15 Principles for Reading to Deaf Children
The ultimate authorities in reading to deaf children are deaf adults. Comparative studies of deaf children with hearing parents and deaf children with deaf parents show that deaf children with deaf parents are superior in academic achievement, reading and writing, and social development (Ewoldt, Hoffmeister, & Israelite, 1992). Hearing parents and teachers can learn from the read aloud strategies used by deaf parents. The following 15 principles have been identified based on research that examined deaf parents and deaf teachers reading to deaf children:
Deaf readers translate stories using American Sign Language
When it comes to reading stories to deaf children, one of the most prominent dilemmas is whether to sign the stories in ASL or in a manual code developed to represent English. Parents and teachers worry that if they don't sign every word in English word order, the deaf children will not pick up on the English in the text. However, a look at research on how deaf mothers and fathers read to their children makes it clear: they use ASL to read the stories to their children (Lartz & Lestina, 1995; Mather, 1989; Schick & Gale, 1995; Whitesell, 1991). A study by Schick and Gale (1995) noted that children found stories told in ASL more interesting and engaging.
Deaf readers keep both languages visible (ASL and English)
Although deaf readers use American Sign Language, they also place great importance on the written English of the text. Deaf parents demonstrate this when they read to their deaf children by keeping the English print visible while they interpret the story in ASL (Akamatsu & Andrews, 1993; Lartz & Lestina, 1995; Mather, 1989; Schleper, 1995b; Stewart, Bonkowski, & Bennett, 1990). This allows the children to look freely from parent (ASL) to the book (English), making sense of both. In one reading session, a deaf child interrupted his mother to ask, "Where does it say that?" The mother traced her finger along the part of the story that she had just signed. The child looked from the page to his mom, back to the page again, then looked again to his mother and with a nod signaled that he was ready for her to proceed with the rest of the story. Researchers have observed deaf parents frequently calling attention to text in a story, then signing, then pointing again to the text to help the child connect to both languages. In related research, Mather (1989) observed a deaf and hearing teacher read stories to deaf students in a classroom. One primary difference observed by the two readers, both fluent signers, was that the hearing teacher did not keep the text visible while signing a story to her class, while the deaf teacher did.
Deaf readers are not constrained by the text
Erting (1991) observed a deaf teacher reading the story Noisy Nora by Rosemary Wells to a group of preschool children. This, translated from ASL, is what the teacher signed:
Daddy is busy. So, Nora goes over to see Mommy, taps Mommy, and says, Mommy. But Mommy has to pick the baby up and burp the baby. Maybe the baby has to burp. So she is patting him on the back. Nora tries to get Mommy's attention, but Mommy is busy with the baby.
This is what the text on the page said:
Jack needed burping.
Obviously, the deaf reader has elaborated extensively on the text. The other information comes from the illustrations, from what has happened in the story thus far, from the underlying theme of the book, and from the needs of the deaf children who are enjoying the story. The reader helps build the background knowledge necessary to understand the story. This tendency to elaborate on the text has also been observed in deaf mothers (Andrews & Taylor, 1987). This suggests that when reading to deaf children, parents and teachers need not be obsessively concerned about knowing each and every word within the text, but should place higher priority on conveying the story.
Deaf readers re-read stories on a "storytelling" to "story reading" continuum
Like their hearing counterparts, emerging deaf readers enjoy having the same story read over and over to them. Trelease (1995) explains that this is a natural and necessary part of language development.
"These rereadings coincide with the way children learn. Like their parents, they are most comfortable with the familiar, and when they are relaxed, they're better able to absorb. The repetition improves their vocabulary, sequencing, and memory skills. Research shows that preschoolers often ask as many questions (and sometimes the same questions) after a dozen readings of the same book, because they are learning language in increments not all at once. Each reading often brings an inch or two of meaning to the story."
According to Schleper (1995a), deaf readers elaborate on the text extensively the first time they read a story, but then each successive reading of the same text has less and less elaboration. The signing comes closer and closer to the actual text. What occurs is a continuum, moving from a great deal of signed elaboration toward a more direct translation of the English text into American Sign Language.
The same process is used by teachers in a process known as shared reading, where the same story is read and re-read in the classroom to help emerging readers learn about stories (Schleper, 1995b). One can logically conclude that deaf readers use less elaboration in subsequent readings of the same text because they have already built the background knowledge the child needs during the initial readings of the story.
Deaf readers follow the child's lead
Deaf readers let children take the lead during read aloud sessions (Ewoldt, 1994; Maxwell, 1984; Van der Lem & Timmerman, 1990). This can be as simple as allowing the deaf child to select the book to be read, permitting the child to turn the pages, and waiting for the child to examine the pictures and text in a book and then look up prior to reading the story.
Following the child's lead also involves adjusting the reading style to fit the child's developmental level. With young children, or children who have had limited exposure to books, this may mean initially focusing on what is happening in the pictures. As children grow older and their attention spans increase, deaf adults tend to read more complete versions of the texts. This can be illustrated by observing a deaf father while reading to his deaf children, a daughter, 3, and a son, 6 (Schleper, 1995a).
The father initially read Little Red Riding Hood by William Wegman to his young daughter. This book has lots of text that accompanies photos of dogs dressed up as characters in the story. As the father read the story, his daughter turned the pages. She was clearly interested in the pictures. Following his daughter's lead, the father allowed her lots of time to examine each picture; when she looked back at him, he signed what was happening. During this reading, the father essentially ignored the printed text and instead retold the familiar tale.
In contrast, when he read to his 6-year-old son, the father followed the text, carefully translating into ASL. The son also held the book and turned the pages. The father traced his finger along the text before signing each page, and occasionally paused to allow his son to fill in the next part of text. Because the son was already beginning to read on his own, the father was again following his child's lead.
Although deaf parents consistently follow their children's lead, classroom teachers seem to struggle with this concept. Ewoldt (1994) observed parents and teachers in booksharing sessions over a four-year period and noted that parents were more likely to follow the children's lead, while teachers were more inclined to establish their own agenda and struggle to get children to fit into this agenda.
Deaf readers make what is implied explicit
When deaf readers sign a story, they tend to add information to emphasize ideas in a story that are not directly stated in the text, but are clearly implied. For example, when a deaf father read Little Red Riding Hood to his daughter, he explained how the wolf donned Red Riding Hood's grandmother's clothing. Then the father added, "He is trying to fool the girl." The text never stated directly the reason behind the action, but the deaf reader wanted to make the reason obvious for his daughter. The addition of information to make the meaning of the story explicit, or to clearly state the main idea or moral of a story, appears to be a common technique used by deaf readers.
This principle can be further illustrated by examining how deaf readers interpret the story, The Dancing Fly, by Joy Cowley. This is a predictable story about a pesky fly that buzzes around a store and annoys a storekeeper, who tries unsuccessfully to swat the fly with a fly swatter. The first couple of lines of the text are: "There was a little fly, and it flew into the store. It danced on the window, and it danced on the door." Schleper observed 10 different deaf readers sign the story. Inevitably, each reader began the story in a similar manner. First he or she introduced the fly, then added a sign for "arrogant" or "big-headed." Although the text never mentions the fly's personality, this characteristic is implied throughout the story through the struggle between the storekeeper and the fly.
Like most of the principles observed with deaf parents and deaf teachers, this technique appears to be intuitive and unconscious on the part of the deaf readers. However, one can surmise that such a practice directly impacts the deaf children's reading achievement. By modeling the comprehension process and reading between the lines, deaf readers are showing how a story has meaning that goes beyond the printed text.
Deaf readers adjust sign placement to fit the story
A common strategy used by deaf adults reading to deaf children is to adjust the placement of signs to maintain interest and variety (Akamatsu & Andrews, 1993; Lartz & Lestina, 1995; Van der Lem & Timmerman, 1990). Occasionally, the reader will place a sign directly on a child, such as making the sign for "cat" directly on the child's face. Other times, the reader will make the sign on the book or an illustration. For example, a deaf parent might use the classifier for a vehicle, place the sign on an illustration of a car, and then move the sign along the picture of the road in a book, as if the car is driving along the street.
In one situation, a father who was reading to his daughter came to the last picture in a book about Little Red Riding Hood. In the picture, Red Riding Hood and her grandmother were eating cake with the woodsman. The father asked, "Are you hungry?" When his daughter nodded, the father mimed taking a piece of cake from the picture and offered it to his daughter. His use of sign placement helped his daughter interact with the story.
At other times, deaf parents make the signs in the usual place. It appears that variation in placement of the signs, from on the child, to on the text, to the regular place, helps deaf children connect to the stories being read.
