Born in Orsha, a part of the Russian Empire (now known as Belarus) on 17th November 1896, Vygotsky was a pioneer of psychology; he contributed much important research to the field. He graduated from the Moscow State University in 1917, and went on to work in many research facilities and and educational establishments in Moscow, Leningrad and Kharkov. His extensive research into cognitive development has lead his theory to be one of the most important of it’s kind. He believed that children’s thinking is affected by their social knowledge, which are communicated by either psychological (language, number, art) or technical (books, calculator) means. He was – and sometimes still is – often criticised for being an idealist and his overemphasis of the role of language in thinking (more on the criticisms later). He was also a very popular author, with 6 volumes of his work being classed as major. Vygotsky rarely conducted research; he was more focused on constructing the best possible theory on the transfer of knowledge. Unfortunately, Vygotsky died at the very young age of 37 in 1934 from Tuberculosis, but once his main work was translated to English in 1962, it had a major impact on other psychological research in similar fields. Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development As stated above, Vygotsky believed children’s thinking is affected by their knowledge of the social community (which is learnt from either technical or psychological cultural tools). He also suggested that language is the most important tool for gaining this social knowledge; the child can be taught this from other people via language. He defined intelligence as “the capacity to learn from instruction”, which emphasises the fact there is a requirement for a more knowledgable other person or ‘teacher’. He referred to them as just that: the More Knowledgable Other (MKO). MKO’s can be parents, adults, teachers, coaches, experts/professionals – but also things you might not first expect, such as children, friends and computers. He described something known as the zone of proximal development (ZPD), which is a key feature of his theory. There are two levels of attainment for the ZPD: · Level 1 – the ‘present level of development’. This describes what the child is capable of doing without any help from others. · Level 2 – the ‘potential level of development’. This means what the child could potentially be capable of with help from other people or ‘teachers’. The gap between level 1 and 2 (the present and potential development) is what Vygotsky described as this zone of proximal development. He believed that through help from other, more knowledgable people, the child can potentially gain knowledge already held by them. However, the knowledge must be appropriate for the child’s level of comprehension. Anything that is too complicated for the child to learn that isn’t in their ZPD cannot be learnt at all until there is a shift in the ZPD. When a child does attain their potential, this shift occurs and the child can continue learning more complex, higher level material. Another important feature of this theory is scaffolding. When an adult provides support for a child, they will adjust the amount of help they give depending on their progress. For example, a child learning to walk might at first have both their hands held and pulled upwards. As they learn to support their own weight, the mother might hold both their hands loosely. Then she might just hold one hand, then eventually nothing. This progression of different levels of help is scaffolding. It draws parallels from real scaffolding for buildings; it is used as a support for construction of new material (the skill/information to be learnt) and then removed once the building is complete (the skill/information has been learnt). Woods and Middleton (1975) studied the influence of instruction with their experiment. They provided 3-4 year olds with a puzzle which was beyond their comprehension on their own. The mother then provided different levels of assistance for the child: · L1 – General verbal instruction (“Very good! Now try that again.”) · L2 – Specific verbal instruction (“Get four big blocks”) · L3 – Mother indicates material (“You need this block here”) · L4 – Mother provides material and prepares it for assembly · L5 – Mother demonstrates the operation After the session, the child was assessed on whether they could construct the pyramid on their own. Results showed that when children were given varied support from mothers (low levels of support when the child was doing well, and high levels when the child struggled) they were able to construct the pyramid on their own. However, when the mother consistently provided the same support, they seemed to make the child conclude the activity was beyond their comprehension and the child soon lost interest in constructing the pyramid. This shows the importance of providing the correct level of scaffolding when teaching a learner. As a final point, Vygotsky looked at the role of egocentric/private speech. This is, for example, when a child will sit on their own and speak their thoughts out loud as they play. He suggested a child is regulating and planning their behaviour at this point: “Where is the block? I can’t find it. Oh well, I’ll use this block.” He called these ‘monologues’. By 7 years, these monologues become internalized and the child becomes a “verbal thinker”, which is what most adults can do with no problem. When we are faced with a problem, and we’re alone, we quite often think through the problem – but in our heads. Children before 7 will do this out loud. This verbal thinking forms the basis for higher level, more abstract thinking (planning, reasoning, memorizing, evaluating). Quick summary · Emphasised the role of a teacher in cognitive development, and the need to have support from a More Knowledgable Other, or MKO. · The zone of proximal development, or ZPD, differentiates between a learner’s current development and their potential development when being taught from a MKO. · Scaffolding provides an effective way to reach potential levels of development, but only when different levels of assistance are given when required. · Social and cultural tools are an important means of gaining intelligence. · There is a close link between the acquisition of language and the development of thinking. · Internalising monologues, and therefore becoming a verbal thinker, is a stepping stone to higher levels of thinking. Vygotsky provided a very influential theory which provided a meaningful social context in the development of learning. The emphasis of cultural knowledge was something unseen in Piaget’s theory. In the next post, I will be evaluating both of the cognitive theories (that of Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky) and then comparing and evaluating them against each other.

