Cameron Cobb Learner Development Project

Audio Transcript Auto-generated

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  Hi everyone, my name is Cameron Cobb,

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  and today I'm going to be talking to you about learner development,

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  specifically grades six

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  through eight,

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  teaching at the middle school level a lot of times

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  the learner's that you deal with are at varying age levels,

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  meaning that their cognitive and physical abilities

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  maybe at different levels than each other.

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  I teach a variety of different classes, Grade six,

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  7th and 8th,

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  so I have a lot of experience so far this year dealing with all these varying

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  levels of development.

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  One thing that remains consistent no matter which grade you're dealing with

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  is the milestones for developmental growth.

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  Most learners in this

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  age range are typically trying to grow in the following ways

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  In both abstract thinking, which is

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  probably get stage four

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  of his cognitive development theory,

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  logical reasoning,

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  social development

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  and an aim towards self motivation.

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  Abstract thinking at the middle school level is oftentimes a lot of students

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  starting to ask why certain things are the way that they are,

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  they're also beginning to develop

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  deductive reasoning skills, so they're starting to figure out

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  if something is happening,

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  why is that happening and what are the causes and effects of that event?

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  Now, this looks different for every single class.

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  So for math it can be one way history another. But for me, I teach a bunch of electives.

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  So my focus for this

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  is going to be on my financial literacy classes

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  and in these classes, I have a set list of objectives.

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  When I'm lesson planning for every single class,

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  I try to structure my lessons so that in each lesson I hit the main element

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  in their developmental

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  stages as a learner.

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  So I try to take care of the abstract thinking,

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  social and self motivation,

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  which is behavioral theories that are talked about by skinner

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  and physical development.

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  So before we can look at how I use the lessons and how I

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  take care of

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  dealing with each of these different

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  areas in developmental learning,

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  we first have to understand

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  what

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  our physical and cognitive developments in middle school.

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  So cognitively

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  They're at Pickett's 4th stage which is the formal operational stage in learning

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  as I previously talked about,

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  this is when they're starting to develop abstract thinking skills.

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  Deductive reasoning

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  is also the time where they're at adolescent

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  ego centrism, meaning that they have a very

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  self oriented view

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  on the world and how things work.

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  They try to

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  take everything that they learn and tie it into well how does it affect me?

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  So as a teacher,

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  if you put it

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  in

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  terms of how does it affect you from the beginning,

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  you're actually helping them better to cognitively

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  develop and understand the information better.

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  They are also at a point where they're logical reasoning skills

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  are starting to develop in a way where they can realize that

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  let's say

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  You lose $50 because you spent it on unnecessary food

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  Well you had $50.

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  The unnecessary food cost $50. So they can say that losing that money

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  was directly attributed to buying the unnecessary food

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  when it comes to physical

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  changes in their cognitive development.

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  They're going through puberty around the time of middle school.

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  So they're having changes in their height, appearance,

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  wait,

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  their motor skills are developing differently and in most

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  cases their body is developing faster than their brain.

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  So they're at a different level physically

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  in their maturity than they are at their emotional,

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  psychological and mental,

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  yeah,

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  aspects of their development.

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  So how do I take all of the stuff

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  that I've learned from researching physical cognitive development?

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  He gets theory Skinner's theory.

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  How do I take all of that and tie that into my lessons?

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  Well first let's look at an example of a lesson.

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  The lesson that I did with my 8th grade class

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  was determining how to save

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  for the future.

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  So I had them,

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  I started with telling them how would you rather have $50 now or $100 next week.

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  Now it's a question that a lot of them

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  I don't really think about it,

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  like Oh well maybe $50 now would be instant gratification.

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  But at this point in middle school they're logical reasoning

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  Is starting to develop. So more people than you would expect answer

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  the 100 next week because that's $250 increments. You have double the money.

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  So we start by answering that do. Now

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  then

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  as a class we go over the top three reasons to save.

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  So everybody gives their different reasons,

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  explains what they would want to save for

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  how they would save money, what they would spend it on. And then we watched a video,

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  it's an educational video on crash course,

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  it's how

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  to come up with, and then we come up with a list of their own savings goals,

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  organizing it into a short and long term

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  list,

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  and then we,

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  at the end of class discuss

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  what we did for the whole period, which is why is saving,

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  breaking

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  down that saving

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  and having it in different length goals. So important,

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  this is a lesson that I did with multiple different

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  eighth grade classes

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  and how do you reach developmental goals

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  While you're going through this lesson plan, we'll abstract thinking,

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  get them to work with hypotheticals when they're coming

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  up with the long term and short-term goals.

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  So tell them hypothetically if you had $50, how could you break that? $50 down to

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  help yourself in the short term or help yourself in the long term,

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  let's say that they want to buy a new Xbox

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  or a new playstation,

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  how

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  Would you best use that? $50?

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  A lot of the students say, using their logical reasoning, they go, okay, well,

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  in order to get that, I'm going to have to save it,

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  I can't spend it because then it won't be there for me,

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  And then I have them picture themselves in the future.

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  I'm like, well, okay, so that's right now.

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  You probably don't get as much money if you're 10-13 because you don't have a job.

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  But let's picture that you are

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  Now employed with a job that pays you like $50,000 a year.

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  How does that job

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  where you have

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  that amount of money?

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  How can you divide that up

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  and spread those savings goals? So like short term a month,

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  what could you buy within that month while still saving up for something later?