Deaf readers adjust signing style to fit the story
Critical aspects of speech are tone, intensity, and pitch of voice. Skilled readers to hearing children vary their intonation and volume to give life to the characters in the story. They vary their pitch to illustrate the high pitched voice of the baby bear or the booming voice of the papa bear in Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
In a similar way, deaf readers adjust their signing style to bring characters to life. A skilled deaf reader will adopt a more rigid, stilted signing style to portray an uptight person, sign using miniature signs and small signing space to depict someone who is timid, or use big exaggerated signs to show a "loud" character.
Research on deaf parents shows that they use extensive variation in how they make their signs to make the stories interesting for their deaf children (Lartz & Lestina, 1995; Mather, 1989; Stewart, Bonkowski, & Bennett, 1990; Van der Lem & Timmerman, 1990).
Deaf readers connect concepts in the story to the real world
Skillful deaf readers constantly relate experiences of their own to the characters and events in the stories they are reading (Akamatsu & Andrews, 1993; Andrews & Taylor, 1987; Lartz & Lestina, 1995; Stewart, Bonkowski, & Bennett, 1990; Whitesell, 1991). Deaf readers help children build this skill by regularly making connections between the story and the lives of the children they are reading to. As one deaf mother read a story about a cat which lapped up some milk, she added, "You know, the same as Sparky (their dog) drinks his water." The child laughed and nodded, clearly making the connection of their shared experience.
A father who read Whales, the Gentle Giants to his children paused periodically to help them connect the story to their own experiences. The children had chosen the book because it reminded them of the movie Free Willy. After the father read a section of the text about a blue whale, he turned to his 3-year-old daughter and asked, "Are whales big or small?" "Big," the girl replied. "Really big!" the father agreed. Then his 6-year-old son walked over to the far wall of the family room to show his sister how big a blue whale really is. "That big," he said.
His father told him that a blue whale is much bigger, but they remained skeptical. Then the father tried to help the children relate the whale's size to objects in their own lives. He said, "It's huge. It's the same as when you see a football field. It's big, right? This whale is bigger!"
Deaf readers use attention maintenance strategies
It is perfectly natural for deaf children to look away or down at the book sometimes while an adult is reading a story. Although this can be frustrating, experienced deaf readers find appropriate ways to respond (Akamatsu & Andrews, 1993; Andrews & Taylor, 1987; Lartz & Lestina, 1995; Van der Lem & Timmerman, 1990). Usually, deaf readers wait patiently until the child looks up again, then continue to read. Deaf readers also use a variety of strategies to keep their deaf children's attention.
Most commonly, a parent will lightly tap the child on the shoulder or leg to get attention. If the parent is sitting alongside the child, the parent will often gently nudge the child, or shift the book to first draw the child's attention back to the text, and then to the waiting parent. The deaf parent also uses facial expression to maintain attention, and eye contact appears to be central in holding the child's interest. One behavior noticed with hearing parents and teachers, but absent with deaf parents, is grabbing the child by the chin and forcibly pulling the child's face to attention.
While young children sometimes do this with their parents, it is not an acceptable practice to model for the children. Deaf readers also recognize the power of peripheral vision. They note that deaf children pick up a lot even when they are not looking directly at the reader's signs. And, since the deaf reader will often read the same story over and over again, the child will have plenty of opportunities to get any information missed during any one reading.
Deaf readers use eye gaze to elicit participation
Eye contact is clearly an important consideration when reading to deaf children. Mather (1989) researched the importance of eye gaze when reading to deaf children. She found readers used two types of eye gaze during reading sessions: individual and group gaze. One deaf teacher used group gaze effectively to involve all of the students in the reading and individual gaze to direct questions or comments to particular children.
Mather noticed that hearing teachers sometimes used inappropriate eye gaze with deaf students, leading to miscommunication during reading sessions. One teacher, for example, commented to her class, "Some of you don't know this story." Instead of including the whole group, her gaze was focused on just one student. The child being singled out replied defensively, "I know! I know!" It is clear that eye gaze plays a key role in maintaining attention and eliciting responses during read aloud sessions.
Deaf readers engage in role play to extend concepts
Several researchers point out that deaf readers often act out parts of a story to help clarify meaning (Ewoldt, 1984; Mather, 1989; Rogers, 1989). A deaf teacher who was reading The Three Little Kittens to a group of preschool deaf children noticed that the children were not following the story. Quickly, the teacher mimed the kittens tracking mud into the house. Then she brought the children into the role play by becoming the mother cat and scolding the kittens. The children's grins demonstrated their renewed understanding and involvement.
A mother and her 4-year-old deaf son also used role play during a session with the book Roll Over! A Counting Song by Merle Peek. This story is about a boy who shares his bed with nine animals. Each time they roll over, one animal falls out of bed. During the booksharing session, the deaf mother and her son were sitting on the bed as the mother read, "Ten in the bed and the little one said, 'Roll over! Roll over!' They all rolled over and one fell out."
When she finished the section, her son stood up and fell dramatically off his bed, landing exactly in the same spot as the monkey in the book. He climbed back into bed, and as his mother went on reading, he continued to role play the animals, each time falling happily out of bed.
Deaf readers use ASL variations to sign repetitive English phrases
Many predictable books for young children have phrases that are repeated over and over again. For example, "He huffed and he puffed and he blew the house in," from The Three Little Pigs, or "Fee! Fie! Fo! Fum! I smell the blood of an Englishman!" from Jack and the Beanstalk. When deaf readers read these repetitive phrases, they don't always sign them the exact same way. In fact, evidence suggests that deaf readers vary the way they sign repetitive English phrases. In these situations, the children see the English text remain constant in the book, while also being exposed to various ways to sign the concepts.
Sometimes these sign variations are used to maintain interest in the story. For example, in the story Roll Over! A Counting Song by Merle Peek, the chant, "Roll over! Roll over!" is repeated 10 times as each character in turn rolls off the bed. When a deaf mother read this book to her son, she pointed to the English text (which was the same each time), but then signed the text in various ways. Sometimes she used a classifier to show the animals rolling together. Other times, she used a different sign for "roll." Sometimes she used other variations.
The variety of ways she used to express the concept seemed to hold her son's interest in the story. Other times the use of sign variations helped to convey increased intensity or "volume," such as when each successive troll crosses over the bridge in The Three Billy Goats Gruff. While the English words remained the same, the deaf adult used different ASL translations each time the English phrase was repeated. Perhaps the readers were subconsciously demonstrating that there is no direct word-to-sign correspondence between English and ASL, and that, in fact, there are multiple ways to convey the English meaning in American Sign Language. In the process, the deaf readers are also developing the children's signed vocabulary, and, one can assume, promoting the children's ability to make meaning from the English text.
Deaf readers provide a positive and reinforcing environment
Reading is supposed to be fun. It is also supposed to involve the construction of meaning through reciprocal interaction between readers and text. Unfortunately, in many classrooms with deaf children, the teacher controls both the interactions and the interpretation of the text. Ewoldt (1994) observed extensive control on the part of teachers during booksharing. The teachers she observed used a variety of correction responses to children's comments. Those responses ranged from simply telling a child, "You're wrong," to ignoring the child's answer, providing a different answer, changing the meaning of a child's message to fit the teacher's version of the story, or restating the teacher's own interpretation.
In contrast, research with deaf parents shows they provided a positive, interactive environment (Akamatsu & Andrews, 1993; Andrews & Taylor, 1987; Ewoldt, 1994; Rogers, 1989). They did not seek "correct" answers from the children during reading. Rather, they set up a mutually rewarding atmosphere that encouraged the creative interpretation of text. In one reading session (Schleper, 1995a), a deaf father was reading Little Red Riding Hood to his daughter. His daughter tapped his knee, then turned back to the previous page and pointed. "Look at the teeth!" she said. "Yeah, the teeth are sharp! Like fangs," the father said, reinforcing the child's observation. "They have blood on them," the daughter pointed out. The father questioned this, pointing to the illustration. "Where?" he asked. They examined the picture together. "Maybe you re right. They do have blood!" the father said.
Instead of ignoring his daughter, or telling her she was wrong, the father let her make her point. His positive, reinforcing response helped make booksharing enjoyable. And when the read aloud sessions are enjoyable, it is more likely that the child will retain fond, positive associations with books and reading.
Deaf readers expect the child to become literate
A final principle that seems to underlie the read aloud sessions between deaf adults and deaf children is the positive belief in the children's abilities. Whitesell (1991) observed a deaf teacher with a reputation for producing good, enthusiastic readers, hoping to determine which of her teaching strategies and practices seemed most critical. After observing for an extended period of time, Whitesell discovered the key: "The teacher expected them to become literate."
Most deaf parents do not read to their children in order to teach them English or to instruct them in the reading process. They want to share their own love of books. While they may expect some academic benefit for the children, that is clearly secondary. When Schleper (1995a) asked deaf parents if they thought their children would become literate in English, they all replied, "Of course!" There was never any doubt.