I have a confession---when I see something good, I take it and use it. I don't like to recreate the wheel, and I'm really not all that creative. I also work with people that are very hard-working and creative, so when I stepped into my co-worker's office (Heather Petrusa, SLP) and saw this homemade self-regulation scale, I grabbed it (with her permission) and told her that this was worth using and sharing with all of my blogging friends! She said that our mutual friend, an autism itinerant teacher, Leah Wilson, was actually the one who created it, and she (Heather) just tweaked it. I'm sure Leah won't mind sharing, so here it is! Anyone who works with children with autism knows the difficulties in regulating emotions. Within an hour, a child can go from 'sleepy' to 'boiling' and not have strategies to get to the 'green' area. I liked this scale that Heather and Leah developed because it integrated elements from the 'How does your engine run?' program with emotional states and specific strategies (worded with 1st person statements encouraging more independence with handling regulation in the classroom.) A therapist and teacher can use this scale to first teach emotions, strategies, and self-reflection, and then teach the child to apply these in the classroom. So---thanks Heather and Leah! I'm so happy to work with you! I'm sure your kids are too! To download in Boardmaker, click here! (You can then edit to fit your child's particular needs) To download in pdf, click here! .

Teaching kids with autism about strangers is challenging. Visuals help them identify and appropriately interact with a variety of "safe" strangers.

This is fair trade fortnight and on Friday we are gong into some schools to teach the children about fair trade, linking it to to Jesus' message of freedom and good news for the poor and oppressed (see Luke 4, where Jesus quotes Isaiah 61) and what Christians believe about behaving justly. As a fun way in to thinking about fair trade and ideas of fairness in general, here's an easy game to play! You will need: A game sheet per child, dice (one per pair or 3 is good) Click here to print off a sheet with 2 game sheets on it, as below. Children work in pairs or 3s to throw the die, but have their own individual sheet to colour in. Children in a pair/ 3 take it in turns to throw the die. Colour in a section of the Fair Trade symbol according to the number thrown. Eg. If you throw a 2, colour in a section with a 2 inside it. If you throw a number , but have already coloured in all that number's sections, you will have to wait until your next throw! The first person to colour in all the sections on their sheet is the winner. This game helps to introduce the fair trade symbol which looks a bit like a person with their hand in the air to say they agree and want to join in. It also helps to think about issues of fairness, but quite subtly. How fair is the game itself? Some numbers appear more often than others do. Does this make a difference? Have fun!