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  And using their logical reasoning and

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  deducting how much

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  they can realistically get away with spending now versus later

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  they are able to come up with a concrete list.

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  The lesson is helping them to think not just about the immediate future,

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  but also about the future that they're going to have and they're able

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  to do it at this point because this is where they're at,

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  in terms of their development

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  now to try to meet social and self motivation.

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  I have them talk with partners to see how their partners,

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  their age would divide up money.

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  Oftentimes middle schoolers like to try and be better than those around them.

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  They try to establish some sort of

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  sense of competition. Maybe they could

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  b

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  a better athlete or maybe they could save up more money in terms of this game.

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  So by playing into that

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  middle school age need for them to be

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  slightly better than their peers

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  by having them talk to each other. They can

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  bounce ideas, see how they could try to make their savings plan better than there

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  piers savings plans or how they could have potentially afford

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  a nicer

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  item at the end of a year versus what their friends are saving up for

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  now.

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  While they are able to use deductive reasoning or start using deductive reasoning,

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  they're not completely there yet, they still have a long way to go.

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  This is the beginning stage of stage four for pickett.

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  So I like to scaffold, I came up with my own list

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  not showing them like exactly how much money I am saving,

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  but my own personal list of things that I would

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  maybe want to save for in the immediate future,

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  like maybe uh

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  snack or

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  a dinner

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  at Mcdonald's

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  because it is cheap

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  versus

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  what would I want to say for in the long term

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  a boat or something more expensive so that the kids can understand that

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  short term, you need to think a certain way,

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  but long term you need to have bigger goals if you save money correctly.

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  And then this lesson is difficult to talk to middle schoolers about,

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  but it also helps them to understand that they're changing physically.

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  Some of the students like to save for clothes. So I have them think about.

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  Well given your current situation,

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  A lot of you have grown how much and people will

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  say different amounts over the course of the past 2-3 years

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  and I get them to think about,

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  well if you're at this stage in life where you are growing

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  and your body is changing.

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  Is it helpful

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  to spend a lot of money now on clothes

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  or to save for clothes for the end of puberty.

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  So that way, when you saw it, when you're done growing,

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  you're

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  developing into yourself and who you're going to be as an adult,

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  you can then spend that money on clothes that will fit you for a longer period of time.

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  So it's a more wise investment.

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  Also have them think about what kinds of jobs can you get?

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  Everybody is physically capable of doing different things.

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  So

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  depending on where you're at,

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  you may have different interests than other people.

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  My second lesson example builds off of the savings unit and we continue to go into it.

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  I have them look into savings accounts

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  now, given that they are students in middle school,

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  they can't really open one by themselves.

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  So I talked to them about how they could potentially do this with a parent.

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  What are the reasons that you would want to open a savings account?

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  We discuss it as a class because group participation helps

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  them to all see that everybody has similar ideas.

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  It allows them to bounce ideas off of each other, grow as a class.

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  Then we go over that

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  and we watch and analyze savings accounts videos. So I

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  find savings account statements.

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  I find examples of people going to a bank and depositing money

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  listing off their reasons.

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  So the end goal is for them to come up with two key features of a savings account

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  and how it can help them save money,

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  so how to reach developmental goals in

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  this lesson plan for abstract thinking again,

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  get the students to work with hypotheticals, hypothetically,

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  if you had X amount of money,

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  how much of it would be wise to put into a savings account,

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  what is an interest rate,

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  if your interest rate is X,

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  would it be better to put more or less money in?

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  We

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  developed that over the course of a couple of lessons,

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  but it's good to get them started thinking on hypothetically,

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  how

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  would each

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  varying amount of money help you save more

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  or less?

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  And then for social and self motivation,

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  I have them work in competition with each other.

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  So eventually this lesson plan leads to a savings competition.

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  They each get to find their own sort of job

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  and the goal is to see who can get their money to grow the most.

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  The way that I get them to self motivate

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  by doing these competitions is I give them a

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  certain amount of points based on how they do

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  each month.

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  I had them break down their savings into january

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  february March all the way through december for one year

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  for every month where they managed to save

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  Over 50% of their money

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  and make that money grow while still being able to afford living and food.

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  I give them points based on that.

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  So it is positive reinforcement for the actions that they are doing

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  if they lose money throughout the course of it, there's

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  a loss in points which is negative reinforcement.

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  This helps them to better understand how their actions can impact

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  their money and it also will help them into the future

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  where they sit there and they're like okay

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  maybe this one small purchase won't help me grow

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  and as far as physical development I start to get them

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  to think about what are things that come with aging physically

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  there are more injuries,

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  you have different doctors appointments for different reasons,

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  let's say that you need braces in middle school or you need

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  therapy for something or you need like glasses for a vision impairment.

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  How do these unplanned changes in physical state

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  or appearance impact the money you have.

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  And often times students will sit there

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  and now they have to really think well why do these things happen

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  and what would happen to my money if these things were to happen.

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  These lessons have really helped my students to grow and understand better one,

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  how they're developing as learners but also how this can impact them in the future

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  for more resources on developmental growth.

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  I have a book titled mindset, The new psychology of success, a Youtube,

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  video on pickets cognitive development theory and a website

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  that lists off different developmental goals for middle schoolers.

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  Definitely check these out. I found them very helpful.

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  Thank you all for listening. I hope you have a great day.