Piaget TIPR

Current Teacher Behaviors

1. During this narrative writing unit, the teacher introduces disequilibrium by asking further probing questions about a decently well-known concept (like what dialogue is). Students can explain on their own that dialogue is when different characters speak to each other, so they already have that knowledge accommodated. But when he asks how dialogue is formatted (using indents, apostrophes, adding detailed descriptors after the dialogue to explain how it is said or what the character saying it is doing, etc), students enter a state of disequilibrium. Students can accommodate the use of apostrophes since it's very familiar to them from the early grades of school. We help the students assimilate the new information by employing concrete examples. The teacher had two students come to the front and assigned them a character from the dialogue projected on the board, which spoke to the concrete operational stage. Each role was highlighted a separate color, and descriptors were in a third color. Students could visually see their role and how they should speak their dialogue/what actions they should do. As students were turned to their worksheets to begin writing their own characters dialogue, they could abstractly place themselves in the roles of the characters, helping them assimilate the new concepts of grammatical format and descriptors through formal operations. Some still used the concrete by highlighting their lines similar to the example given during instruction.

Student Needs

2. I thought the highlighting of the dialogue scene and acting it out was a great use of concrete operations to aid with adaptation. I did notice that several kids didn't pay attention to the two exemplar students acting the scene out at the front, and those kids were the ones who were the most confused when they were turned loose to write their own scenes. A concrete operations activity that involved more students could be beneficial, since the students have succeeded the most on assignments that required a more hands-on approach to abstract thinking. Without a framework/visual aid to guide them through the abstract processes of writing, they seem to get easily confused and unable to complete the writing tasks. 

Plans for your Lesson

3. As I mentioned in my Assessment TIPR, I'm going to introduce a visual formative assessment to my lesson on characterization. Since the concept deals with a lot of abstractions (ie traits and characteristics about characters that students are making up out of thin air), having a concrete framework that requires students to answer straightforward questions about their characters personality and characteristics with brief answers should help them later when they have to deal with that characters worldview/perspective. They'll have their questionnaire along with a crude visual representation that they drew so they can see the character in their minds eye and begin fleshing out their perspective on the big issue their story will center around.