Blog 16: Answer 2

1.  What is your EQ?

What is the most significant factor in insuring the independence of a preschool special ed student by the age of five?
2.  What is your first answer? (In complete thesis statement format)

The most significant factor is to teach them an effective form of communication depending on what disability and/ or syndrome they may have.

3.  What is your second answer? (In complete thesis statement format)

The most significant factor is to challenge each student academically and make sure they are treated a individuals so they can learn at their own pace within the classroom setting.
4.  List three reasons your answer is true with a real-world application for each.

- children need to be challenged academically in order to advance levels. For example, when a student is being challenged to learn 3 words in sign language a week instead of two, they're already advancing at a more rapid pace.

-learning at your own pace is important within the early childhood development stages. A reason as to why that's true is because when young students feel like they're being left behind, they'll lose interest in the curriculum and become co-dependent on their teachers to do most of the work for them.

- in order for students to become independent, they must be at a certain level academically. For example, pre school special Ed students have to take a test individually at the end of the three years of preschool to determine whether or not their academic level of comprehension is high enough to be places in traditional courses.

5.  What printed source best supports your answer? 

Learning At A Steady Pace by Sam Triggens 
6.  What other source supports your answer?

My mentor

7.  Tie this together with a  concluding thought.

Honestly, this answer is not my best answer out of the two. It is very true that academic skills are just as important as social skills (such as communication: my answer 1) but I definitely think social skills may have the upper hand.

Independent component 2

For my independent component, i'm planning on continuing with my mentorship because I feel like I learn more about my topic observing in the classroom, than doing another activity outside of it. I volunteer at San Jose Elementary school on Fridays from 1-3 so in order to complete my hours, I will now start going twice a week starting next week (February 16, 2015). 

Independent Component 1

“I, Ilse Gutierrez, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.”

• I did 30 hours more of mentorship for my independent component.
• INTERPRETIVE 
  My mentorship teaches about my topic more than any article or book I could read.
• APPLIED
   Using mentorship for my independent component was beneficial to me because it helped me come up with my first answer. My first answer has to do with communication and within the classroom I volunteer in, observing my mentor, William Harper, I've come to realize that children don't learn how to communicate with one another on their own. It isn't always something that may come natural to young students. It's the teachers job to help them learn different, yet effective forms of communication and social skills.