Joe+Haunert


 * TRecord of Assignments**
 * Name of Student:** Joe Haunert



toc

** Adolescence **

** W : What yo **** u want to know (curosi **** ties/inquiry questions) **
1. **What effect does socio-economic status have on adolescent cognitive development/academic performance and behavior?**

** Resource #1 **

 * Read:**
 * A study in the UK examines a sample of 6,000 children (age 7) in a county of England in the early 1990's to determine if there is a relationship between low SES and antisocial behavior and behavioral problems in general. The study found that children from families in the lowest occupational groups are around eight percentage points more likely to have behavioral problems than children from families in the highest occupational groups. Quality of the home environment was found to be the most significant link between SES and behavioral problems. Other factors considered were mental health of the mother and quality of the relationship with her partner, material quality of the home, and early diet of the child, but these factors alone were not found to be significant contributors to the correlation between SES and behavioral problems.


 * Respond:**
 * This study seems to confirm that there is a general relationship between lower socioeconomic status and child behavior problems. Though the age group observed is not technically adolescent, I think it is reasonable to assume that the results of this study can be projected into adolescence under the circumstances that the behavioral problems are not addressed and corrected appropriately in pre-adolescecne. I found it particularly interesting that the article mentioned a difference between material quality of the home and material quality of the home environment and that material quality of the home environment was found to be a much more significant factor in the relationship between SES and behavioral problems than material quality of the home. Essentially, this means that behavioral problems would be less likely to occur in a low-income household with a positive home environment than in a low-income household with a negative home environment.


 * APA Citation:**
 * Propper, C., & Rigg, J. (2007). //Socio-Economic Status and Child Behaviour: Evidence from a contemporary UK cohort// Retrieved from []


 * Read:**
 * This article reviews several journal articles on the relationship between SES and academic achievement published between 1990 and 2000. Based on the findings of these previous articles, the author found that there is a significant association between SES and academic achievement at both the individual student level and at the level of the school as a whole. The article also states that socioeconomic status influences academic success directly by providing resources that promote learning at home and indirectly by providing the funds that are needed to be successful in school, and also helps to determine what kind of school environment the child has access to.


 * Respond:**
 * I found this article to be very informative and helpful in determining how SES affects academic performance. While this resource establishes a relationship between SES and school success, it also examines how SES can affect students on a larger scale. The assertion that SES can indirectly influence academic achievement through the providing of funds was something I had considered, but I didn't realize how much it could really affect the learning environment of the school as a whole.

>
 * APA Citation:**
 * Sirin, S. (2005). //Socioeconomic Status and Academic Achievement: A meta-analytic review of research// Retrieved from []

** Resource #3 **

 * Read:**
 * The section of this resource that I am focusing on discusses the relationship between socioeconomic status and lifestyle choices. It mentions that members of the lower social class use tobacco and alcohol more but tend to diet and exercise less, and that these parental behaviors - smoking in particular - were related to adolescent behavior and academic performance. These factors increase the likelihood of the adolescent taking up smoking, which in turn increase the likelihood of the adolescent using drugs and associating with friends who also use drugs. These behaviors in adolescence, in addition to other risky behaviors such as criminal activities and sexual behavior, were found to lead to more serious health problems and/or adjustment difficulties in adulthood. Despite this, these behaviors were not found to be especially significant in determining a link between SES and the well being of the child or adolescent.


 * Respond:**
 * I thought that the information in this study was rather vague, but it did present some useful information. When I saw the connection that this article made between smoking and adolescent cognitive/behavioral development, I recalled that my first resource made a similar connection that I had originally disregarded. Seeing it again made me reconsider the validity of this statement, as it seemed rather odd to me that smoking would be the risky behavior that is most associated with behavior problems and poor academic performance. Though no conclusive information linking the two exists, the statement is still intriguing, and at the very least it provides some connection between risky health behaviors, low SES, and adolescent development.


