Mary E. Brown, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Information Science
Brown@SouthernCT.edu
Resources for Students:
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UNIT 2
UNIT 2 READING ASSIGNMENT
Today you are to read in Butler at least one fantasy found on pp. 23-55
UNIT 2 LECTURE
Today we will briefly cover Erikson's Psychosocial Crisis Theory and Piaget's Cognitive Stage Theory
Erikson's PSYCHOSOCIAL CRISIS THEORY
A neo-Freudian theory which moved away from Freudıs biological approach and considered the vast influence of society on development
Infancy (0-1-1/2) -- Trust vs. Mistrust
- If the balance is weighted toward trust (of others and self), the child will have a better chance of weathering later crises, otherwise the child may be frustrated, withdrawn, suspicious, and lacking in self-confidence.
- Some distrust is necessary to detect impending danger or discomfort and to discriminate between honest and dishonest people.
Early Childhood (1-1/2-3) -- Autonomy vs. Doubt
- Children are involved in a struggle to be an independent self and yet not to cut this self off from others, especially parents, whose support they still need.
- Play is important and it allows them a means for developing autonomy within their own set of rules.
- Children become more aware of older children and adults other than their parents.
- Parent are the most important "other" and law and order is dominant in terms of social order that prevails.
Middle Childhood (3-6) -- Initiative vs. Guilt
- Children are increasingly expected to be responsible for themselves and for their toys and other possessions.
- The child develops a realization that oneıs behavior may be in opposition to the behavior of others.
- Children learn to understand through questioning.
- Children play in solitary daydreaming and play act life crises with other children.
Late Childhood (7-11) -- Industry vs. Inferiority
- Children are determined to master tasks that are set for them; they learn to work together with other children toward a common goal; they are almost constantly engaged in activities that allow them to practice skills the culture requires of them.
- Inferiority comes when the child cannot show that he or she is competent; the child is constantly measuring themselves against their peers.
Adolescence (11 & up) -- Identity vs. Role Diffusion
- The focus of this age is a search for identity (personal and cultural); the development of identity is linked with skill mastery. Inner demands often run counter to outer demands, leading to diffusion and some instability.
- This age child is close with parents but friction over parent-control vs. independence. This group joins gangs and in-groups.
Cognitive Stage Theory (Piaget)
Trained as a biologist, Piaget based his theory on observation and classification of behaviors. Piaget views intellect and affect as always together--believing that human emotion, or affect, evolves from the same primary processes as cognitive development. Two overriding interests in Piagetıs work are: 1) what are the characteristics of children that enable them to adapt to their environment; and 2) what is the simplest, most accurate, and most useful way of classifying or ordering child behavior.
Much of Piaget's thinking is based on four kinds of operations:
- Assimilation--as a child notes new information about the environment, the new information is assimilated into existing thinking. [schemata]
- Accommodation--when new information cannot be assimilated, the child modifies existing thought structures [schemata] to incorporate the new experiences.
- Conservation--the child is able to deal with the difference between appearances and reality. That is, the child is able to make inferences about the real characteristics that underlie appearances rather than base judgments on surface characteristics. Example: the amount or quantity of a matter stays the same regardless of any changes in an irrelevant dimension.
- Reversibility--the child can follow a line of reasoning back to where it started
Piaget's COGNITIVE STAGE THEORY
Infancy [birth-appearance of language, @ 2 yrs.] -- Sensorimotor Intelligence
- This period is concerned with coordinating movement and action.
- The focus is on self-satisfaction of basic needs (food, warmth, companionship) and discovery of the physical self.
Period of pre-operational thought
- Early Childhood [2-4] Pre-conceptual phase
- Children are busy discovering the environment.
- Play centers on how and why. Activities that seem like fantasy to adults are realistic to these children.
- The child often explain things that happen by giving life to inanimate objects, e.g. "The fire truck tripped me."
- Middle Childhood [4-7] Intuitive phase
- Children begin to use language successfully to verbalize their mental activities and they are better able to generalize what they experience.
- A shift from being egocentric (³Itıs me²) to "I see whatıs happening."
- The child is becoming able to react realistically to the environment and is able to project his or her self into other roles and think in term of other people.
- The child is beginning to recognize the differences between how things look and how they really are. (Classic examples are different shaped containers holding the same volume of liquid; and two rows of the same/different number of objects spaced differently:
Late Childhood [7-11] Period of concrete operations
- Children are able to work through a problem so that they combine performance with a verbal explanation or an attempt to reason out the problem.