After this chapter, you should be able to:
- Compare and contrast Piaget and Vygotsky’s beliefs about cognitive development.
- Explain the role of information processing in cognitive development.
- Discuss how preschool-aged children understand their worlds.
- Put cognitive milestones into the order in which they appear in typically developing children. Discuss how early child education supports development and how our understanding of development influence education.
- Describe autism spectrum disorder as atypical cognitive development
Understanding of cognitive development is advancing on many different fronts. One exciting area is linking changes in brain activity to changes in children’s thinking (Nelson et al., 2006, as cited in Leon, n.d.). Although many people believe that brain maturation is something that occurs before birth, the brain actually continues to change in large ways for many years thereafter. For example, a part of the brain called the prefrontal cortex, which is located at the front of the brain and is particularly involved with planning and flexible problem solving, continues to develop throughout adolescence (Blakemore & Choudhury, 2006, as cited in Leon, n.d.).
preschool cognitive skills
The Continuum of Development (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2014) describes the core skills which are part of the preschool/ kindergarten stage of development. These skills are also reflected the overall and specific expectations in the four frames in Ontario’s the Kindergarten Program (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2016). This document will be referred to throughout the chapters on preschool development.
Below is a summary of the core skills in preschool cognitive development as described in the Continuum of Development by Ontario Ministry of Education (2014).
During the preschool years children continue to observe their world, ask questions, and develop and test their theories about how things work. During this stage of development children master new ways of describing and making meaning of their experiences. At this stage their reasoning is more logical. They solve problems by collecting and organizing information, reflecting on it, drawing conclusions and communicating their findings with others. This may include the skills of classifying and seriating. Increased verbal abilities allow them to use spatial terms and positional words such as behind, inside, in front of, between. They can follow directions, creating and using maps.
Preschoolers’ exploration of mathematics continues to grow with an increasing understanding of numeracy, which includes counting in meaningful ways to determine quantity, comparing quantities, and completing simple number operations using number symbols. They explore ways to represent number such as tally marks. They demonstrate a growing ability to describe attributes of 2 dimensional figures and 3 dimensional solids, to identify patterns and show an interest in measurement, particularly linear measurement. They become more skilled at understanding time and how it is measured.
The ability to represent is demonstrated through using materials to express ideas which may be in the form of 2D and 3D creations. In socio dramatic play preschoolers can take on a role pretending to be someone else, sustaining the play, and using props to tell a story. (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2014)
Early childhood is a time of pretending, blending fact and fiction, and learning to think of the world using language. As young children move away from needing to touch, feel, and hear about the world toward learning some basic principles about how the world works, they hold some interesting ideas. For example, while adults have no concerns with taking a bath, a child of three might genuinely worry about being sucked down the drain. A child might protest if told that something will happen “tomorrow” but be willing to accept an explanation that an event will occur “today after we sleep.” Or the young child may ask, “How long are we staying? From here to here?” while pointing to two points on a table. Concepts such as tomorrow, time, size and distance are not easy to grasp at this young age. Understanding size, time, distance, fact and fiction are all tasks that are part of cognitive development in the preschool years.
Piaget’s Preoperational Intelligence
Piaget’s stage that coincides with early childhood is the preoperational stage. The word operational means logical, children are learning to use language and to think about the world symbolically. Let’s examine some of Piaget’s assertions about children’s cognitive abilities at this age.
As children move through substage 6 in sensorimotor development they begin to work with symbols, words ,and gestures to form an internal working model of their world. They demonstrate deferred imitation by imitating actions they have seen at a previous time. They begin to use objects to represent other things so a block can be a phone for example. These new skills support the emergence of make-believe play.
Pretending is a favourite activity at this time. A toy has qualities beyond the way it was designed to function and can now be used to stand for a character or object unlike anything originally intended. A teddy bear, for example, can be a baby or the queen of a faraway land!
Figure 10.1: A child pretending to buy items at a toy grocery store. (Image by Ermalfaro is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0)
According to Piaget, children’s pretend play helps them solidify new schemes they were developing cognitively. This play, then, reflects changes in their conceptions or thoughts. However, children also learn as they take on roles. examine perspectives, pretend and experiment. Their play does not simply represent what they have learned (Berk, 2007, as cited Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021). In their play they make meaning of their lived experiences and explore possibilities as they consider ‘what is’ and ‘what if’?
This is the perfect age to introduce Indigenous Storytelling with role playing the animals in the story. Let them change the story and have fun with it. Children will see themselves in the story. This relates to what Piaget says: “In their play, they make meaning of their lived experiences and explore possibilities as they consider ‘what is’ and ‘what if’?”. Plenty of outdoor play will help to connect children to the land.
At this age, children also have to have clear directions in order to complete what they are asked to do. For example, if the child is not looking at you. You say listen to me. The child says “I am listening to you.” The educator has to be precise in what they are asking of the child. It is important to note that a lot of Indigenous children might not look you in the eyes. This is a cultural thing.
Egocentrism in early childhood refers to the tendency of young children to think that everyone sees things in the same way as the child. Piaget’s classic experiment on egocentrism involved showing children a 3-dimensional model of a mountain and asking them to describe what a doll that is looking at the mountain from a different angle might see. Children tend to choose a picture that represents their own view, rather than that of the doll. However, children tend to use different sentence structures and vocabulary when addressing a younger child or an older adult. This indicates some awareness of the views of others.
Figure 10.2: Piaget’s egocentrism experiment. (Image by Rosenfeld Media is licensed under CC BY 2.0)
Syncretism refers to a tendency to think that if two events occur simultaneously, one caused the other. Example: A family is planning to go on a picnic. The preschooler misbehaves by taking a toy away from their younger sibling who cries. The family reacts firmly to the situation. As they are sorting out the situation, they hear the sound of distant thunder and decide to postpone the picnic. The preschooler may believe that their behaviour caused the storm which resulted in the cancellation of the plans.
Attributing lifelike qualities to objects is referred to as animism. The cup is alive, the chair that falls down and hits the child’s ankle is mean, and the toys need to stay home because they are tired. Cartoons and animation frequently show objects that appear alive and take on lifelike qualities. They may also think that a small gardening tool could grow up to be a full-size shovel. Young children do seem to think that objects that move may be alive but after age 3, they seldom refer to objects as being alive (Berk, 2007, as cited in Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021).
Preoperational children have difficulty understanding that an object can be classified in more than one way. For example, if shown three white buttons and four black buttons and asked whether there are more black buttons or buttons, the child is likely to respond that there are more black buttons. As the child’s vocabulary improves and more schemes are developed, the ability to classify objects improves.
Conservation refers to the ability to recognize that moving or rearranging matter does not change the quantity. Let’s look at an example. A father gave a slice of pizza to 10-year-old Keiko and another slice to 3-year-old Kenny. Kenny’s pizza slice was cut into five pieces, so Kenny told his sister that he got more pizza than she did. Kenny did not understand that cutting the pizza into smaller pieces did not increase the overall amount. This was because Kenny exhibited Centration or focused on only one characteristic or attribute of an object to the exclusion of others.
Kenny focused on the five pieces of pizza to his sister’s one piece even though the total amount of pizza was the same. Keiko was able to consider several characteristics of an object rather than just one.
The classic Piagetian experiment associated with conservation involves liquid (Crain, 2005, as cited in Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021). As seen below, the child is shown two glasses (as shown in a) which are filled to the same level and asked if they have the same amount. Usually, the child agrees they have the same amount. The researcher then pours the liquid from one glass to a taller and thinner glass (as shown in b). The child is again asked if the two glasses have the same amount of liquid. The preoperational child will typically say the taller glass now has more liquid because it is taller. The child has concentrated on the height of the glass and fails to conserve (Lally & Valentine-French, 2019).
Figure 10.3: Piagetian liquid conservation experiments. (Image by Martha Lally and Suzanne Valentine-French is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)
As introduced in the first chapter, Piaget believed that in a quest for cognitive equilibrium, we use schemas (categories of knowledge) to make sense of the world. And when new experiences fit into existing schemas, we use assimilation to add that new knowledge to the schema. But when new experiences do not match an existing schema, we use accommodation to add a new schema. During early childhood, children use accommodation often as they build their understanding of the world around them.
Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory of Development
Zone of Proximal Development and Scaffolding
Vygotsky’s best-known concept is the zone of proximal development (ZPD). Vygotsky stated that children should be taught in the ZPD, which occurs when they can perform a task with assistance, but not quite yet on their own. With the right kind of teaching, however, they can accomplish it successfully. A good teacher identifies a child’s ZPD and helps the child stretch beyond it. Then the adult (teacher) gradually withdraws support until the child can then perform the task unaided. Researchers have applied the metaphor of scaffolds (the temporary platforms on which construction workers stand) to this way of teaching. Scaffolding is the temporary support that parents or teachers give a child to do a task.
