FRJ 3, 4 and 7

3.

According to Erikson, the students I will be dealing with will be in the Identity versus role confusion stage. If an individual passes this stage they will show successful patterns by developing a unified sense of who they are and what they want in life. If students fail, they will show unsuccessful patterns by remaining confused about who they are and what they want in life. According to Moreno, you help adolescents move through this difficult stage by showing appreciation of many careers, religions, and ideologies as possible. Teacher should create an environment that provides adolescents with opportunities to explore and expand their view of what they can become, this is possible by having students take on roles as historians, scientists, and authors. Teacher should also show a tolerance and respect of teenagers' choices and behaviors as they navigate their identity search. This means tolerating public displays, fluctuations, and experimentation, because this is how they learn future adult roles. In the classroom I observed, the teacher provided a safe environment where students explore different adult roles. While I was observing, the teacher was having the whole class participate in a "March Maddness" activity. In this activity, students had to give a presentation on a president that the teacher chose and were encouraged to be as creative as possible. Some students did raps, poems, songs, or powerpoint presentations. This allowed students to be able to discover if they were good at writing poems, or songs, or giving presentations. Maybe some students realized that they love writing poems and they want to go into advertising or writing when they "grow up".

4.

The students were at Kohlberg's conventional reasoning stage. At this stage, students think in terms of conventional morality. This means that internalization is intermediate in the sense that individuals abide by rules that are believed to be internal, but in reality these rules are essentially the standards of others. This stage is characterized by the conformity to the rules and conventions of society. Moral decisions are based on what is approved by others. In this stage, individuals have not completely lost their concern for others, but they follow laws and rules for their own sake. Kohlberg said to reason with students using a level above what they are at. So in order for students to advance to higher levels, adults must reason with them at one level higher. For example, if a student is at the "law and order" stage, then a teacher should approach a conflict concerning reasoning using a "social contract" point of view.

7.

According to Goleman, emotional intelligence is how you handle your own feelings, how well you empathize and get along with other people. Those who are able to manage their emotions, are able to pay attention better, take in information better and remember better. Goleman says teachers are crucial in teaching emotional intelligence. Teachers teach it by demonstrating how they handle when two kids are having a fight, how they notice that one kid is being left out and making sure he is included, and by how they tune into the social dynamics between kids. Teachers must teach students how to get along with other people, how to motivate yourself, learn how to persist, learning how to resist temptation and stay on a fixed goal, and how to work together towards a common goal. Teachers can do this by having students work together with those they usually do not work with. This will help students practice how to interact with people they do not talk to everyday and learn how to work with those who are not in your immediate social group. The teacher I observed asked students to work with someone they have never worked with before (hey--you do this too).