Mason+Quick


 * Record of Assignments**
 * Name of Student:** Mason Quick

**My best attempt at looking "Country" **
toc

** Adolescence **

** W : What you want to know (curiosities/inquiry questions) **
1. **What factors/ motivators cause students to cheat in classrooms?**

** Resource #1 **

 * Read:**
 * My source consisted of a TED talk given by Dan Ariely. He informed the audience of different factor which played into the likelihood for people to cheat. Factors including proximity, severeness of getting caught, temporal proximity (time duration until consequence) and social pressure. Each impacted the likelihood that a test subject would cheat. An example he gave was when an actor was placed in the test group and intentionally cheated, it was studied what the other participants would do. If the actor wore a similar shirt ( a shirt from the same school) then more cheating was noticed. On the contrary if the actor wore a shirt of a rival school (and thus wouldn't want to be associated with) then cheating was seen as decreasing.


 * Respond:**
 * It is important to understand why and when a student would cheat in the classroom. By being aware of these reasons, I feel that I would be better prepared to get the most productivity from future students. It would be foolish to assume that students will not cheat. Understanding that students "go with the flow" when it comes to social situations, like cheating, I will work diligently to increase my awareness, in order to decrease cheating.


 * APA Citation:**
 * ====== Dan Ariely: Why we think it's OK to cheat and steal (sometimes) Ted talk. Uploaded on Mar 18, 2009 ======


 * Read:**
 * This article focused on the cheating tendencies of students given the external needs of the students. When a student was feeling more pressure from the school, on extrinsic factors (grades, tests scores), the students were found to cheat more. Also, when students that normally say it is wrong to cheat experience extrinsic pressure, they then cheat more than students who view cheating as sometimes necessary


 * Respond:**
 * After reading this article, I feel like it is important for teachers and schools to stress that the importance of education is not to do well on tests and gain high GPAs. Instead the focus should be on students learning and gaining knowledge that they will have for the rest of their lives. By focusing on students bettering themselves, opposed to students performing well, then students will realize that by cheating they will only be harming themselves. While this statement is very ideological and I have to remind myself that these are still adolescents, there is still some truth to the testament.


 * APA Citation:**
 * Motivation and cheating during early adolescence. Anderman, Eric M.; Griesinger, Tripp; Westerfield, Gloria Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol 90(1), Mar 1998, 84-93. doi: 10.1037/0022-0663.90.1.84

** Resource #3 **

 * Read:**
 * This article looks into cheating at colleges. Their main focus was looking at “Neutralizing Attitudes” which can be defined as “justifications for deviance that are seen as valid by the delinquent but not by the legal system or society at large.” When students possess this Neutralizing Attitude, they remove all guilt from themselves. Another point made by the authors is that when students witness other students cheating, the likely hood that they will join in and also cheat is significantly increased.
 * Respond:**
 * Knowing that students will feel that they aren’t doing anything wrong can help the education system to curb cheating overall. Having teacher reiterate how cheating can harm the students will help to stop it from occurring in the first place. While some students will still cheat, the overall classroom cheating would then be reduced.


 * APA Citation:**
 * Situational and Personal Causes of Student Cheating. Rettinger, David A.; Kramer, Yair Research in Higher Education, vol 50(3), May 2009, 293-313. 10.1007/s11162-008-9116-5

** Resource #4 **

 * Read:**
 * the article, while short, was very specific to my future career as a science teacher. the author tells young teachers about how to minimize cheating in the classroom. he offered specific techniques to catch students. these include: setting expectations of integrity, setting up the classroom wisely, reformatting tests, and minimizing pressure to cheat. the article has some interesting points about cheating prevention that i had not heard before.


 * Respond:**
 * this article i very useful because it allows me to see a real world attempt at combating the factor that lead to cheating the other sources showed. the interesting ones being stating expectations of integrity, and reducing the pressure. both allows for students to know cheating is wrong and hurtful as well as actively reducing the chance of cheating occurring.


