julie+epstein

Hi! I am a student in the VT Higher Education Collaborative program for Early Childhood Education and a UVM master's student in Curriculum and Instruction. I've worked at Gan Yeladim Preschool in Burlington for the past few years and am currently seeking experience in elementary ed., perhaps as a para while I complete my license and degree this year. I grew up in Brooklyn, NY and in New Jersey, and attended Columbia University where I majored in Art History. I love gardening, cooking and baking. I recently stuffed zucchini blossoms for the first time and baked a strawberry tart. My latest reads: the NY Times, __The Daddy Shift__ (about a growing trend towards stay-at-home fathering) and Barack Obama's __Dreams from My Father__. In addition to my admiration for Obama and other such great men, I am particularly impressed by a bad one, Sacha Baron Cohen. I just saw "Bruno," and am awed by his ability to shock, to smash social rules, to be utterly inappropriate, and I appreciate the underlying intention of all this-- to help society laugh at its own prejudice and get over it. Here is a link to a website I recently discovered through the Daddy Shift author. It is a magazine and UC Berkeley affiliated science center called //Greater Good// whose mission is to study the "social and biological roots of positive emotions." It focuses on parenting and youths as well.

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In response to "Childhood poverty, chronic stress and adult working memory":

First I have to express how frustrated I felt struggling to grasp the meaning in this paper, (jargon so dense I needed a machete to hack my way through). I started to question whether the authors actually wanted to communicate their findings, or to obscure them, or maybe to reveal them only to specialists. What I was able to painstakingly translate is the idea that people raised in poverty perform slightly worse on a "Simon"-like test of working memory than their wealthier peers. The researchers hypothesized a link between "allostatic load" (a physiological measure of chronic stress) and working memory as a biological explanation for the income-achievement gap. The research apparently does demonstrate a correlation between childhood stress (allostatic load) and relatively weaker working memory in young adulthood. I don't recall the authors discussing diet specifically, though they did measure blood pressure and body mass index. Stress or "allostatic load" seems to be a very general term, encompassing both psycho-emotional and biological aspects. It seems intuitive that a stressful life (and an impoverished one) is not optimal for any kind of positive development. Working memory draws on sensory input for raw material, to be integrated, processed, and stored in long term memory. If the environment is full of stress, the amygdala will be triggered more often, and less cognitive development will occur.

=The Thunderstorm Project: =  =a formative assessment in science=

b y Julie Epstein
====As I begin to reflect on the many connections that I am making in this project, which ties together a teaching and learning experience about thunderstorms, brain research, and web 2.0, I am awed by the big picture of interrelationship. The images above represent some of these "big picture" connections:====
 * ====thunder and lightning which, as a concrete, shared experience between a group of young children and myself, inspired the lesson====


 * ====striking visual similarity between lightning bolts and firing neurons====


 * ====energy, in the form of electrical impulses, which powers our computers and our brains====

====This project integrates my new knowledge of brain research, strategies for engagement and cooperative learning and Voicethread into a formative assessment, the "Thunderstorm Project," that I have been preparing for the class, "Investigations in PreK-3 Science." My new learning enriched the process of creating this formative assessment and offered me a lens to analyze and reflect on it. I plan to share some of those insights which connect practice and theory. I'll begin by telling the origin of the Thunderstorm Project. Then lead you through the formative assessment process, from pre-assessment, to instruction, to post-assessment, including a Voicethread, and reflection, with correlations to my ideological mentor, Eleanor Duckworth, and to James Zull.====

Here's the story of how it all began--
====It was a bright July afternoon. The children of Gan Israel, a Jewish day camp in Burlington, were getting ready to swim in the playground kiddy pools. The group of 3-5 year olds had suited up, applied sunscreen and found their towels. When we stepped outside, the sky was growing dark and drizzle was starting to fall. Thunder rumbled in the distance. We definitely could not swim, but rather than go back inside, we huddled on the protected porch with a bucket of sidewalk chalk. From there, we could enjoy the cool gusts of air and rain and observe the sky. I suggested that they use the storm as content for their drawings, which they did with enthusiasm, and a lively discussion ensued. The children were extremely enthusiastic to share what they knew. They seemed fueled by my sustained encouragement and questioning. **(E. Duckworth)**====



Pre-assessment:
====Pre-assessment for this project took form within a spontaneous activity, based on a chance occurrence (the thunderstorm) and the campers’ apparent interest in it. Through their drawings and discussion I was able to elicit some of their **prior knowledge** related to thunderstorms. I also discovered how eager the children were to participate in discussion, to express their ideas and explore a topic in depth.====

====The Project, Phase 1: Link to detailed lesson plan- [|lesson thunder theater.doc] ====

"THUNDER THEATER"
====//This lesson was provoked by the rich range of emotions that the children demonstrated in their reaction to a thunderstorm, from exhilaration to anxiety. This lesson aims to channel the energy associated with these emotions into a multi-sensory exploration, physical dramatization and context for discussion and reflection about thunderstorms. In terms of the brain and learning, the different approaches of engagement included in the lesson relate to executive processing skills and the relationship between the sensory cortex and the integrative cortex in producing cognitive meaning.//====