Figure 10.4: Zone of proximal development. (Image by Dcoetzee is licensed under CC0 1.0)
Do you ever talk to yourself? Why? Chances are, this occurs when you are struggling with a problem, trying to remember something, or feel very emotional about a situation. Children talk to themselves too. Piaget interpreted this as egocentric speech or a practice engaged in because of a child’s inability to see things from another’s point of view. Vygotsky, however, believed that children talk to themselves in order to solve problems or clarify thoughts. As children learn to think in words, they do so aloud before eventually closing their lips to engage in private speech or inner speech.
Thinking out loud eventually becomes thought accompanied by internal speech, and talking to oneself becomes a practice only engaged in when we are trying to learn something or remember something. This inner speech is not as elaborate as the speech we use when communicating with others (Vygotsky, 1962, as cited in Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021).
Contrast with Piaget
Piaget was highly critical of teacher-directed instruction, believing that teachers who take control of the child’s learning place the child into a passive role (Crain, 2005, as cited in Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021). Further, teachers may present abstract ideas without the child’s true understanding, and instead they just repeat back what they heard. Piaget believed children must be given opportunities to discover concepts on their own. As previously stated, Vygotsky did not believe children could reach a higher cognitive level without instruction from more learned individuals. Who is correct? Both theories certainly contribute to our understanding of how children learn.
Information processing researchers have focused on several issues in cognitive development for this age group, including improvements in attention skills, changes in the capacity, and the emergence of executive functions in working memory. Additionally, in early childhood memory strategies, memory accuracy, and autobiographical memory emerge. Early childhood is seen by many researchers as a crucial time period in memory development (Posner & Rothbart, 2007, as cited in Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021).
Figure 10.5: How information is processed. (Image by Gradient drift is in the public domain)
Changes in attention have been described by many as the key to changes in human memory (Nelson & Fivush, 2004; Posner & Rothbart, 2007, as cited in Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021). However, attention is not a unified function; it is comprised of sub-processes. The ability to switch our focus between tasks or external stimuli is called divided attention or multitasking. This is separate from our ability to focus on a single task or stimulus, while ignoring distracting information, called selective attention. Different from these is sustained attention, or the ability to stay on task for long periods of time. Moreover, we also have attention processes that influence our behaviour and enable us to inhibit a habitual or dominant response, and others that enable us to distract ourselves when upset or frustrated.
Children’s ability with selective attention tasks, improve as they age. However, this ability is also greatly influenced by the child’s temperament (Rothbart & Rueda, 2005, as cited Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021), the complexity of the stimulus or task (Porporino, Shore, Iarocci & Burack, 2004), and whether the stimuli are visual or auditory (Guy, Rogers & Cornish, 2013, as cited in Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021). Guy et al. (2013, as cited in Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021) found that children’s ability to selectively attend to visual information outpaced that of auditory stimuli. This may explain why young children are not able to hear the voice of the teacher over the cacophony of sounds in the typical preschool classroom (Jones, Moore & Amitay, 2015, as cited in Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021). Jones and his colleagues found that 4- to 7-year-olds could not filter out background noise, especially when its frequencies were close in sound to the target sound. In comparison, 8- to 11-year-old children often performed similar to adults.
Figure 10.6: A child playing a game that measures her sustained attention. (Image by Fabrice Florin is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0)
Based on studies of adults, people with amnesia, and neurological research on memory, researchers have proposed several “types” of memory (see Figure 4.14). Sensory memory (also called the sensory register) is the first stage of the memory system, and it stores sensory input in its raw form for a very brief duration; essentially long enough for the brain to register and start processing the information. Studies of auditory sensory memory show that it lasts about one second in 2-year-olds, two seconds in 3-year-olds, more than two seconds in 4-year-olds, and three to five seconds in 6-year-olds (Glass, Sachse, & von Suchodoletz, 2008, as cited in Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021). Other researchers have also found that young children hold sounds for a shorter duration than do older children and adults, and that this deficit is not due to attentional differences between these age groups, but reflects differences in the performance of the sensory memory system (Gomes et al., 1999, as cited in Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021). The second stage of the memory system is called short-term or working memory. Working memory is the component of memory in which current conscious mental activity occurs.
Working memory often requires conscious effort and adequate use of attention to function effectively. As you read earlier, children in this age group struggle with many aspects of attention and this greatly diminishes their ability to consciously juggle several pieces of information in memory. The capacity of working memory, that is the amount of information someone can hold in consciousness, is smaller in young children than in older children and adults. The typical adult and teenager can hold a 7-digit number active in their short-term memory. The typical 5-year-old can hold only a 4-digit number active. This means that the more complex a mental task is, the less efficient a younger child will be in paying attention to, and actively processing, information in order to complete the task.
Changes in attention and the working memory system also involve changes in executive function. Executive function (EF) refers to self-regulatory processes, such as the ability to inhibit a behaviour or cognitive flexibility, that enable adaptive responses to new situations or to reach a specific goal. Executive function skills gradually emerge during early childhood and continue to develop throughout childhood and adolescence. Like many cognitive changes, brain maturation, especially the prefrontal cortex, along with experience influence the development of executive function skills.
A child shows higher executive functioning skills when the parents are more warm and responsive, use scaffolding when the child is trying to solve a problem, and provide cognitively stimulating environments for the child (Fay-Stammbach, Hawes & Meredith, 2014, as cited in Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021). For instance, scaffolding was positively correlated with greater cognitive flexibility at age two and inhibitory control at age four (Bibok, Carpendale & Müller, 2009, as cited in Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021). In Schneider, Kron-Sperl and Hunnerkopf’s (2009, as cited in Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021) longitudinal study of 102 kindergarten children, the majority of children used no strategy to remember information, a finding that was consistent with previous research. As a result, their memory performance was poor when compared to their abilities as they aged and started to use more effective memory strategies.
The third component in memory is long-term memory, which is also known as permanent memory. A basic division of long- term memory is between declarative and non-declarative memory. Declarative memories, sometimes referred to as explicit memories, are memories for facts or events that we can consciously recollect. Declarative memory is further divided into semantic and episodic memory. Semantic memories are memories for facts and knowledge that are not tied to a timeline, episodic memories are tied to specific events in time. Non- declarative memories, sometimes referred to as implicit memories, are typically automated skills that do not require conscious recollection.
As previously discussed, Piaget’s theory has been criticized on many fronts, and updates to reflect more current research have been provided by the Neo-Piagetians, or those theorists who provide “new” interpretations of Piaget’s theory. Morra, Gobbo, Marini and Sheese (2008, as cited in Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021) reviewed Neo-Piagetian theories, which were first presented in the 1970s, and identified how these “new” theories combined Piagetian concepts with those found in Information Processing. Similar to Piaget’s theory, Neo- Piagetian theories believe in constructivism, assume cognitive development can be separated into different stages with qualitatively different characteristics, and advocate that children’s thinking becomes more complex in advanced stages. Unlike Piaget, Neo-Piagetians believe that aspects of information processing change the complexity of each stage, not logic as determined by Piaget.
Neo-Piagetians propose that working memory capacity is affected by biological maturation, and therefore restricts young children’s ability to acquire complex thinking and reasoning skills. Increases in working memory performance and cognitive skills development coincide with the timing of several neurodevelopmental processes. These include myelination, axonal and synaptic pruning, changes in cerebral metabolism, and changes in brain activity (Morra et al., 2008, as cited in Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021).
Myelination especially occurs in waves between birth and adolescence, and the degree of myelination in particular areas explain the increasing efficiency of certain skills. Therefore, brain maturation, which occurs in spurts, affects how and when cognitive skills develop. Additionally, all Neo-Piagetian theories support that experience and learning interact with biological maturation in shaping cognitive development (Lally & Valentine-French, 2019).
Children’s Understanding of the World
Both Piaget and Vygotsky believed that children actively try to understand the world around them. More recently developmentalists have added to this understanding by examining how children organize information and develop their own theories about the world.
The tendency of children to generate theories to explain everything they encounter is called theory-theory. This concept implies that humans are naturally inclined to find reasons and generate explanations for why things occur. Children frequently ask questions about what they see or hear around them. When the answers provided do not satisfy their curiosity or are too complicated for them to understand, they generate their own theories. In much the same way that scientists construct and revise their theories, children do the same with their intuitions about the world as they encounter new experiences (Gopnik & Wellman, 2012, as cited in Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021). One of the theories they start to generate in early childhood centers on the mental states; both their own and those of others.
Figure 10.7: What theories might this boy be creating? (Image by Eglin Air Force Base is in the public domain)
Theory of Mind
Theory of mind refers to the ability to think about other people’s thoughts. This mental mind reading helps humans to understand and predict the reactions of others, thus playing a crucial role in social development. One common method for determining if a child has reached this mental milestone is the false belief task, described below.