 * APA Citation:**
 * Romano, M. (2011). Combating cheating in the classroom. //The Science Teacher,// //78//(3), 14. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/859330097?accountid=2909

** 5. Sexuality Activity **
The source I chose describes the Supreme Court case between James Dale and the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). he BSA attempted to exclude Dale from the organization, in which he was an Eagle Scout and a regional leader, because he was openly gay. He states that while at Rutgers “I was pretty much doing what I was taught in the Boy Scouts,” he explains, “to get involved, take a leadership role, to be active, to be visible.” However this brought his sexuality into the open and the BSA removed him from the organization. They claimed they had the right to not allow openly gay, women, and atheists from joining o remaining in the group. Dale fought the organization in hopes that the courts would rule that it was unconstitutional to not allow these groups membership. Ten years after the historic case, James—a 40-year-old advertising professional in New York City—is still passionate about the cause he took up as a teenager. “They’re essentially telling kids that if someone is gay—if they are themselves gay—that they’re not equal…that they’re not worth as much as another kid, so it’s a very damning and damaging message that they send to young people, both gay and non-gay. No kid should be taught that discrimination or bigotry is acceptable or an American value.”
 * Describe your resource**

[]
 * Link to your specific resource:**

**Observation Site Information**
[you must confirm with site it is okay to observe with your location, then delete instructions in brackets]

** A. Site details: **

 * Name of site: Rees E. Price Elementary
 * Link to site:[]
 * [[image:Rees-Price-Acadmey-jpg.jpg width="517" height="293"]]

__ ** B. Describe your setting ** __
The school is a newer school building with large hallways and classrooms. The school is set up into wings, each housing a different grade. The wing I am tutoring in has a large common room with multiple classrooms branching off from it. The flower shape makes the wings feel like individual communities. However, the children do have chances to escape the wing they are in when going to gym, recess, lunch and other similar activities. I feel as though the wings add to the overall concrete structure of their school day. They always know that that is a safe area.

The environment that I see my student in is within the art room. Me and my student sit at desks and read books and work on word comprehension. The room has a couple different pairs of students and tutors working together. The atmosphere of the room is usually nice and quiet, however sometime a students might become excited and start to become loud. Over all the environment of the school is geared towards academics.

__** C. Describe what you did at the site (free-write/journal formatting) **__
Visit one took place on a Wednesday. i was unsure what to expect because this was my first time working with bearcat buddies. i knew that i was going to be paired with a 3rd grader, but gender and ethnicity were unknown. when i got to the school i was given a name and a room number, i was tasked with going to the room and taking my student to a tutoring room. once i had my students sitting down and paying attention to me, instead of her friends, i asked her about herself:What things she enjoys, if she has and siblings, what her favorite subjects are, etc. she was very polite on the first day, after the initial excitement wore off, she was focused and we could begin working on the materials. My student was very well behaved. I am unsure how i can relate the experience here to my inquiry question. perhaps asking her if she ever feels like cheating? the problem with this is that i may not get a true response from her because 1.) she wouldn't be willing to admit that to an older "educator" and 2.) she may not truly grasp what i am asking her. as far as a first experience goes, i feel that this one was decent. i will have plenty of time to figure out how exactly i want to relate this to my question as the semester goes on.
 * __ 1st visit: __**

On my second visit, I was still paired with the same student. when i showed up she was excited to see me. we went to work on the materials prepared for us, however she was very unfocused. it took most of the our time just to complete half of the materials we were given for that day. Leaving i asked the coordinators what i should change in order for her to work harder, or at least not run around the room. they said to just stick with it, not as helpful as i was hoping for. I decided when i left that i would try to devote the beginning 5 minutes of our hour long session for her to tell me whatever she wants, do whatever she wanted at the table, or eat a snack. I was hoping that this would allow her to calm a little bit so that we could focus on our work.
 * __2nd visit:__**

This session, i showed up and tested out my idea of allowing her a little free time at the beginning of our session, it was a n utter failure. when the five minutes were up she was not cooperative and demanded that we color instead of read. this taught me a valuable lesson: rewards are always given after a good thing is completed. i now know that if you give some one the rewards first, they will be very tentative to actually do the work after. I was thinking of a new way to motivate her for the next week. I thought that if i talk to her about how her week has gone in the last week, then start working, it allows me to control the conversation and direction of it while still letting her talk for the majority of the time. i can ask questions about her family, school work, and struggles.
 * __3rd visit:__**