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The young middle school singers who arrive in my choral classroom each August are incredibly diverse. In my room, I have children whose native languages are Dari (the Persian language of Afghanistan), Mandarin, Hindi, German, Spanish, Swahili and many more. I've taught singing to children in my classroom who, believe it or not, are almost completely deaf, some who have trouble matching pitch, some who can barely articulate due to cerebral palsy, children with severe intellectual limitations, extreme cases of Autism, and children who are legally blind. ...And almost all of them come to me utterly unable to read music. My room is a true public school classroom in America, and I absolutely love that fact. There are many resources in marketplace for helping break through language barriers. Smartling, for example, is a translation software company that helps us break through language barriers by translating mobile apps and websites for companies. My feeling is that if children want to sing, they should sing, and it's up to me to find ways to communicate in a way everyone can understand so they can learn. I don't test their voices. Middle school children are so afraid to be put on the spot and forced to sing alone, so I stopped testing their voices years ago. I can hear what I need to hear in the group setting, discretely work on the issues that need addressing, and avoid causing them the extra stress. To be in my chorus class, the only requirement I have of them is that they have a true desire to learn to sing. Each year, there are over 300 children who walk through my doors each day electing to take choir, and I am honored they make that choice. To help them become musically literate, I had to learn to teach using all three learning modalities each day: Kinesthetic, Visual and Aural. When I began developing my Sight Singing Program, S-Cubed, the main goal I had was to help my beginning students, regardless of whether they speak English or whatever their individual challenges may be, truly learn how to take the dots, curves, stems and lines off of the page and successfully and accurately turn them into sound. I wanted to help them understand the language of reading music better, and I wanted them to have fun in the process of learning it. To reach them, I knew that I had to incorporate every possible learning modality. One of the most important parts of my sight singing method is the use of the Kodaly Hand Signs. The hand signs help to connect pitch to the physical movements of the hands. The use of the vowel sounds in the words of the Kodaly scale helps intonation and blend tremendously because teachers can teach students how to use tall vowels when they sing. In the Sight Singing approach I developed, I took the Kodaly Hand Sign movements and added more layers to help my beginners experience more success. When you see my students tackling a new piece of music for the first time, you see them pulsing their hands to keep the steady beat, and you see them lifting and lowering their hands to match the changing pitch. Click here to see an example. I carefully and deliberately teach those skill sets to my students and slowly build the coordinations required to successfully execute them one step at a time. It is all outlined in the descriptions of the individual lessons in my program. ...But the single most important element of my program is "fun". To begin building the skills I've described above, I play a game with the children called Forbidden Pattern. Click here to see a description of the game. Click here to see me playing the game with my students. This is really the "hook" of the program I've developed and it works with all of the children I've described in the first paragraph of this post. Regardless of what language they speak or what other challenges they face, when we turn the learning process into a game, our middle school children listen, laugh, thrive, and best of all, in the end, we all learn to speak the common language of music. Check out my blog!

Lately, I have been reading Sonia White’s Designing Defensible Programs for Gifted Secondary School Learners, and I have been inspired so much from her book. In one of the chapters I read abo…

Students are expected to come to every art class with a PENCIL & ERASER. EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT OUR ART PROGRAM Even though we do not have an art studio this claymation…

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Children's social emotional development plays a crucial role in their ability to find success in school and also later on in life.

Back to School is right around the corner for us and I am SUPER excited to kick of this school year with some fun, hands-on and engaging resources for The

So, YAY! We finally sold our house and moved! What a big job...and time zapper! Thankfully we were able to find a great rental (and by great I mean good neighborhood, clean, good size, etc.) close by until we are able to move closer to home (Vermont!) Of course, with all the moving I've had very little time to blog! However, I took a little time today and got a new product up on TeachersPayTeachers - an irregular verb foldable graphic organizer. It's more of a resource, than anything else, but I'm already seeing my students pull it out and use it - so that's what I consider SUCCESS!! Like my other FGOs, there are several choices to pick from to print, so it allows for easy differentiation! To buy this graphic organizer, head on over to my TeachersPayTeachers Store!

My students strive to follow our school Code of Conduct but even on the best of days mistakes happen and someone is hurt by the actions of another. My goal is always to resolve relationship-damagin…

Last year I had one of those kids that is a natural born leader but, who could also be a bit of a bully because things ...

Developing a growth mindset in kids is essential for their success. These fourteen books tell stories that help kids better understand why hard work, effort, and a willingness to learn and grow leads to success.

Whether you're a kid or adult, knowing how to code means job opportunities. Learn to code for free with these 8 essential resources.