 * ====Opens with discussion about thunderstorms, more activation of prior knowledge====


 * ====A story, __Thunder Boomer__, by Shutta Crum====


 * ====Students re-tell sequence of events====


 * ====Tripartite chart showing multi-sensory nature of thunderstorms: recording visual images, sounds and physical sensations====


 * ====Teacher models how we could physically dramatize a thunderstorm, adding key concepts such as the fact that lightning produces thunder, cause and effect relationship====


 * ====Seeks input, engaging kids' "wonderful ideas" * (see section on E. Duckworth below)====


 * ====Students given a project: to choose an aspect of the storm to act out and work cooperatively to perform as a group====


 * ====Workshop of materials offered to make props, stage wind, light flashes, rain, etc.====



**"**THUNDERSTORM IMAGES AND IDEAS**"**


//The act of creating their own images further supports the shift of information from working memory into long term memory. As Zull says, "We remember because we made it!" (p.182). //

 * ====Begins with paired sharing/discussion of student comic strips, illustrating a few thunderstorm related events in a sequence.====


 * ====Full-class discussion and demonstration of representation strategies: what were some of the ways you showed thunder? Lighting? Rain? Wind?====


 * ====Teacher shares variety of illustrations, photographs and comic book representations of the theme for more discussion.====


 * ====Task of using some of these new ideas, and range of mixed-media materials, to create another thunderstorm depiction.====


 * ====Slide show of projected digital images: children’s drawings, photos of Thunderstorm Theater performance and other experiences/experiments from the unit.====


 * ====Rehearsal of student narrations of their illustrations, responses to simple questions, (“Do you think that person with the umbrella is safe outside during the thunderstorm?”) and reflections on the experiences.====


 * ====Voicethread demo, how to use microphone, respond to recorded questions or make comments, individual assistance from paraeducator as they record their responses.====

Conclusion/ Assessment:
====I would send a note home to parents, inviting them to view their child’s and the class’ Voicethreads independently or by coming to meet with me after school. I would ask children to share what they thought of using Voicethread and what they remembered/liked/disliked about our activities on thunderstorms. Then I would read another book about thunderstorms, perhaps __Thunder Boom__ again, or __Flash, Crash, Rumble and Roll__ by Franklyn Branley. I would also use the children's drawings and Voicethread recordings as assessment of their learning and of the lesson design.====

Link to [|Voicethread page]
* "The having of wonderful ideas is what I consider the essence of intellectual development. And I consider it the essence of pedagogy to give Kevin the occasion to have his wonderful ideas and to let him feel good about himself for having them," (Duckworth, __The Having of Wonderful Ideas__, p.1).

Eleanor Duckworth
Cognitive psychologist, educational theorist and constructivist educator


 * b.1935, Montreal, Canada**


 * Ph.D from University of Geneva
 * Background as Piaget assistant/translator/colleague (studying how math and science concepts develop in young children).
 * Former elementary school teacher
 * ====Worked in curriculum development, teacher education, and program evaluation both in the U.S. and internationally====
 * ====Developed a teaching/research approach, Critical Exploration in the Classroom====
 * ====Seeks to bring a Freirean approach to the classroom, valuing the learners' experience and insights.====
 * ====Worked with scientists and teachers to develop the Elementary Science Study, a curriculum development program. By contrast, her science knowledge was naive and child-like, thus making her well-suited to help examine the learning process, with a beginner's mind.====
 * ====Worked to develop engaging learning experiences for both teachers and students, mostly attempts to understand various phenomena====
 * ====Values exploration, complexity and coming up with your own ideas====

====In her book, __The Having of Wonderful Ideas__ (1973), Duckworth reflects on the question of why vast numbers of children's intellectual development stagnates during childhood. "What happens to children's curiosity and resourcefulness later in their childhood? Why do so few continue to have their own wonderful ideas?"====

====Her explanation is that children's "intellectual breakthroughs come to be less valued," either dismissed as trivial or rejected as unacceptable. The effect of this negative conditioning is that children do not value or pursue their own ideas, (p.6).====

====Another component of the dearth of creative thinking that children produce is that "wonderful ideas do not spring out of nothing." Duckworth describes a foundation for creative thinking which includes providing a conducive setting and materials which "suggest wonderful ideas" to children and a sincere acceptance of these ideas, (p.7). She describes familiarizing children with a phenomena, thus making it accessible, engaging their interest, and allowing them to raise and answer their own questions. Duckworth envisions curriculum as a jumping off point, as a catalyst to start the experimental process, one in which the "unexpected i valued," (p.8).====

 ====//To relate Duckworth and Zull, the concept of "wonderful ideas" is the learner's sense of delight in her own learning cycle, the positive emotion which results from control, choice, and the sheer creativity of neural networks expanding to link prior knowledge with new understanding.//====

====//__Tell Me More, Listening to Learners Explain__// //(2001) is a volume edited by Duckworth, which demonstrates her constructivist bent. Each chapter recounts a teacher's experience of paying close attention and striving to ask good questions to help facilitate the learning process.//====

===="If there is any basic principle in my teaching, it’s that people are to feel free to express their thoughts about what is going on and why, and that those thoughts are to be taken seriously," (p. 19).====