the fourth visit was better than the last. my and my students started to get in a groove. At first i asked her about how her week was, and she told me about her family. after a minute or two, i told her that in order for us to have some game time at the end, we needed to get through the materials. i was finding that this was the easiest way to motivater her. she loved to play tic-tact-toe on the white boards. i used this as prime motivation. she was more cooperative and we got through 75% of the materials. i still allowed for us to play, even though we didnt finish. i saw in this visit that she was more willing to work, i must have caught her on a better day. She was very warm to me and wanted to tell me lots of things about her week. i could really see that she was warming up to me, finally.
 * __4th visit:__**

the fifth visit, as well as the rest of the semester, I was able to get her to work on her school work most times, however i did notice that she was one of the more easily distracted students of the group. none the less i tried to be a s patient with her as i could. she definitely enjoyed seeing how far she could go, until a teacher noticed and stepped in. she was warm to me when we did fun things. every time we played tic tact toe, if she won, she would purposely let me win the next game so we were even. i found it touching that at the end of the time, she wanted both of us to leave a winner. i saw things in my time at Rees E. Price Academy that can lead to a chance of cheating in the class room. competition between students was very high, because every time they got a grade back, they would instantly check against everyone else grades. others include not seeing cheating as all that bad, at this grade level, i don't think the punishments really inhibit cheating. a disconnect between the punishment and the reason might be a reason why. along those lines, cheating isn't seen as hurting them selves, at the young age it is hard fro them to meta-cognitively understand this concept.
 * __5th visit:__**

** Physical **
What did you notice about the physical differences between boys and girls (pp. 283-288)? Boys and girls varied very little at the age group i was observing. because they were in third grade, they have not reached the point of puberty. the children are as you would expect. girls wore pink and light colors, boys wore blues and darker colors. this was a typical elementary setting.

What did you notice about the adolescent’s mood (p. 289)? again, because my observations were approved to be at an elementary school, i was not able to witness adolescent moods, however i was able to see a difference in my students m,ood from week to week. this helped me to judge how willing she was going to be towards working on the materials for that day.

What did you notice about the adolescent’s relationship with adults (p. 289)? My time at he school showed me that with a commitment to being their for a student, and showing that you are there to help, a bond can from. By the end of the semester, my student was giving me hugs goodbye, offering me presents, and was asking me if i was going to tutor her for the rest of the school year. This was a great experience to have with a young student, because it provided me with the first hand account of how teachers can impact their students.

What did you notice about the role of body image in adolescent behavior (p. 290)? body image was not as big of a deal in the setting i was in, however, i did notice that when my student received new cloths or new shoes she was very exited to show them off to the other students and to me. it tells me that while body image isn't a huge factor yet, later down the line in her life, she may have body image impacting her look

What did you notice about peer relationships ( pp. 290-291)? i noticed that all of the students in the classroom were friends, with some being closer than others. while tutoring my student, she would consistently want to get up to talk to her friends, despite my repeated attempts to try to stop her.

What did you notice about eating habits (pp. 291-292)? the only eating habits i saw were when she would have a piece of fruit during our session. She would get the snack from her teacher before coming to tutoring with me.

What did you notice about issues around sex (sex education, sexual references, sexual activity, teen pregnancy, etc.) (pp. 293-299) i saw no sex education, the students were too young.

What did you notice about substance use or substance related references (pp. 299-300)? substance abuse was not present in the third grade classroom

** Physical Cognitive **
In my student I noticed that she was slower in math topics than in reading. This holds true to how the book says that boys usually excel at science and math. My girl student enjoyed reading better so she was more practiced in it.
 * What did you notice about Information Processing in the adolescents observed? (p.303-304) **

At the age I was observing, I could see that she was concerned with other students, however she was not inhibited from dancing around the room or from making a science, perhaps she loved the attention
 * Did you notice any actions that would support the imaginary audience or personal fable theory of consciousness? (p.304-305). **


 * What did you notice about decision making? (p.305-306) **

her decision making was lower on the Kohlberg theory of moral development than an adolescent, for good reason. She was clearly making choices to please her elders, and care takers.


 * Parent-School Partnerships? (p. 308) **

on the day of a Halloween, I knew her grandmother was coming in, she was very close to her, this allowed her to work diligently on work. The grandmother and mother really wanted to meet me, because I was tutoring her. That is the extent I saw of her parent-school partnership.


 * Peer Influences on Achievement? (p. 308) **

the teacher had posters with all of the names of the students whom have achieved to a certain level in math and reading. I saw as the concepts got harder, less names were on the boards. I saw this as great motivation for the students to excel in these topics.

