The Power of Introverts - Susan Cain

When I first started to watch this TED Talk, I couldn't help but agree with everything Susan Cain said. Reading is considered an introvert activity and is one of my favorite things to do as well, so I already started to relate myself to her. Then as she began to describe how she grew up, trying to prove that she was "bold and assertive" by going to crowded bars when she really just wanted to have a quiet dinner with friends, I almost felt like she was describing my life. Although I like to go out and explore interesting places, I would much rather stay in and have a relaxing night with a few close friends. I've never really considered myself an extreme introvert, but I've always known I'm not an extrovert.

I chose this talk because I wanted to see a comparison between introverts and extroverts, and the title "The Power of Introverts" intrigued me. I know that I am more of an introvert than an extrovert, so I wanted to see what my "power" was. I also wanted to understand how this comparison of two different  types of personalities could be applied to students in the classroom.

Cain gives an interesting talk focused on introverts in the world today. She said something in the beginning that really stood out to me: "Shyness is not introversion. Shyness is the fear of social judgment. Introversion is how some people respond to stimulation, including social stimulation." This stands out to me because I think that many people do not know the difference. These definitions can be beneficial to teachers. Instead of thinking a student is shy because they aren't raising their hand, it could be that they are just an introvert and don't feel the need to share their thoughts aloud. Many times teachers assume that students who don't participate in front of the class are not understanding the information. Although this is sometimes true, it is usually not the case. Some students simply just don't feel like sharing their thoughts in public. I know this because I tend to be this student in a crowded classroom. These introverted students are having a rough time in classrooms today because education systems are trying to gear learning towards more extroverted styles. They believe that extroversion is better for all students and that they can learn more, which is not necessarily true for school systems today.

I see this practice of trying to use a more extroverted style of learning in my classes this year. My physics lab is strictly group work with a bare minimum of individual work. Although this is an interesting style of learning and is beneficial at some times, every day of class is only focused on group work. Even quizzes are worked on together as a group. The individual time comes in when we complete our own test/quizzes, having to explain everything in our own words. And even though this seems individual, we discuss the answers within our group before we write, so everyone ends up having similar answers anyway.

Although I enjoy this way of learning and it is a nice change of pace from the typical lecture format, working in a group has its pros and cons. I love being able to have discussions with my group and bounce ideas off one another. Two (or multiple) heads are better than one, so we can usually figure out an answer to a question better together rather than by ourselves. On the other hand, solitude is important as well. Cain states that "Solitude is a crucial ingredient to creativity." She also makes the point that when in a group of people, we tend to mimic each other's opinions, especially the most dominant person in the group. I see this frequently in my physics group, so I can't help but to agree. I enjoy working in this group, but sometimes a little solitude would be helpful as well, especially when forming your own opinions about experiments.

Jumping ahead to the future, I plan on keeping these ideas in mind when teaching. This TED talk relates to the course content of Reading Foundations because it gives teachers ideas of how different readers/students may be acting in the classroom and how to teach to everyone's needs. It may help teachers come up with other ways to give introverted students a chance to participate, such as writing in a journal. Group work is a great way of learning. Students have an opportunity to share their opinions in a more comfortable, smaller group setting than in front of the entire class. This could truly allow for some great ideas, creativity, and discussion! But we as teachers also need to keep in mind that group work isn't best for all students, and that some prefer to work alone. This allows us to accommodate all of our students.

Running Records

Although I cannot remember actually participating in running records as a younger student, I do remember seeing a second grade teacher that I would tutor for having her students do them. At first I didn't understand what the point was and how students reading a book aloud could give the teacher valuable information about their reading processes. I couldn't see what the teacher would find useful in this test other than how many errors the student makes. I used to think that many factors could change how the student reads the book, like if a student gets nervous reading aloud, how difficult the book is, how many people the student is reading in front of, etc. Reading the article on running records cleared up these misconceptions. I now understand how complex running records are, the best situations to complete running records with students, and some basis on how to interpret them to benefit the teacher's work with the students.

The main sentence that made me understand the text was, "The prime purpose of a Running Record is to understand more about how children are using what they know to get to the messages of the text, or in other words what reading processes they are using." I think this is demonstrated throughout the article and is made clear through the different examples. The way a student is reading the text aloud shows how the student is figuring out what the words are, interpreting the meaning, and how fast the student can read. I particularly liked the examples on page 5 contrasting Peter and John's running records with the same text. One can really see the difference of how students process what they are reading. If a student was sounding out a word versus coming up with a word that makes sense with the rest of the sentence, these are obvious clues about the student's thinking processes when reading.

In general, I think that running records can be very useful, especially to elementary teachers who focus on the reading process. The process that these teachers go through is very complex and detailed, but I am up to the challenge of trying to complete my own running record for a student. I think the most difficult tasks are going to be interpreting the running record, creating the analysis, and understanding how the student reads based off of the errors. It should be an interesting few weeks with running records!

Teaching English Language Learners

Taking Spanish class throughout high school and college, I felt that I have learned a lot of material and could decently speak in Spanish during that time period. Now that I haven't taken Spanish for over a year, I'm not sure I would be able to communicate as well. For me, I have to be actively engaged in a language to understand it and use it more. During high school when I had Spanish class everyday, our teacher only allowed us to speak Spanish while in her classroom. If she caught you using English to say something, points were deducted off your grade. I thought that speaking Spanish all the time would be easy, but it proved to be extremely difficult to communicate my thoughts sometimes. I found out that I didn't know the translation for some basic, everyday words that I used in English and had to describe that word in Spanish in order to explain it. I imagine this is how English Language Learners (ELL) feel on a daily basis.

Even though I can somewhat relate to how the ELL students must feel, my situation is completely different since every student in my Spanish class was in the same situation. No student was any better in Spanish than the other students. ELL students are in a classroom where students have English as their native language, so everyone is not on the same level. I imagine this must be very difficult for the ELL students and their teachers. If I run into this situation in the future, I will look into the ideas in this section that were beneficial for helping these students.

I liked the idea of using examples of things from the ELL student's culture. When a student can relate to something, they feel more comfortable and are more willing to participate. Creating a sense of family in the classroom goes along with this idea. When a student feels welcomed and cared for in a classroom, they automatically feel more comfortable in their surroundings. Since this environment is already intimidating and scary for ELL students, a welcoming environment is very important to their learning. The last point I truly liked was empowering the students. Giving them the idea that they can work through this challenge and you are enthusiastic to help them do it is powerful. Sometimes students just need the support from their teacher to know that they can succeed.