; they do more reading and writing, enjoy these activities, and reach higher levels of achievement.
Principal 2: Effective Teachers Support Students’ Use of the Cueing Systems
This principal acknowledges that language is a complex system for creating meaning through socially shared conventions. The English language involves four cueing systems that are necessary for communication and are used by adults and children alike. These four systems are Phonological, Syntactic, Semantic, and Pragmatic.
Principal 3: Effective Teachers Create a Community of Learners
Classrooms are social settings. Together, students and their teacher create a sense of classroom community. The classroom community has a goal of inclusiveness and should feel safe and respectful so students are motivated to learn and are actively involved. Characteristics of a classroom community include safety, respect, high expectations, risk taking, collaboration, choice, responsibility, and family and community involvement.
Principal 4: Effective Teachers Adopt a Balanced Approach to Instruction
Reading is a complex process of understanding written text: readers interpret meaning in a way that’s appropriate to the type of text they’re reading and their purpose. Similarly, writing is a complex process of producing text: Writers create meaning in a way that’s appropriate to the type of text and their purpose. Reading and writing are dynamic, strategic, and goal-oriented. A balanced approach is based on a comprehensive view of literacy that combines explicit instruction, guided practice, collaborative learning, and independent reading and writing.
Common Core Standards
The Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts are a framework for improving teaching and learning, with clear and consistent academic benchmarks. The standards are research based and include rigorous content that requires students to use a higher level of thinking as they apply their knowledge, and they’re designed to be relevant to the real world.
Payge Rivord 