The research began with a clever experiment by Wimmer and Perner (1983, as cited in Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021), who tested whether children can pass a false-belief test (see Figure 4.17). The child is shown a picture story of Sally, who puts her ball in a basket and leaves the room. While Sally is out of the room, Anne comes along and takes the ball from the basket and puts it inside a box. The child is then asked where Sally thinks the ball is located when she comes back to the room. Is she going to look first in the box or in the basket? The right answer is that she will look in the basket, because that’s where she put it and thinks it is; but we have to infer this false belief against our own better knowledge that the ball is in the box.
Figure 10.8: A ball. (Image is in the public domain)
Figure 10.9: A basket. (Image is in the public domain)
Figure 10.10: A box. (Image is licensed under CC0)
This is very difficult for children before the age of four because of the cognitive effort it takes. Three-year-olds have difficulty distinguishing between what they once thought was true and what they now know to be true. They feel confident that what they know now is what they have always known (Birch & Bloom, 2003, as cited in Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021). Even adults need to think through this task (Epley, Morewedge, & Keysar, 2004, as cited in Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021).
To be successful at solving this type of task the child must separate what he or she “knows” to be true from what someone else might “think” is true. In Piagetian terms, they must give up a tendency toward egocentrism. The child must also understand that what guides people’s actions and responses are what they “believe” rather than what is reality. In other words, people can mistakenly believe things that are false and will act based on this false knowledge. Consequently, prior to age four children are rarely successful at solving such a task (Wellman, Cross & Watson, 2001, as cited in Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021). Researchers examining the development of theory of mind have been concerned by the overemphasis on the mastery of false belief as the primary measure of whether a child has attained theory of mind. Wellman and his colleagues (Wellman, Fang, Liu, Zhu & Liu, 2006, as cited in Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021) suggest that theory of mind is comprised of a number of components, each with its own developmental timeline (see Table 4.2).
Two-year-olds understand the diversity of desires, yet as noted earlier it is not until age four or five that children grasp false belief, and often not until middle childhood do they understand that people may hide how they really feel. In part, because children in early childhood have difficulty hiding how they really feel.
This awareness of the existence of theory of mind is part of social intelligence, such as recognizing that others can think differently about situations. It helps us to be self-conscious or aware that others can think of us in different ways and it helps us to be able to be understanding or be empathetic toward others. Moreover, this mind-reading ability helps us to anticipate and predict people’s actions. The awareness of the mental states of others is important for communication and social skills (Lally & Valentine-French, 2019).
The many theories of cognitive development and the different research that has been done about how children understand the world has allowed researchers to study the milestones that children who are typically developing experience in early childhood. Understanding how children think and learn has proven useful for improving education.
In 2010, Ontario introduced the full day kindergarten program which was fully implemented by 2014. Children can attend the program at 3 years 8 month of age. There is a year one and a year two of the program. In 2016 The Kindergarten Program document was released describing a play-based curriculum which includes four frames to guide teaching, learning and assessment of learning. Overall and specific expectations are described in each of the four frames.
The frames are:
- Self-regulation and Well-Being
- Belonging and Contributing
- Problem Solving and Innovating
- Demonstrating Literacy and Mathematics Behaviours
In each kindergarten classroom an RECE and a qualified teacher registered with the Ontario College of Teachers (OCT) work in partnership as an educator team to implement the curriculum. There is an expectation for the educator team to observe children’s play, ‘notice and name’ the learning and assess individual progress against the Overall and Specific Expectations. The progress is formally shared with families as their child moves through Year One and Year Two of the Kindergarten Program. In the delivery of the curriculum the educator team provides opportunities for children to demonstrate the expectations, and design and implement learning opportunities specifically related to the expectations. Two of the four frames; Problem Solving and Innovating and Demonstrating Literacy and Mathematics Behaviours relate directly to children’s cognitive development. In the latter frame children are expected to, for example, use language to communicate their thinking and to solve problems, to demonstrate an interest in writing and reading, to demonstrate cardinality and the ability to subitize, to describe the properties of three-dimensional solids and to identify, create and describe simple patterns in mathematical terms (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2016).
Application of “The Kindergarten Program” to the Early Years
Even before they enter kindergarten, the mathematical knowledge of children from low-income backgrounds lags far behind that of children from more affluent backgrounds. Ramani and Siegler (2008, as cited in Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021) hypothesized that this difference is due to the children in middle- and upper-income families engaging more frequently in numerical activities, for example playing numerical board games such as Chutes and Ladders. Chutes and Ladders is a game with a number in each square; children start at the number one and spin a spinner or throw a dice to determine how far to move their token. Playing this game seemed likely to teach children about numbers, because in it, larger numbers are associated with greater values on a variety of dimensions. In particular, the higher the number that a child’s token reaches, the greater the distance the token will have traveled from the starting point, the greater the number of physical movements the child will have made in moving the token from one square to another, the greater the number of number-words the child will have said and heard, and the more time will have passed since the beginning of the game. These spatial, kinesthetic, verbal, and time- based cues provide a broad-based, multisensory foundation for knowledge of numerical magnitudes (the sizes of numbers), a type of knowledge that is closely related to mathematics achievement test scores (Booth & Siegler, 2006, as cited in Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021).
Playing this numerical board game for roughly 1 hour, distributed over a 2-week period, improved low-income children’s knowledge of numerical magnitudes, ability to read printed numbers, and skill at learning novel arithmetic problems. The gains lasted for months after the game-playing experience (Ramani & Siegler, 2008; Siegler & Ramani, 2009, as cited in Paris, Ricardo, Raymond, & Johnson, 2021). An advantage of this type of educational intervention is that it has minimal if any cost—a parent could just draw a game on a piece of paper.
Autism: Defining Spectrum Disorder
Sometimes children’s brains work differently. One form of this neuro-diversity is Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). ASD describes a range of conditions classified as neuro-developmental disorders in the fifth revision of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). The DSM-5, published in 2013, redefined the autism spectrum to encompass the previous (DSM-IV-TR) diagnoses of autism, Asperger syndrome, pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS), and childhood disintegrative disorder. These disorders are characterized by social deficits and communication difficulties, repetitive behaviours and interests, sensory issues, and in some cases, cognitive delays.
Autism spectrum disorders are considered to be on a spectrum because each individual with ASD expresses the disorder uniquely and has varying degrees of functionality. Many have above-average intellectual abilities and excel in visual skills, music, math, and the arts, while others have significant disabilities and are unable to live independently. About 25 percent of individuals with ASD are nonverbal; however, they may learn to communicate using other means.
In Canada 1 in 66 children between the ages of 5 and 17 years of age are diagnosed on the ASD spectrum (Government of Canada, 2018). Males are four times more likely to be diagnosed than females. The statistics are one in 44 males compared to one in 165 females (Government of Canada, 2018).
- Piaget’s preoperational stage.
- Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory.
- Information processing.
- How young children understand the world.
- The Full Day Kindergarten Program
- Autism spectrum disorder.
Lally, M. & Valentine-French, S. (2019). Lifespan development: A psychological perspective (2nd ed.). Retrieved from http://dept.clcillinois.edu/psy/LifespanDevelopment.pdf
Leon, A. (n.d.). Children’s development: Prenatal through adolescent development. Retrieved from https://docs.google.com/document/d/1k1xtrXy6j9_NAqZdGv8nBn_I6-lDtEgEFf7skHjvE-Y/edit
Ontario Ministry of Education. (2014). Exerpts from “ELECT”. Retrieved from https://countrycasa.ca/images/ExcerptsFromELECT.pdf
Government of Canada. (2018).Autism prevalence among children and youth in Canada: Report of the national autism spectrum disorder (ASD) surveillance system. Retrieved from https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/publications/diseases-conditions/infographic-autism-spectrum-disorder-children-youth-canada-2018.html
Ontario Ministry of Education (2016). The kindergarten program. Retrieved from https://files.ontario.ca/books/kindergarten-program-en.pdf?_ga=2.18670905.1886719864.1639406346-482631340.1639406346


1. Reflecting on your responses to a text. In preparation for preparing lessons for teaching a text, you need to be able to reflect on your own responses to a text to consider the kinds of responses, interpretative strategies, themes, topics, issues, or critical lenses to focus on in your instruction. And, you need to recognize the differences between your own level of interpretation and those of your students, differences reflecting your knowledge, training, life experiences, and purposes for reading as a teacher.
Read a poem or short story that you have not read before. During the reading, or immediately after, write a journal entry in which you respond as fully as you can to the text you have read. Then reflect on your responses and interpretations, noting certain patterns in your responses or interpretations. Then consider some possible reasons for those patterns in terms of the text, your critical preferences/approaches, or your purpose for reading. Then, based on your reflections, predict how students at a certain grade level, possibly ones you’ll be teaching, will respond to this text and how their responses might differ from your responses.