 * APA Citation:**
 * Bradley, R. & Corwyn, R. (2002). //Socioeconomic Status and Child Development// Retrieved from []

** Resource #4 **

 * Read:**
 * The goal of this study was to determine which aspects of SES were most important in the association between low socioeconomic status and mental disorders such as depression, disruptive behavior disorders (ADHD, oppositional defiant disorder), general anxiety, and substance abuse and/or dependance. The study found that for adolescents, the most significant aspect of SES related to mental health was one's own perception of their social status. The discussion section mentions the sensitivity of adolescents to their social status in school, and that perceptions of status are less strongly associated with mental health among adolescents whose parents have the lowest levels of education, suggesting that perceptions of one's social status become less important the lower one's objective social status is.


 * Respond:**
 * I found this resource to be of particular interest because it makes a connection between SES and mental disorders such as depression, ADHD, anxiety, and substance abuse, all disorders which can impact academic performance and behavior. The finding that adolescents perception of their own social status is the aspect of SES most associated with mental health made sense to me, especially considering other factors such as personal fable and imaginary audience. However, I was somewhat surprised to learn that lower SES adolescents are less affected by perceptions of their social status than higher SES adolescents. Perhaps this means that lower SES students are less concerned with proving something about their social status to their peers than adolescents from wealthier families, and therefore feel less anxiety about it.


 * APA Citation:**
 * McLaughlin, K., Costello, E. J., Leblanc, W., Sampson, N. A., and Kessler, R. C. (2012). //Socioeconomic Status and Adolescent Mental Disorders// Retrieved from []

** 5. Sexuality Activity **
([])

My resource examines the experiences of gay and lesbian students in Ohio. The research shows that Ohio schools are not safe environments for LGBT students at the secondary level. It states that most LGBT students in Ohio had been victimized, and that the vast majority of these incidents were not reported to an authority figure. Furthermore, the study showed that most LGBT students do not have access to any form of in-school resources or support.
 * Describe your resource:**

http://glsen.org/sites/default/files/Ohio%20NSCS%20Snapshot%202011.pdf
 * 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: **
> Contact person:
 * Name of site: Hughes High School
 * Link to site: [|http://hughesstem.cps-k12.org/]
 * [[image:cincinnati-hughes-highschool.jpg width="368" height="278"]]

__ ** B. Describe your setting ** __
Hughes is an Urban STEM High School in Cincinnati. The building is beautiful inside and out. The main floor and office are always fairly active and busy. Most of the students are African-American. The class I am observing is a 9th grade English class. The teacher is a white man probably in his forties. There are roughly 30 students in the class. Every day before the first period starts, a woman's voice comes over the intercom announcing the time and that "students should be in their seats and ready to learn", an expectation that seems to be met diligently.

__** C. Describe what you did at the site (free-write/journal formatting) **__
My first visit to Hughes was much more tame than I anticipated. The students were fairly well behaved, and the teacher didn't have to reprimanded anybody. I sat at the side of the class while the students took a vocabulary quiz, and when they were done I graded them. As an English person, I was surprised by some of the relatively easy definitions that some kids were missing. Most of the grades were good though, and when the teacher announced that the class average score for this quiz was higher than their previous two, the students seemed genuinely excited. Several students came over to introduce themselves to me, which, although not strange on its own, I had not expected. This could be chalked up to a lack of a prominent male figure in their life, or I could always be reading into it too much, and these kids are just being friendly.
 * __ 1st visit: __**

The teacher is introducing Blackboard to students, explaining what it is and that it is important to be familiar with it for college. The teacher then begins the first real lesson that I got to observe. He presents the issue of child marriage, stemming from their readings of Amy Tan's //The Joy Luck Club//. He uses the issue and the concept of children having rights as a means to help the students develop a strong thesis statement for a paper. He pulls up a notes template on the projector and plays a video about child marriage in the middle east. Throughout the video, the teacher pauses at certain points to fill in the notes template that is supposed to help develop the thesis. However, most students do not seem to be following along, and when the teacher notices this he states that he will not be sending the finished template out, and that it is their responsibility to fill it out for themselves. I felt some reservations about how he told them this, because I couldn't recall him actually telling them at the beginning that they needed to do this.
 * __2nd visit:__**