Hello darlings! Just a few more days until I leave 3 Teacher Chick and launch my new blog That Teaching Spark. The blog still looks yucky and I am just waiting on the designer for some finishing touches! She has been awesome! Make sure to check back for some amazing gift card giveaways, TPT Product giveaways, and crafty giveaways! This post is an overview of the Word Study Program I use in third grade. Stick with me though, because you could do the same thing in your classroom, you just need some word lists. These pics will take you through the program step by step. It is a mash up of Words Their Way, Fountas and Pinnell, and Beth Newingham. Click the pic to get the entire program from my store! Wow! You stuck with me this far! You deserve a freebie! What program have you been using? Is it differentiated? Amy

"Peanuts and Popcorn" - a short story for kids. Fiction, 101 words. The story is followed by a reading comprehension worksheet. Free reading practice and comprehension exercises from K5 Learning; no login required.

Childhood Fears by Age As children grow they have different worries and fears. There are common childhood fears that tend to coincide with different stages of development. Below are the most common childhood fears by age. As with most things – this list isn’t exhaustive and some children will have different fears – or will have a

Children's Play SchemasIn case you need a recap on Play Schemas then I highly suggest you head to our blog 'What are Play Schemas?' before reading ahead.

Yes, ANOTHER free printable this week. I know, if I could pinch you from here I would; free stuff is so dreamy! This is a quick matching manners worksheet I made tonight as a supplement to a Manner…

We'd like to share this critical thinking skills cheatsheet for you to use with your students. Get them asking questions on any topic! Via Tom D'Amico (@TDOttawa)

Introducing Do Re Mi to kids in a visual, fun way to help them understand the notes of the scale and piano. First musical theory lesson for babies and young kids.

Marzano's 9 Instructional Strategies include non-linguistic representations, generating and testing hypotheses, and summarizing.

Tweet Welcome to the 40th installment of Monday Math Literature. If you missed last week's post about some of my favorite books for telling time, check it out here! I have recently been writing a lot about teaching money. I have shared some of my favorite activities for counting coins, you tube songs about money, a computer game and some money activities for morning meeting. Today I want to share with you a few great books about money! Bunny Money This book is part of the very popular Max and Ruby series and is a great addition to any collection. In this fantastic story, Ruby and Max want to buy their Grandma a birthday present. They keep spending their money and hope they have enough left to buy her something she is going to love! I love how this book talks about money and about the relationship between a Grandmother and her grandchildren. You Can't Buy a Dinosaur With a Dime I love how this book is written with rhymes and love the opportunities to talk about money. I also like how this story shows a kids saving his money up for something, thinking about buying it and rethinking his purchase. It is a great lesson for kids to learn in addition to how to count and work with money! Learning to save early is important! How the Second Grade Got $8,205.50 to Visit the Statue of Liberty This book is the most complex of the money books I use with young students but I love how it teachers a valuable lesson in financial literacy while at the same time being a great jumping off point for discussing money. The Coin Counting Book A must have for anyone who teachings coin values and counting American coins! Also great about this book is how they show different ways to make the same amounts of money. Really good, clear pictures make it easy to see even when used for whole group lessons. This set of number puzzles in one of my favorite ways to follow up with counting coins at math centers. What are your favorite money books? Please respond in the comments below! Check out these other ideas for teaching money! Teaching Math With You Tube Videos: Coins How Much Money? Counting Coins So Does Mine! Coin Identification A Game for Counting Quarters Counting Coins with Second Graders Fun and Free Computer Games: Coin Combo Number Puzzle Fun

See the complete catalogue of ALL our Professional Coaching Tools & Toolkits, Exercises, Forms and Templates - brandable and done-for-you!

Teaching kids how to be generous is a compilation of the activities and lessons that are found in my character building education series. It’s this time of year where we hear a lot of “I want…” statements from our kids. I would hate for Christmas time to be centered around teaching my kids to be...Read More

Teaching kids with autism about strangers is challenging. Visuals help them identify and appropriately interact with a variety of "safe" strangers.