2. Developing response tasks and purposes for tasks. Select a text and think about what you would like students to learn from interpreting this text. Based on what you want students to learn, select some talk, writing, or drama tools that will best achieve what you want them to learn. By defining what you want students to learn, you can link your tasks to your purposes—what students will learn.
Devise some tasks, and for each task, define the purpose for that activity based on what you want students to learn from doing that task and from using the tools designed to fulfill an activity—for example, that you want students to learn how to contrast different cultures in a text so that they can define the conflicting forces shaping characters using a mapping tool. Then, write a clear set of directions for these tasks, including your purposes—students will want to know: “why are we doing this?”
3. Sequencing tasks. In formulating your tasks, you also need to think about how to best sequence tasks so that each tasks prepares students for subsequent tasks “first things first.” In thinking about sequencing tasks, you are continually asking, will students be able to do this task, and, if not, what can I do to prepare them for this task so that each task serves to prepare students for the next task. For example, rather than start out with a discussion of a text, you may need to prepare students for that discussion with some free writing or listing-questions tasks. Or, for a mapping task, you may first want to have students list different items to include in their maps.
For the tasks you developed for #2, sequence the tasks so that each task serves to prepare students for subsequent tasks “first things first.” You may need to add some new tasks that will prepare them for a certain task.
4. Formulating alternative versions of tasks. Because you’ll be using the same or similar activities with different grade or ability levels, you will need to be able to create alternative versions of your tasks to match differences in students’ grade or ability levels. For younger grades or lower ability levels, you may need to provide more specific directions or scaffolding or you may need to substitute less difficult tasks. Even within the same class, you may need to provide some students with more structured directions than other students.
You will also be continually revising your tasks even during your instruction to accommodate for differences in students’ abilities, engagement, interests, attitudes, and performance. For example, you may find that students are simply not able to keep up with the reading, so you will then need to alter your plans. You therefore need to plan ahead for potential challenges, particularly related to reading ability. In reflecting on his teaching of Catcher in the Rye in student teaching, Chris Johnson noted the ways in which he accommodated to his students’ background reading experience.
I asked, who’s read a novel? Not many hands went up and they, I guess most of them had read one. Some had read one of those adolescent novels, but I don’t think any of them, well some of them, I’m sure had read, in fact I know one in particular that is a reader of paperbacks, and she read quite a few but a loot of them hadn’t really read any “adult” novels before. So, I took it real slow. We did maybe two or three chapters a day, no more than 10 or 20 pages per day, and I uh, had study questions for each chapter that I made sure they had to and they could really skim through that. I didn’t make the questions too challenging because I didn’t want them to get hung up on questions, have that interrupt the reading. What I did to settle the questions and I tried to direct them towards um, specific things in the novel that I just wanted to make sure they noted. Why they were in there? What did they represent? So when we went into discussion they already had the details down.
After we had finished reading the book, I wanted them to focus on Holden and his struggle with growing up, saving sexuality, and the death of his brother, basically all the issues he had gone through. So I did a group activity where I gave them a list of 5 essay questions and they picked one of them to put on the test. I broke them up into groups of about 4 or 5 kids in each group, and each group had to take an essay question, and had to discuss it and they each had a role. One person was the recorder, one person was the facilitator and so each group had to discuss the essay questions and come up with a way that they would answer the question on a test to present their findings to the class.
I was a little nervous about it, because they were in-depth questions. I mean, they were college-level questions. And I thought, oh boy they’re really going to bang their heads against these ones, but I was really pleasantly surprised that they all, all the groups came up with real solid answers and I was going around as they were working on them and helping out here and there, but I really didn’t have to do as much as I thought I would do, I just had to nudge them along, so that really showed me that they had been listening and paying attention and it wasn’t just two or three kids that did a lot of participation in the discussions who understood what was going on but they really most of them you know had been listening to what we’re talking about. I was real happy with that.
Take the directions formulated for #2 and formulate them for a 9th grade class. Then, revise your directions for a 12th grade class. Reflect on differences in your directions and reasons for these differences.
5. Considering alternative “intelligences” in devising tasks. In devising tasks, you need to recognize differences in the “intelligences” (Gardner, 1993; 2000) students bring to your classroom. When English classes may focus primarily on logical/linguistic intelligences, it is important to consider all seven optional “intelligences” in planning tasks:
Logical-Mathematical Intelligence--consists of the ability to detect patterns, reason deductively and think logically. This intelligence is most often associated with scientific and mathematical thinking.
Linguistic Intelligence--involves having a mastery of language. This intelligence includes the ability to effectively manipulate language to express oneself rhetorically or poetically. It also allows one to use language as a means to remember information.
Visual/Spatial Intelligence--gives one the ability to manipulate and create mental images in order to solve problems. This intelligence is not limited to visual domains--Gardner notes that spatial intelligence is also formed in blind children.
Musical Intelligence--encompasses the capability to recognize and compose musical pitches, tones, and rhythms. (Auditory functions are required for a person to develop this intelligence in relation to pitch and tone, but it is not needed for the knowledge of rhythm.)
Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence--is the ability to use one's mental abilities to coordinate one's own bodily movements. This intelligence challenges the popular belief that mental and physical activities are unrelated.
The Personal Intelligences--includes interpersonal feelings and intentions of others--and intrapersonal intelligence--the ability to understand one's own feelings and motivations. These two intelligences are separate from each other. Nevertheless, because of their close association in most cultures, they are often linked together.
These seven intelligences are not separate phenomena, but continually interact with each other. However, certain students develop particular skills associated with certain of these intelligences. For example, they have developed talents as artists, musicians, athletes, or socially-adept persons. In a unit on The Grapes of Wrath, Michelle used some drama activities designed to help them visualize images about the novel, empathy with others’ perspectives, and apply a variety of lenses/perspectives. Her directions for each activity highlighted what she wanted them to learn from separate groups doing different drama activities:
Analogy Strategy: In this activity, your group should enact a personal experience that parallels in some way a scene from the reading. Make sure that you think about the tone, the urgency of the situation, and the emotions conveyed in creating a parallel situation. You will mime your parallel situation. Then, as a class, we will discuss how your enactment connects with the text.
Slide Show: Your group will create a series of “slides” to tell about the major scenes from the chapter. You may add a caption to each of your slides. Be prepared to answer some questions about each of your slides concerning how you decided to depict the particular scene.
Hotseating and Inner Hotseating: In your group, a student will play the role of a character and answer questions as if at a press conference. Another student, standing behind the character, will respond as the “inner self” of the character telling what that character might be really thinking, feeling, and wanting to say.
News Flash: Your group will conduct a brief news flash about what happened in this scene/chapter. You may choose to interview someone from the scene or just give an overview of what happened.
Guided imagery: This activity is similar to the game of Pictionary. In your group, someone will play the role of the teacher and read a scene. The remaining group members should draw what they picture up on the board when they hear the scene read. You may do this spontaneously. Drawers, be prepared to explain your drawings.
Dramatic Play: Your group will “enter into character” and act out a scene from your chapter. However, you should incorporate acting out imagined conversations and interactions between/among characters depending on your interpretation of those characters’ thoughts and feelings.
Missing Scenes: Your group will create a missing scene or missing scenes that you feel were implied by the story or could have happened. You will act these out for the class and be prepared to have supporting evidence from the text that shows these scenes might have logically occurred.
Revolving Role-Play: In this activity, each group member will choose a character to play from the scene. After acting out that particular scene, everyone will “switch” into a new role and reenact that scene from a new perspective. This activity is similar to the dramatic play activity because you may be creative in acting out imagined conversations and interactions between/among characters.
To help student connect their participation in each activity to the larger purpose, she asked each group to choose one character or key event to portray through their specific drama activity. Each group then prepared a 3-5 minute presentation to include their dramatic activity as well as a brief explanation of why they chose to focus on that given character or scene/event, and subsequently, what their dramatic activity highlights. The students also had to write in their journals about their experience in their dramatic activity and how it offered new perspectives or made the text more relevant to their personal lives.
Devise some tasks that draw on intelligences other than just the logical/linguistic intelligences. Consider how you would integrate some of these other intelligences with uses of logical/linguistic intelligences, how, for example, mime or pantomime drama tools can be used to foster writing tasks.
6. Adding criteria for self-evaluating tasks. In completing tasks, students need to know what it means to do a task well. For example, if you ask students to list some different character traits to understanding that character’s complexity and they only list one or two, they haven’t successfully completed that task. You may therefore want to include some criteria to help them self-evaluate successful completion of a task. For example, in asking them to list different traits, you could ask them, “have you listed enough different traits so that you can understand a character’s complexity?” In formulating criteria, you are asking students to consider the amount (“do you have enough/sufficient amount”), range (“do you have a good variety/different aspects”), relevancy (“are your examples relevant”), significance (“did you select the most significant aspects”), or validity (“do your have evidence to support the validity of your point”).