It seems as though there is a different group of students in the class now. The class is taking another vocabulary test, and the grades are noticeably lower than the last batch of quizzes that I graded. Once the students have handed in their quiz, they are supposed to begin working on the definitions for the next group of vocabulary words. One female student continues to get up and walk around the room; the teacher asks her if she needs something, and she says no. She is then told to sit down. A few minutes later, she resumes this behavior, and when she is reprimanded again, she accuses the teacher of singling her out despite the fact that she is obviously the only student behaving this way. A few minutes later, a group of three female students begin to talk amongst themselves, though they have clearly not finished their assignment. The teacher asks them if they would like F's on their assignment; there are some retaliatory remarks from the students, but they seemed to go back to work. Not long after this, another female student began talking loudly and distracting other students from their work. The teacher stood up to put this students name on the board, denoting some kind of discipline (detention, I think). The student then got out of her seat to erase her name from the board, prompting a strong response from the teacher. Near the end of class, there is a fire drill. We all go outside briefly, and on the way back in a female student slipped and hit her head on a stone pillar. While she was sitting on the floor holding her head, a group of three female students surrounded her and started laughing maliciously, but nobody made any effort to quiet them. I found this particularly disturbing.
 * __3rd visit:__**

When the students are told that there will be a quiz on Poe’s “Annabelle Lee”, many of them claim to have been unaware of this assignment. A female student is lying on the floor claiming to not feel well; she is told to go to the office and call home but she doesn't. One male student asked to be excused for a moment. A few minutes later, the teacher went into the hall to find that that student had just been standing there doing nothing; this student’s grade on the quiz was a 45%. Another male student is sent to another room to finish his test because he was talking. In the second half of class, there is a lesson on verb conjugation. I noticed that the girl who was being disruptive last time was correctly answering many questions; the teacher notices this, and tells her that she is “one of the smartest student’s in the class when [she’s] not acting crazy”.
 * __4th visit:__**

** Physical **
What did you notice about the physical differences between boys and girls (pp. 283-288)? All of the students that I got to observe for an extended period were in the 9th grade, probably age 14-15. I saw a lot of different stages of physical development for this age group. There were both male and female students who looked as though they still had a fair amount of physical development ahead of them, and those who seemed to be further ahead in their development (girls with wide hips and full chests, male students with considerable muscle tone).

What did you notice about the adolescent’s mood (p. 289)? The adolescents I observed seemed generally happy. Many of them seemed to be in good spirits and enjoyed conversation with each other. Others seemed less engaged during casual socialization, sitting quietly before class began while others were conversing. This is certainly not always indicator of moodiness, but it is worth pointing out as it can be a symptom.

What did you notice about the adolescent’s relationship with adults (p. 289)? The only real way I could assess this was by watching how students interacted with their teacher. Some were very respectful and seemed to have a closer relationship than just student teacher (friend, mentor, etc.) Others approached the teacher in a demanding or disrespectful manner, and one student voiced her belief that the teacher picked on her.

What did you notice about the role of body image in adolescent behavior (p. 290)? For the most part, the earlier developed boys seemed to be the most confident (socializing openly, flirting with girls), while the later developing boys seemed to be generally quieter and less confident. The girls seemed less predictable; the earlier developing girls certainly received the most attention from their male peers, but this didn't seem to reflect a higher level of confidence. Interestingly, the girls who seemed the most confident and outgoing were the girls who seemed to have a bit more physical development ahead of the.

What did you notice about peer relationships ( pp. 290-291)? Peer relationships seemed to have a less crucial role than I would have imagined. There didn't seem to be noticeable cliques, as many students conversed with each other interchangeably. One thing that I found interesting was how much of an air of competition there was, especially when finding out grades of vocabulary quizzes. Some students seemed more concerned with outdoing each other than performing well for their own sake.

