Elijahjuan+Pennington

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 * Record of Assignments**
 * Name of Student:** Elijahjuan Pennington
 * Competition: the developmental strengths and pitfalls.**

** Pre-Adolescence **

** W : What you want to know (curiosities) **
Insert your inquiry questions 1. **Competition: the developmental strengths and pitfalls.**

** L : What you learned **
[Directions: First we will formulate RAR prompts for the four categories listed below (physical cognitive, emotional, and social). These prompts should relate back to your three curiosities listed above. Technologically speaking, add widget anchors here for easier reading, then delete instructions in the brackets]
 * 1) Physical
 * 2) Cognitive
 * 3) Emotional
 * 4) Social

** 1. Physical **
In relation to competition, reactions to pubertal changes play a huge role. In fact, the timing of the puberal changes can determine how it will affect ones life. For example, body image plays a big role in confidence and attitude. As it states on page 290, body language is a strong predictor of young people's self-esteem. But the negative effects of pubertal timing on body image and emotional adjustment are greatly amplified when accompanied by other stressors. In this case, competition could be one of those many stressors that can affect ones life. The importance of fitting in with peers combines most of the pubertal changes in my opinion. After reading the chapter, I realized that as a teacher you have to pay very close attention to every student you have because if one (or more) happens to be in the middle of these changes physically, then it may effect there performance with will alter the competition greatly because the student is unconsciously thinking about their appearance in relation to their peers instead of the task at hand.

** 2. Cognitive **
In relation to cognitive development, competition is risky. According to Piaget's concrete operational stage, thought is far more logical, flexible, and organized then it was in their earlier years (Pg 232). This makes competition risky inside certain classrooms. Since Piaget's concrete operational stage occurs from ages 7-11 it can be difficult to decide which students have surpassed the stage and others who have not. If a teacher decides to put a competition on all students but some haven't reached the operational stage, then the results of the competition may be wrong. Also, placing certain students that haven't reached the operational stage with students who have reached the stage can cause those students (ones not reaching the stage) to be categorized in groups by other children.

** 3. Emotional **
The section on "Peer Relations" helps me draw a slight connection between the text and my inquiry question. In this section, it states "Adolescent friendships are based on greater intimacy, mutual understanding, and loyalty and contain more self-disclosure. Girls' friendships place a greater emphasis on emotional closeness, boys' on shared activities and accomplishments." This can be an weakness in competition. If girls friendships place a greater emphasis on emotional closeness while boys place their emphasis on shared activities and accomplishment then placing boys and girls in the same competition can/should result in boys winning more often. This weakness can hinder having a competition with Adolescents because of the results. If girls are more emotionally connected, compared to guys, then some girls may not care for or even try to compete in a competition because they are emotionally un-attached to the competition. On the other hand, boys will not only compete to win, but they will compete to have a shared accomplishment to discuss with another guy. This shows me that competition can vary depending on gender.

** 4. Social **
Adolescent peer groups are organized into more intimate cliques, particularly important to girls, and crowds, which grant teenagers an identity within the larger social structure of the school. After reading the chapter, I believe that in order to use competition in schools you have to adjust to every classroom because every student may be different socially. If a student is present in one of these cliques or crowds they may be more inclined to succeed or fail in competition depending on their social peer group and the people within it. If a child is anti-social, he/she may be inclined to reject competition on varies levels. If the problem surfaces were a student is showing signs of depression, the most common psychological problem of the teenage years, then putting the student in a competition were they are more likely to fail then succeed is a dangerous choice. Thus, causing another concern in regard to competition in middle childhood.

** A. Site details: **



 * Name of site: Hughes Center High School
 * Link to site: http://hughesstem.cps-k12.org/
 * Contact person: Mary Ulrich (UC professor), Mrs. Miller (Hughes STEM Algebra instructor), on some occasions Mrs. Carpenter (Hughes STEM, STEM foundations instructor).

__** B. Describe your setting **__
I will be doing my observations at Hughes STEM HS. To be more descriptive, I will observe a 9th grade Algebra class. Mrs. Miller, the instructor of the class, is an African American lady that runs her class with complete dominance using competition in many different ways. Her classroom shows many different forms of competition that will be helpful to me on my education journey. Mrs. Miller's main form of competition is giving the students "Miller Bucks." Miller Bucks are only given to the students that receive A's on assignments and tests accordingly (I also seen her give one to a student that ran an errand for her outside the classroom). The students get the chance to use their "Miller Bucks" every other friday after taking an test when Mrs. Miller holds a 5 min action. Also, Mrs. Miller lets the students use their bucks to "buy out" a Detention or Thursday Night School that they received only by her. Overall, Mrs. Miller's classroom is the perfect place to help me gain information about the use competition in schools. Being in her classroom, I should be able to see the strenghs and downfalls that come with using competition in a school setting. Also, this observation site should help me identify areas that I should pay closer attention to while observing, such as competitive talk, etc.

__** C. Describe what you did at the site (free-write/journal formatting) **__
[insert here- minimum of 2 paragraphs]
 * __1st visit:__**

[insert here- minimum of 2 paragraphs]
 * __2nd visit:__**

[insert here- minimum of 2 paragraphs]
 * __3rd visit:__**

[insert here- minimum of 2 paragraphs]
 * __4th visit:__**

[insert here- minimum of 2 paragraphs]
 * __5th visit:__**

[insert here- minimum of 2 paragraphs]
 * __6th visit:__**

** Physical **
[insert here]

** Cognitive **
[insert text]

** Emotional **
[insert text]

** Social **
[insert text]

** 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.] [insert answer- minimum of 1 paragraph]
 * W : What you want to know (curiosities) **
 * 1. [insert question one]**

[insert answer- minimum of 1 paragraph]
 * 2. [insert question two]**

[insert answer- minimum of 1 paragraph]
 * 3. [insert question three]**

[insert answer here]
 * 4. What new questions emerge for you as a future teacher?**

Peer Review:
by Rachel Thrun

EJ, There is not much for me to review and suggest to you considering your wikki is not complete, but based off of you inquiry idea, on page 307 in the book it talks about schools minimizing compeition based on ability so middle school students are less likely to feel angry and depressed. I would take this into consideration when you think back to your observations and try to connect if you think this statement from the book is valid to what you observed.

Also here is an article I found for you that you might want to take a look at,.

I can provide further suggestions once your wikki is completed.