For your directions in #2, take one or more of the tasks and add some criteria to help students self-evaluate successful completion of those tasks.
7. Modeling tasks for students. In giving directions for tasks, students often need to be shown what or how to complete a task. You there need to model a task for students — demonstrating how you would complete a task in a manner that you’re not telling them what to do. In demonstrating tasks, you may also refer to some criteria by which you reflect on successful completion of a task.
For your directions developed in #2, in a micro-teaching session in your course, working with 3-4 of your peers, give your directions to you peers. Then model the tasks you want them to complete. After completing the activity, elicit their feedback on the clarity of the directions and demonstration.
8. Selecting an organizational framework for a unit. In designing units, you are going beyond planning for individual activities to organize your activities according to some coherent, overall topic, theme, issue, genre, archetypes, historical/literary period, or production. During your student teaching, you may be employing a number of different units lasting from a couple of days to several weeks. It is important to prepare these units in advance of student teaching when you have the time to conduct research and pull together relevant resources. You can also discuss you units with your cooperating teachers in terms of how they are integrated into that teacher’s curriculum.
In devising a literature unit, you will be developing a series of tasks for a week or several weeks organized around a topic, theme, issue, ideas, text, genre, literary period, world, etc. In devising a unit, you need to select some texts (books, videos, Websites, etc.) and the some tasks that are related to your overall focus, tasks that involve students in inductive development of the unit’s focus.
- Topics. Organizing your unit around a topic such as power, evil, suburbia, the family, etc., means that you are finding texts that portray these different topics. For example, you may select a series of texts that portray mother/daughter relationships, as in The Bean Trees or A Yellow Raft in Blue Water. Students may then compare or contrast the different portrayals of the same topic across different texts.
It is important to select topics about which students have some familiarity or interest, or that may engage them. You may also want to have students study how certain topics are represented in literature and/or the media. For example, students may examine how the family is represented in 19th century literature compared to 20th century representations. Or, how the rural, small-town social worlds are represented in 20th century American literature.
One advantage of a topics approach is that topics do not imply the kind of value or cultural orientation associated with a thematic or issue unit. Students may construct their own value stance related to a topic, for example, defining different attitudes towards the topic of mother/daughter relationships. However, without that additional value orientation, students may lack motivation to be engaged in a topic.
- Themes. You may also organize your unit around certain themes portrayed in texts. A frequently used theme is that of individualism or conformity to society—the extent to which characters must conform to or resist societal norms. As we just noted, one advantage of thematic units is that students may become engaged with related attitudes or values associated with a theme. One disadvantage of thematic units is that they can readily become too didactic, in which you attempt to have students “learn” certain thematic lessons—the importance of not conforming to society or the need to be courageous.
This problem of didacticism relates to how you organize your unit. You can organize your unit in both a “top-down” deductive manner, providing students with theoretical perspectives or frames for them to apply in a deductive manner. You can also organize your unit in a “bottom-up” inductive manner, encouraging students to make their own connections and applications. To avoid the didactic tendency of thematic unit, you can move more to an inductive approach, allowing students to make their own interpretations and connections that may different from any presupposed central thematic focus.
- Issues. You can also organize your units around issues, for example, the issue of gender and power—the degree to which women may have to assume subordinate roles in a culture. One advantage of an issue is that students may adopt different, competing perspectives about an issue, tensions that may create interest in that issue. Students can also adopt an inquiry-based approach in which they frame questions related to an issue and then those questions drive the unit. One disadvantage of studying issues is that students may bring often rigidly defined stances on issues such as gun control or school vouchers, which may not allow for further development or consideration of alternative perspectives.
You may have students identify their own issues or inquiry-based questions portrayed in a text. For example, students may identify the issue of social pressure from peers to adopt certain practices valued by the group, but perceived as problematic by certain group members. They could then explore this issue of social peer pressure in Robert Cormier’s The Chocolate War or Muriel Spark’s The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.
- Genres. You may also organize your unit around studying a particular genre—short story, novel, ballad, rap, drama, memoir, biography, poetry, film noir, or hybrid combinations or mixtures of genres evident in a multi-genre approach to writing instruction (Romano, 2000). (For discussion of genres in film/television, see Chapter 11). In studying a particular genre, students examine similar features of that genre in terms of prototypical settings, characters, storylines, and themes, as well as shared literary techniques.
One advantage of a genre approach is that students learn a larger literacy practice of making generalizations about similarities between different texts based on certain genre features. One disadvantage of a genre approach is that is leads readily into pigeonholing or categorizing texts as representing certain genre features without critically analyzing those texts. Moreover, such reductionist genre approaches can also reify a formalist approach to English instruction—overemphasizing the study of formal structures without examining other aspects of texts. For example, it may be assumed that all short stories have “rising action,” “conflict,” and “resolution,” when in fact there are many stories that do not follow that formal structure.
In organizing genre units, you need to work deductively to provide certain frameworks or concepts about genre features, while, at the same time, allowing students to inductively make their own inductive connections between texts. You may also organize a unit around producing or writing certain genres, integrating reading and writing instruction. Students need to have opportunities to create their own genre texts based on their study of genre. For example, after studying the genre of rap, they create their own raps. In studying texts, students may then focus on techniques being employed with an eye towards producing such texts. In writing texts, they then draw on their genre knowledge in providing feedback to each others’ texts.
- Archetypes. You can also organize units around mythic or literacy archetypes, drawing on the critical approach of the archetypal approach discussed in Chapter 10 (see also the Mythology/Fantasy links). For example, you may organize a unit around the archetype of the Romance quest narrative pattern evident in epic and medieval texts, as well as contemporary journey or travel quests or the Star Wars and Fellowship of the Rings series. As part of this unit, you may focus on the initial initiation of the hero in preparation for the quest, linking the hero’s initiation to adolescents’ own experiences of initiation in their own lives.
One advantage of archetypal approaches is that students may enjoy studying what are larger mythic aspects underlying a range of different texts associated with their own lives. If, for example, they understand that initiation rites as portrayed in literature also pervade their own experiences. One disadvantage of archetypal units is that they may lead to the same pigeonholing as with genre units. Moreover, unless students are familiar with a lot of literature, they may not be able to make generalizations about certain archetypical patterns in that literature.
- Literary periods. You may also create units based on certain literary periods, for example, the Romantic or Victorian period in British literature or the Harlem Renaissance in American literature. In studying these periods, you can incorporate background historical events or cultural attitudes shaping texts, as well as similarities between literature, art, music, and popular media. For example, Coleridge’s and Byron’s art work reflect much of the spiritual and political romantic perspectives found in their poetry. One advantage of such units is that you can study writers’ work as shaped by their historical and cultural contexts. One disadvantage is that it may simply become matter of covering a lot of historical information or facts about features of the period without fostering critical response to the literature itself.
- Historical/regional/cultural worlds. You may also organize units around certain historical, regional, or cultural worlds, for example, the short story literature of the American South—stories by William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, Carson McCullers, Flannery O’Connor, Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote, Reynolds Price, Bobbie Joe Mason, and others whose stories portrayed the world of the “Old South” and “New South.” Or, you could organize a unit around the historical period of Puritan America based on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s stories and The Crucible (See the following unit which links The Crucible to the McCarthy period http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/cruc/cructg.html)
Select a particular organizational framework or combination of frameworks and consider some tasks or texts that could be used within this framework.
9. Formulating objectives for a unit and aligning objective to curriculum standards. As you did in devising tasks, you then need to formulate some objectives for what you want your students to learn in this unit. These objectives need to go beyond simply stating what students will do in the unit—they need to define what students will learn from doing various tasks. Based on the idea of “backwards” planning—starting with how you will assess your students’ learning, it is also important that you formulate your objectives in terms of specific interpretive strategies or critical lenses you want students to learn.
The following are some examples of objectives based on some interpretive strategies:
Emotions. Students will identify the emotions they experience and reasons for those emotions associated with different characters or text worlds.
Defining narrative development. Students will define the causal relationships between unfolding story events, as well as predict story outcomes based on knowledge of prototypical genre storylines.
Character actions as social practices. Students will infer characters’ social practices based on inferences about patterns in characters’ actions.
Constructing social and cultural worlds. Students will explain or judge characters’ actions in terms of the purposes, roles, rules, beliefs, traditions or history operating in social world or cultures.
Elaborating on connections to other texts. Students will reflect and elaborate on connections between the current text and similar images, characters, storylines, or themes from previous texts.
