Pedagogy Practice

Several students in a kindergarten class tend to monopolize classroom materials and have difficulty sharing with others. Other students in the class are becoming increasingly reluctant to work or play with these students. Which of the following actions by the teacher would best help these students develop positive and cooperative relationships with their peers?

• assigning a partner who readily shares classroom materials to the students who have difficulty sharing

• providing abundant classroom materials to minimize the need for the students to share

• scheduling a conference to inform the students' parents/guardians of their children's sharing difficulties

• utilizing role-play activities to help the students practice successful sharing behaviors

A prekindergarten student is completing a pattern activity by stringing large beads of different colors. The teacher established the initial bead pattern of red, blue, yellow, and purple and the student is stringing beads to repeat the initial pattern. During the activity, the student whispers, "Red, blue, yellow, purple . now blue. No, that's not right. It should be red next." According to Lev Vygotsky's theories, the student's behavior clearly illustrates which of the following concepts?

• chunking information to promote recall

• linking new information to known information

• using private speech to facilitate problem solving

• categorizing objects according to common characteristics

Students in a high school history class are studying the American and French Revolutions of the mid-eighteenth century. Which of the following assignments related to this topic would best promote students' higher-order thinking skills?

• Construct a diagram showing similarities and differences in the social and economic conditions of each country at the time of the revolutions.

• Create a timeline of events leading up to each country's revolution.

• Describe in a brief essay the important political figures of the period and the roles they played in their countries' revolutions.

• Summarize the key goals of the revolutionary movement in each country.

Which of the following statements describes a long-term implication for the learning of students who live in homes or communities characterized by high levels of stress?

• High levels of stress cause the body to release cortisol, which can interfere with neurological function in the brain.

• Students who live in highly stressful environments tend to prefer solitary activities over group interaction.

• High levels of stress increase the body's need for sleep, which can lead to frequent tardiness and absenteeism.

• Students who live in highly stressful environments tend to resist forming personal relationships with nonfamilial adults.

Which of the following teacher actions would best help establish a foundation for a culture of learning in the classroom?

• recognizing academic achievement by displaying exemplary student work

• ensuring that students have more than enough assignments and tasks to keep them fully occupied during class

• incorporating a social component into each instructional sequence

• communicating consistently through words and actions that the knowledge students are pursuing is important and interesting

Many students in a first-grade class have had limited literacy experiences. The teacher can respond to these students' literacy needs most appropriately and effectively by planning instruction that emphasizes which of the following strategies?

• modeling for students the use of context clues to determine meanings of unfamiliar words

• reading and discussing with students a variety of narrative and informational texts

• teaching students how to perform basic research tasks such as looking up a topic online

• providing students with regular opportunities to act out favorite stories for peers

Students in a fourth-grade class have extensive background knowledge in science, are highly motivated, and are progressing through the science curriculum much faster than the teacher anticipated. The teacher can best address this situation by taking which of the following steps?

• developing longer student activities and homework assignments for each science lesson

• arranging for students to tutor peers in other classes who are struggling with science content

• revising instructional plans to increase the overall depth and complexity of science instruction

• devoting less time to science instruction in favor of a content area in which students need more support

A seventh-grade language arts teacher assigns students to select a twentieth-century author, research the author's life, and write a biographical report. The school librarian has gathered a variety of resources on various twentieth-century authors for students to use in their research. As students begin their research, the teacher observes that a few students tend to eliminate resources if they cannot locate information about their author quickly and easily. Which of the following teacher strategies would be most effective in beginning to address this situation?

• asking the librarian to direct the students to specific resources that contain information about their author

• reminding the students of the importance of persistence when searching for information

• teaching the students a mini-lesson on using an index and table of contents to locate information

• recommending that the students ask a peer to help them locate information about their author

Middle school teachers are developing an instructional unit focused on the Olympic Games that will address content in social studies, mathematics, and language arts. The teachers have brainstormed ways of relating ideas and standards in each of the designated content areas to the topic of the unit. Which of the following steps should the teachers take next in developing the unit?

• coming to consensus on instructional objectives to include in the unit

• considering potential student projects and activities for the unit

• determining the usefulness of current instructional resources for the unit

• establishing guiding questions to define the scope and sequence of the unit

Which of the following initial approaches would be most effective for helping high school students develop personal learning goals?

• advising students to focus their goals on skills that are directly related to career choices they are considering

• meeting with students to identify and discuss areas in which they want to improve and areas in which they want to extend their knowledge and skills

• suggesting that students engage their family in a discussion about what they believe to be appropriate goals for the student

• providing students with a list of goals that have been developed by students in other classrooms to use as a guide