Background
Speech or Language Impairment (SLI)
McCabe and Mellar state, in their study of how language impairment affects social growth, "children with SLI appear particularly susceptible to exhibiting behavior perceived as socially incompetent due to their increased difficulty with interpersonal communication. 3" In their study, they define social competence as a repertoire of skills, including knowledge of social standards of behavior, social problem-solving, emotion recognition, emotion understanding, and communication and language efficacy. After thorough research with early childhood-age children, their results show that SLI children were rated significantly lower on the sociable composite than were non-SLI children, further proving that SLI children appear to be regarded as exhibiting somewhat less assertiveness, socialization, self-control, and empathetic responding, which are important aspects of social competence.
The results of the above study suggest that early childhood-age SLI children who demonstrate social incompetence will continue to develop this deficit without intervention. I notice that although my students have learned the norms of social interactions through years of speech and language therapy, they lack the follow through in everyday interactions. In a similar study performed by Thatcher, literacy acquisition is evaluated for how it plays a role in social development. It's noted that, "literacy is obviously a critical skill for school success and lifelong success. Research demonstrates the relationship between speech and/or language acquisition and literacy. In fact, many of the children identified with speech or language disorders may also exhibit subsequent deficits in reading and writing. In addition to academics, students with communication disorders may experience difficulty in social and behavioral skills required in school. 4" It is for these reasons that I will continue a therapeutic approach in the classroom linking literature to social competence.
Pride
In a global study on pride, conducted by Robins and Tracy, it is noted that over time, "researchers have largely neglected the self-conscious (or social) emotions, such as embarrassment, pride, and shame. These emotions involve complex self-evaluative processes, emerge later in development than do basic emotions, are thought to be unique to humans and possibly great apes, and play a central role in status seeking, dominance, and other fundamental social behaviors. 5" In addition to these key facts, they also state that pride is a recognizable, nonverbal expression and has been reliably distinguished from similar emotions (e.g. happiness) and can be recognized in children as young as four years old. This emotion can be universally recognized as an individual having a small smile, head tilted slightly (approximately twenty degrees) back, expanded posture, and arms akimbo with hands on hips. This recognizable emotion may play a functional role in the maintenance and enhancement of social status. Given this information, I plan to incorporate the nonverbal expression of pride as introduction to this unit. I'll show my students pictures of proud individuals of different ages, cultures, and in unfamiliar situations. Prior to studying prideful characters, I'll have my students think of times they have felt pride and mimic their prideful stance to compare to one another and the universal description of the stance.
Multiple Intelligences
As Armstrong states in Neurodiversity, it's not how smart you are, it's how you're smart. Armstrong refers to the work of Howard Gardner to explain the categories of the multiple intelligences: linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, intrapersonal, and naturalist. Gardner argues that each intelligence has core cognitive components, can be visually represented (symbolized), is valued by all cultures, can be found in the animal kingdom, and can be found in prehistoric times. Most importantly, each intelligence can actually be located in specific areas of the brain. This is proven by Gardner's research on how selective impairment in the brain, as a result of injury or illness, compromises specific intelligences. In my strategies section of the unit, I'll describe how I complete a unit on multiple intelligences prior to this literature unit to educate my students about brain differences.
Highly Effective Teaching (HET)
The HET model has been in place in our school district for several years. It's important to note that I will teach this unit in an HET environment, where the language is familiar to staff and students. The model is brain-compatible and grounded in the biology of learning, effective instructional strategies, and the development of conceptual curriculum. In addition, the HET founders believe that emotion is the gatekeeper to learning and performance 6. Within the model are the lifelong guidelines and lifeskills which provide a character building foundation for establishing classroom culture. The lifeskills provide students with a developed understanding of the following: caring, common sense, cooperation, courage, creativity, curiosity, effort, flexibility, friendship, initiative, integrity, organization, patience, perseverance, pride, problem solving, resourcefulness, responsibility, and sense of humor. With pride and courage being two key lifeskills in our school community, I find it significant to teach social competence skills through prideful and courageous characters.
Olweus Bullying Prevention Program (OBPP)
Dan Olweus defines his program as a comprehensive, school-wide program that was designed to reduce bullying and achieve better peer relations among students with children in elementary, middle, and junior high school grades. The goals of the program are to reduce existing bullying problems, prevent the development of new bullying problems, and achieve better relations at school 7.
The OBPP has positively transformed our school's social climate. At Lipman Middle School, our students abide by the four anti-bullying rules when bullying occurs, which are to not bully others, help students who are bullied, include students who are left out, and tell an adult at school and home of any bullying situation observed. A key reason I chose to create a unit involving building pride and courage is because of the absence I see with my students achieving these four goals. Since the implementation of the program, my students are well-versed with the rules; however, my students need direct instruction on the ways to develop courage and pride and stand up for themselves and others. My classroom activities for the development of courage and pride through literature will not only include works involving bullying, but I do see it as an area where my students demonstrate weak social competence.
Literature Analysis
For the purposes of the objective of this unit, students should be familiar with the following literary terms. I plan to explain these terms in relation to characterization.
1. Context clues – The information gathered from the language, setting, and verbal and nonverbal cues of the characters. Context clues will be used to make predictions about the character's decision making and thought process
2. Description – A verbal picture of the characters, events, and setting.
3. Literary Analysis – The study of a literary work by a critic, student, or scholar. I hope for my students to analyze the characters in detail and take a stance on whether or not the character is reliable based on his or her thoughts and emotions.
4. Main Idea – The gist of a passage. We will discuss main idea when referring to poetry, short stories, and a novel. I'll spend more time with discussions on the main ideas of abstract works in hopes my students find multiple interpretations.
5. Metaphor – A figure of speech in which a word or phrase denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness between them. For example, he is drowning in money.
6. Narration – To tell a story or give an account of something dealing with sequences of events and experiences. Narration can be written in first person, where the author uses the terms I and we, or third person using he, she, and they. It will be interesting to see how my students react to the literature from these two very different points of view.
7. Nonverbal cues – Non-language communication, such as a noise, gesture, or facial expression. We will discuss nonverbal cues as a form of context clues to gather information about emotions and relationships within the literature.
8. Poetry – Literature in verse that can be written in a rhythmic pattern and often portrays great beauty, emotion, intensity, and profound insight. As a form of assessment in this unit, my students will have the option of writing a poem as a reflection of the courage and pride demonstrated by the character. I hope this will be an opportunity for my students to express their analysis of literature in a creative way.
9. Prose – Ordinary speech or writing without metrical structure; or language that is not poetry.
10. Simile – A comparison using the terms like and as. For example, white like snow or bright as the moon.
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