- Concepts of time are more fully developed so that ideas about the past, even historical past, become real and important.
- The child begins to move beyond one-dimensional thinking and is able to relate one event to a system of interrelated parts, for example, from a beginning to an end and vice versa, suggesting the beginning of the ability to handle flashbacks and of thinking in terms of the future.
- The child begins to internalize moral values.
- In the later part of this stage (about 9-11 years) the child is very interested in examining the rules that govern their lives, including questioning traditional ways of operating, and what happens when conventional wisdom is questioned.
Adolescence [11-15] Period of formal operations
- The young person is able to think beyond immediate experiences and to theorize about a wide variety of things.
- The young person develops the ability to apply formal logic to abstract constructions and to experiences which represent an ideal and may be contrary to fact.
- The child is able to assume a point of view, to think beyond the present, and to formulate theories about physical and social aspects of life.
- The child is moving from stereotypical thinking to greater ability to understand and empathize with others and to be more aware of their relationships within the family and within the community.
UNIT 2 WRITING ASSIGNMENT
Today you are to do a Type Two writing
Relate what comes knocking in the Scottish rhyme "Last night, the night before" and the outcome of answering the door. What example might this rhyme set for a child in 2003.
RECALL, Type Two writings make a point -- have a correct answer or content. One draft.
DUE IN UNITS 3 and 4 (but start on this today)
Type Three/Four:
Toys and Games
1. Assignment:
Now that we have finished reading an essay on toys and games as well as a number of rhymes and stories, your job is to put the information you have to use. This assignment requires you to imagine yourself as a comic book writer. Your assignment from the publisher is to write a 300 to 350 word description of the use of toys and games in children's literature to be used to accompany drawings showing a dialogue between two character: a young child about age 6-10 and an animal (stuffed, live, or come-to-life). The editor has reminded you that the purpose of this issue of the comic book is to give young people solid information they can understand and that will not confuse them; therefore, you must have solid information that is easy to understand.
2. Purpose:
Practical/Informative. You are to write clearly, providing information that will help a sixth, seventh, or eighth grader understand the use of toys and games in stories are and why they are important. .
3. The Writer:
You will be writing as if you were a comic book writer, writing a new educational comic for middle school English classes.
4. Audience:
Students in grades six, seven, or eight.
5. Form:
Conversation (dialogue or monologue), no more than 350 words for Type Three and no more than 500 words for Type Four.
6. FCAs:
- Describe the use of toys and games in childrenıs stories and why they are important (40)
- No excess words; write with nouns and verbs (30)
- No long, confusing sentences; no groups of short, monotonous sentences (30)
7. Procedure:
- Review your notes to determine if you feel you have enough information to describe, generally, various uses of toys and games in childrenıs stories and why they are important. If you feel you need more information, you can interview classmates and/or do research in the instructor's website or in the library.
- Write a Type Three essay, DUE IN UNIT 3 THREADED DISCUSSION.
- After you have entered your Type Three writing, read the entry immediately before yours and make suggestions for improving the writing, based on the focus correction areas (FCAs). [First person will need to read the last entry.] The Type Four essay is DUE IN UNIT 4 THREADED DISCUSSION. Upload your writings to the Peer Editing / Threaded Discussion for the day due. Remember to make comments promptly on classmates' writings so they can be used in rewriting to the Type Four assignment. Type Four writings are expected to be a substantial improvement over the Type Three assignment.
RECALL that a Type Three writing is a writing that has content and focus correction areas. It is read out loud and reviewed by the author who then asks three critical questions: Does it complete the assignment? Is it easy to read? Does it fulfill the requirements set by the focus correction areas? One draft.
A Type Four writing is a Type Three writing that has been read out loud and critiqued by another person. Two drafts.
UNIT 2 QUIZ ON LECTURE
See WebCT
UNIT 2 PEER EDITING
After you relate what comes knocking in the Scottish rhyme "Last night, the night before," read the entry immediately before yours. Reduce it to no more than 3 lines. Use mainly nouns and verbs.
On this class site, every effort has been made to acknowledge the work of others. Any omission is unintentional. If anyone finds an oversight, please contact me at brown@southernct.edu immediately so that any error can be corrected.
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