What did you notice about eating habits (pp. 291-292)? Students were not allowed to have food in the classroom, so I didn't get to see much of this. One day the teacher brought in muffins and gave one to me. I ate about half of it with the intention of saving it for later, but as I was leaving at the end of class a student asked me if he could have it. I hadn't really expected that to happen, so I gave it to him more out of surprise than anything else. Could this student have come to school without having breakfast that day? It is very possible.

What did you notice about issues around sex (sex education, sexual references, sexual activity, teen pregnancy, etc.) (pp. 293-299) I did not notice any explicit sexual references or behavior, but students were certainly flirting with each other almost every class. Every now and then a male and female student would enter the class with their arms around each other, suggesting that they might be dating.

What did you notice about substance use or substance related references (pp. 299-300)? The only substance related reference I can recall was when the teacher was going over the list of "f" vocabulary words with the class. One of the words was "fiend", and several students were more familiar with the slang definition of a "drug fiend" rather than the proper definition.

** Revisiting Your Curiosities **
[Answer your original questions as best as you can, given the course material and your observations. You must make at least 4 references to the text with page numbers.] This is obviously a very broad question, but based on my readings and observations at an inner city, lower income school environment, I have come to the conclusion that adolescents coming from low-income households are slightly more likely to engage in chronic disruptive classroom behavior compared to students from a more financially stable home. Additionally, students who performed consistently poorly on vocabulary assessments probably fall under the same category. The textbook mentions that one strong predictor for violent crime is SES, which raises a bit of concern considering the supposed social status of some of the students I have observed. The book also cites difficult temperament and poor school performance as predictors of delinquent behavior, two qualities that I saw a fair share of during my observations. It is very difficult not to over-generalize when answering my question, as there are a myriad of other factors that contribute to adolescent behavioral and cognitive development. My results should therefore be viewed as one observers analysis of a very specific setting that may or may not be applicable to a large-scale social spectrum.
 * W : What you want to know (inquiry questions) **
 * 1. What effect does socioeconomic status have on adolescent cognitive development/academic performance and behavior?**

My presentation is essentially a condensed version of the information on my wiki coupled with some additional musings on how the experience of answering my inquiry question has shaped me as a future teacher. I chose to adhere to the original template of the poster to keep it organized.
 * 2. SES and Cognitive/Behavioral Development**
 * 3. Creative Presentations**

What can I do to reach out to students whose learning is affected by low socioeconomic status? What resources can I provide in the classroom to help compensate for what students may not have at home?
 * 4. What new questions emerge for you as a future teacher?**

Late Adulthood

Describe your Older Adult Project:
 * For my older adult project, I spent a few hours with my grandma over Thanksgiving. My grandma has lived alone in Ft. Thomas, Kentucky since my grandpa died in 1990, and my family spends every Thanksgiving and Christmas at her house. We spent the evening chatting with each other, catching up, and she shared some interesting stories about my uncles and cousins that I had not heard before.

Describe your experience (2 paragraph minimum and make 4 references to the textbook):
 * One of my grandmother's qualities that I feel sets her apart from many elderly people is her conversational energy and adept memory. The textbook states that shrinkage of certain regions of the brain and an overall decrease in the production of brainwaves in old age results in limited memory and cognitive function. However, the book also mentions that older adults can often compensate for neuron loss by calling upon other regions of the brain to support cognitive processing (p.447), which could explain her sharpness despite her age. In recent years, she has begun using a walker and her height has declined noticeably. This reflects the book's statement that "height continues to decline, especially in women, as loss of bone mineral content leads to further collapse of the spinal column" (p.450). Her need for a walker is probably due to rapid decline of muscle strength in old age, deterioration of bone strength and bone mass, and reduced flexibility of her joints, ligaments, and tendons (p.450). During our visit, she mentioned that she often does not go to bed until 1 or 2 in the morning and gets up at around 9 in the morning. I found this somewhat surprising, but after referring to the text I realized that it made sense because "older adults tend to require as much sleep as younger adults... but they have more difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, and sleeping deeply" (p.449). She typically naps for an hour or so during the day, which could mean that her sleeping habits fall under this description.