I believe the prevention to drop out was my main focus. As a tutor for a young child, hopeful I was able to boost that student to the performance level to reach a passing grade and be able to move on.
 * Prevention to dropping out of high school? (p.311) **

** Emotional **
She was in the beginning stages of finding her own identity. She was still young so she wasn’t exposed too much freedoms yet, however she does know what she does or does not like. For example, we read a book about tarantulas; she was not a huge fan of this book.
 * Identity? (p.314-318) **

** Social **
none what so ever. only simple child relationships, if any. I did not have a chance to see and “flirting” on the playground. However, if they acted like I did, I’m sure girls are chasing the boys. The students were broken up into their pods, within a pod you could argue that they are a clique and they associate with only these students. However the differentiation between groups had not fully taken effect, yet.
 * Gender (p. 324) **
 * Gender differences were what you’d expect in an elementary school. Girls wore pink while boys wore blue. **The boys were interested in sports while girls had their Barbie’s. My student actually brought in a Barbie doll one day to the session.
 * What do you notice about peer relations (intimacy? mutual understanding? self-disclosure?)? (p.326-327) **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">What do you notice about dating? (p. 329-330) **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Cliques and Crowds? (p. 328) **

** Revisiting Your Curiosities **

 * W : What you want to know (inquiry questions) **

factors that lead children towards cheating is pressures from family, school, and peers to preform well. this nested structure of factors starts out small and expands out all the way to how society tells us we should act and behave. factors can include a perception that everyone is doing it, that it in not harm full to ones elf or to any ones else, or that it is necessary in order to get the best grades possible.
 * 1. What factors leads students to cheat in classrooms**


 * 2. Poster**

my project aimed to find what the underlying factors are that increases the likelihood of a student cheating in a classroom. i observed a 3rd grade student for most of he semester in the hopes that i would be able to see when and why she cheated. through research i have found that most factors arise due to the competition brought on through the school system. the competition for better grades can lead students to cheating so that they are among top in the class. other factors include: disassociation from consequences, rewards outweigh the risks, and perceiving everyone else as doing it.
 * 3. Creative Presentations**

afer knowing what factors can lead to cheating, how can i reduce them in my future classroom? and what policies will work the best in stopping students from cheating?
 * 4. What new questions emerge for you as a future teacher?**

Late Adulthood

Describe your Older Adult Project:
 * for the older adult project, i visited with my grand parents in Charlotte, NC. my brother an i stayed at heir house for a day on our way to the coast. my grand parents were very excited to see us because we do not travel to their neck of the woods very often due to school. I talked to my grandparents on how they were doing, however my they were more interested in what was happening in my life with school, work, and relationships. although i wasn't able to stay with them for very long, I was still able to talk with them a lot.
 * It was interesting to see how my grandparents prepared for us, they set up their spare bedrooms, as expected, as well as buy plenty of thanksgiving treats. they had pies and cakes, and ice cream all ready to go. the best part about the food was that my grandma bought a special loaf of bread for me. she showed me it saying " i got you your favorite bread, the one that you could eat plain". I do not remember ever saying this, and I am not sure why she thought i loved this kind of bread. my guess is that i made comment in passing some time ago and she made a mental not of it. none the less, i enjoyed the bread plain and told her I loved it.

Describe your experience:
 * During my visit with my grandparents, i could see that my grandfather was losing some of his cognitive function. he was becoming more forgetful, and some times less coherent or clear about what he was trying to say. in the past, he was always making quick jokes and comments, however this visit, i could not understand 100% of his jokes. this is not to say that he is completely different now, he just is slightly slower than he used to be. a second thing that i noticed that the book also mentions is the degradation of health. on my visit I learned that my grandfather is now using a sleep aid to help fight sleep apnea. also with health, my grandmother is on narcotic pain medication that is 3 times the normal dosage. The reason for this is chronic back pain that could possible be caused be the reduction in calcium in her spine, a result of menopause. A third thing that I noticed that relates to the book is the relationships my grand parents have with peers. They have a few friends that they are really close with, and a different category of friends that they only see sparingly during church, golf outings, or other similar social events. The last tie in to the book is that my grandmother is always making sure that I stay in contact with, or stay up to date about my family. That includes close and extended. She is the member in my family that wants us to stay close and insure that we come to all family functions.