Positioning/stances. Students will define how they are being positioned to respond according to certain invited stances and negotiate or resist those stances.
Voices/language/discourses. Students will identify characters’ uses of different voices and social languages in terms of the discourses and ideological stances operating in the text.
The following are some objectives based on applying different critical lenses (see Chapter 10):
Applying a reader-response lens. Students will describe their responses to a text and how that text or a social context positioned them to respond as they did.
Applying a semiotic lens. Students will identify the signs and images operating in a text and the underlying codes shaping the cultural meanings of those signs and images.
Applying a poststructuralist lens. Students will critically analyze the category systems operating in a text and how these systems shape characters’ perceptions of self and others.
Applying a psychological lens. Students will critically analyze the underlying psychological
forces shaping characters’ actions, feelings, and desires.
Applying an archetypal approach. Students will critically analyze the archetypal use of symbolism, character prototypes, narrative patterns, and themes related to underlying cultural values.
Applying analysis of gender, class, race approach. Students will critically analyze the portrayals of characters’ social practices and cultural worlds as reflecting ideological assumptions about gender, class, and race.
In formulating your unit or course learning objectives, you also need to relate them to local school district, state, or national standards. Many schools’ English curriculums are organized around standards derived from district, state, or national standards. These standards attempt to articulate what students should be able to do and know at different grade levels.
In some cases, state standards specify certain content that needs to be mastered, for example, that students should know certain literary critical concepts or texts. One problem with content-based standards is that they can homogenize or “standardize” the curriculum in ways that limit teachers’ autonomy. Another problem with content-based standards is that they tend to perpetuate a transmission model of instruction in which teachers primary impart and test for content knowledge. In contrast, other states define standards more in terms of general competencies, thought processes, or strategies based on a constructivist curriculum model. Students are evaluated based on performance assessments what they can do and know.
Standards formulated in terms of performance allow for more teacher autonomy in terms of teaching their own specific content. By evaluating students according to performance, students have to apply what they learn to demonstrate their ability to, for example, critically analyze texts to be included in an anthology.
Go to your school district’s and/or state’s Department of Education/Public Instruction Website and locate the English/language arts standards for your unit’s grade level. How would you characterize the overall focus of the standards related to literature instruction in terms of the models of instruction? Then, review your unit objectives and identity those standards that are addressed by your objectives. Then, list the standards addressed by your unit.
10. Developing unit tasks. You then need to specify your tasks, formulating them as in #1 – 7. You then need to consider an appropriate sequence for your tasks, so that each task leads, “first things first,” to the next task.
Initial interest rousers. In designing units, you need to begin with an interest rouser task that hooks students into the topic, issue, theme, genre, etc. By initially engaging them with texts, material, or phenomena you will be studying, you are providing them with an experience that enhance their interest and lead them to perceive the value or worth of the unit. For example, in doing a poetry unit, rather than beginning with a discussion of “what is poetry,” students may begin by bringing in and sharing favorite poems.
Providing variety/choice. In planning your unit, you also want to include a variety of different types of experiences in order to avoid redundancy and repetition. You can create variety by incorporating a range of different tools discussed in the next chapter: drama, videos/DVD’s, different forms of discussion, art-work, creative writing, hypermedia, etc. You may also build in choices between uses of these different tools; again, students are more likely to be motivated to participate when they are given options. For example, rather than writing a final report, students may have the option of creating a hypermedia production.
Drawing on school resources. In planning your instruction, before you begin your student teaching, you need to determine what resources are available in the school. For example, if you are going to teach a single text to an entire class, you need to know if there are class sets of that text in the bookroom. You also need to examine the literature anthologies available and whether or how you may use those anthologies. Literature anthologies have become increasingly user-friendly, and many publishers have created a wealth of supplementary material including related web sites, books on-line, reading guides, and art transparencies. On the other hand, recognize that you, and not the textbook, should drive the curriculum. Think of the textbook as a rich repository of source materials, and then determine how you might best use that book to serve your students' needs.
School technology resources. You also need to scope out the types of technology tools available for student use—whether students need to go to computer labs (and when those labs are available) or whether they can use laptops, the software tools on the school computers, and student access to the Web. You also need to determine school policies regarding student access to Web-based e-mail, chat rooms, blogs, and Web sites, to determine, for example, how and whether you can create a classroom blog.
Classroom contexts and climates. Your different classes will vary according to their demographic make-up, social dynamics, history, attitudes, interests, knowledge, experience, reading ability, or engagement with your activities. Two different groups of students at the same grade level may be totally different due to the make-up or size of the group, the ability levels of students, or even the time of day. Your period one of American literature at 8:00 may lethargic and disengaged, while your period two of the same course and same texts may be lively and engaged. The majority of students in a class have had classes based on teacher recitation discussions and lack prior experience sharing their responses in small or large group discussions.
If students lack a sense of classroom community, you could do some additional group process activities that serve to bolster classroom community. If students are intimidated about sharing their responses because they feel intimidated by other students in the class, you could meet privately with these other students and share your concerns with them.
Recognizing/respecting diversity. It is important that your unit reflects the larger diversity of society in terms of differences in gender, class, race, and learning orientations/ accommodations. This involves recognizing stereotyping, biases, or language use/categories inherent in exploration of multicultural literature or topics related to gender, class, race, and learning differences. It is requires consistently modeling ways of being respectful of others, as well as a willingness to address issues of sexism, class bias, and institutional racism in students lives and as portrayed in literature.
Final projects. You should also include a culminating final project that serves to draw together the different, disparate elements of the unit. This final project should provide students with an opportunity to extend approaches and ideas from the unit to create their own interpretations of texts. For example, in a unit on gender and power, students could analyze the portrayal or representations of gender roles in texts not read in the unit. Again, providing choices for different projects enhances motivation to complete their chosen project.
11. Evaluating your own and others’ units. Review your unit based on the criteria listed below. If you haven’t yet developed a unit, click on the “student units” link in the Website that takes you to units developed by preservice teachers. Select two of these units. What do you perceive to be strengths and limitations of these units? How would you revise these units to improve them?
- appeal: will the unit appeal to students?
- appropriateness for grade level: are the texts and assignments appropriate for the targeted grade level?
- variety: is there a variety of different types of texts and activities?
- writing: are there ample opportunities to use writing about and/or of literature?
- student choice: do students have choices or options?
- inductive vs. deductive: do students work both from a “top-down” deductive and a “bottom-up” inductive manner?
- logical sequence: do the assignments build logically so that initial assignments prepare students for subsequent assignments?
- beginnings: does the beginning create some interest in the unit?
- endings: do the culminating activities or projects help students define their own overall connections?
12. Devise a WebQuest. In devising a WebQuest—an inquiry based unit based on Web-based resources and design, you are trying to go beyond simply providing students with tasks to exploit the use of Web-based tolls. In learning to address their issue or question using web-based resources, students are learning how to use the web as a learning tool. They are also learning how to reflect on and extend the material they acquire from the web. And, in many cases, they are assuming the perspective of a role-a song writer, detective, movie producer, scientist, city planner, etc., who must address a problem or issue or who must produce a final product. One example of an activity involving mystery tasks is “Who Killed William Robinson,” developed by Ruth Sandwell and John Lutz, University of British Columbia. This simulation based on an actual historical person, William Robinson, a Black American who was murdered in British Columbia in 1868. An Aboriginal man named Tshuanhusset, also called Tom, was charged with the murder, convicted and hanged, but a closer look at the evidence challenges the guilty verdict. Students need to sift through various clues to determine who may have been the murderer. http://web.uvic.ca/history-robinson/
In B. J. Dodge's model, http://webquest.sdsu.edu/designsteps/index.html WebQuests consist of:
- an introduction: describes the overall activity, the purpose for the activity, and student's role.
- task/outcome: describes the overall final outcome or product-formulating a solution to a problem or a position, or creating a product-an ad, song, story, final report, etc.
- activities linked to web-sites: specific step-by-step activities that are linked to web-sites that provide relevant material.
- guidance: help for students in how to organize their material to achieve the final outcome or report.
- assessment: a specific rubric for assessing their work.
- summary: a summary of what they learned from completing the webquest
Go to the Website and find some WebQuest and/or Google a text and/or unit topic, theme, issue, genre, literary period, archetype, writing production that you’re interested in developing to find some WebQuest similar to your unit. Identify the kinds of tasks in these WebQuest and the degree to which they engage students in inquiry-based learning as opposed to simply completing a series of tasks.
Select a text and/or topic, theme, issue, genre, literary period, archetype, writing production and then conduct a Web search to some links that you could use in a WebQuest. Assess the quality, appropriateness, and level of engagement of these links.
Then using Filamentality http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/fil/index.html or another WebQuest design tool, using some of the links you identified, devise a WebQuest using many of the techniques involved in devising a unit.