Group Response Techniques Essay Example for Free

Group Response Techniques Essay Active student responding is a critical component of effective instruction in class room . One low tech strategy developed to facilitate active student responding during group instruction involves the use of response cards . Typically this approach involves the teacher asking questions during instruction and having each student write down his / her answers on the response cards and then display those responses for the teacher feedback and corrective action. This paper is to evaluate that response cards is a more effective group response technique than the hand raising technique and other techniques. During hand raising , a student who raised his/her hand is called upon to answer the question posed by the teacher . During response card techniques , each student is asked to display his/her answer on the response card provided to him/her . The frequency of active student response was higher with the response cards than the hand raising technique Introduction Group response techniques are those techniques through which a group of students or Participants can answer to a question rather than individually in a classroom activity or session. Students are considered to be actively engaged in a class room session when they respond in a group , and its a sign that they are likely to learn the material being taught to them . The teacher can observe the students response to get a immediate feedback about whether the majority of students in the class are able to truly understand the academic content . There are three group response techniques 1. Response Cards 2. Choral Response 3. Hand raising Response cards: In this technique students respond as a group by displaying their response cards which displays their answers to the question posed by the teacher. Choral response: In this technique the students in a class or group respond orally in unison to the question posed by the teacher . Hand raising: In this technique, the teacher asks the question before calling upon an individual student who raised his/her hand. Why only response cards is preferred ? The use of response cards is one strategy that has shown promising initial results for increasing the frequency of active student response and sequent academic achievements during large group instructions . Response cards are reusable cards held up simultaneously by each student to indicate his or her answer. In this paper we will study about response cards in comparison with hand raisings , We will be comparing the factors like: (a) frequency of active student response (b) accuracy of student responses (c) teacher presentation rate Response cards As told earlier, Response cards is one type of group response techniques in which students respond as a group by displaying response cards which displays their answers to the question posed by the teacher. There are two response card formats. 1. cards with pre printed response choices 2. cards on which students write their response The teacher should introduce response cards by explaining and demonstrating their use and importance , letting the students to practice the response procedure so that they get familiar and proficient in using them . The teacher should maintain a quick , lively pace through the lesson , providing clues to the students about when to use response cards appropriately. Some students may inevitably display a wrong answer, then the teacher/instructor should focus on and provide feedback for the majority response Performance feedback: In giving feedback, the teacher should give information about whether the majority class response is correct , and immediately provide the correct response and supporting explanation if a significant number of students answered incorrectly . Those items missed by many students should be presented again later in the lesson to ensure that students have learned the material after corrective feedback. The instructor should also praise students periodically for appropriate and prompt use of the group response format. Additionally, The teacher should acknowledge and validate answers that differ from the instructor’s but could still be considered correct. Survey A study has been conducted in fifth grade classroom in an elementary school . There were 13 boys and 11 girls in the class, five students were selected for observation after consultation with their regular teacher . The target 5 students have been divide into two groups of 3 and 2 students each (sometimes this type of division can be considered as triangulation) ,and the student in each group were observed on the alternating trails . The class room is equipped with an overhead projector and screen . The questions to be asked are screened on the screen using projector . Using projector and screen had made the process of questioning the students more easier than the conventional way of questioning. The study involves two sessions: 1. HAND RAISING TECHNIQUES SESSION During Hand raising sessions the teacher poses a set of questions to the students, one of the students who raise their hand is called upon to give the response. In this technique only one student is involved in giving the response while the other students sit idle in the class . The teacher provides a praise for each correct response (e. g. , â€Å"Excellent [student’s name] ,The sun is a star. †) and a corrective feedback for incorrect response(e. g. ,† No, the answer is the sun, The sun is a star. †) The feedback procedure controls the number of times the students write/hear the correct answer to each instruction. 2. RESPONSE CARD SESSION Presentation and question asking procedures during the response card sessions were identical to those during the Hand raising sessions. For each student a laminated card is provided on which he/she has to write his/her response to the teachers question. After visually scanning all of the response cards held up by the students, the teacher provides a praise or a corrective feedback. If every one’s response in the class is correct the teacher addresses the feedback to whole class(e. g. , â€Å"Good class, water vapor in the atmosphere is a gas. †) and if some of the student responses are wrong the teacher addresses a feedback to the class (e. g. , â€Å" I see that many of you have gas as the answer . That is correct. Water vapor in atmosphere is gas. â€Å") and if no one gives correct response the teacher addresses a corrective feedback to the class ( e. g. , â€Å" I don’t see the correct answer . The correct answer is gas . Water vapor in atmosphere is a gas. †). As in Hand raising phases the feedback procedure controls the number of times the students write/hear the correct answer to each instruction in response card phase also . Results of the study During HR (hand raising) ,the average number of times the target student raised his/her hand was 9. 9 . The number of responses by the target student during HR averaged 1. 5 per session (the period of questioning) , when RC (response cards) were used , each target student responded to the teacher’s question an average of 21. 8 times per session, that’s a 14 fold increase . Overall, the students as a group orally responded 53 times to 1,103 questions posed in Hand raising phase and 68 times to 1,103 questions posed in the response card phase. So the frequency of the active students response was determined to be higher with response cards than with Hand raising technique. The accuracy of student responses during HR and RC are 92% and 93% respectively. Problems associated with response card techniques Q. When we use response cards in a class , we may notice that some students copy the responses from their neighbors’ cards instead of thinking of their own answers. What should we do then? Response cards provide children with a means of getting actively involved in the lesson. Therefore, children should not be discouraged from looking at each others cards, even if they appear to be copying the response of other students . Rather, the teacher should interpret this student behavior as a possible sign that the child may be confused about the task or may not yet have a firm grasp on the material being presented. In their instance, the instructor can make arrangements to provide the child with additional instruction and guidance as needed . Another problem associated with response cards is , the student may not be very sure of the spellings in his/ her response , so sometimes they try to hide their response instead of showing them up . So students shouldn’t be charged against such kind of mistakes. It should be made clear well before the question is posed that they wouldn’t be held against for such kind of mistakes . Instead ,their answers should be validated in spite of any spelling or grammatical mistakes . And in order to reduce the spelling difficulties , the instructor could : (1) Have students ‘pre practice’ the spelling of new vocabulary words prior to the lesson . (2) Post unfamiliar spelling terms on the board/ screen for students to refer to as they write their responses. (3) Encourage students to try their best in spelling their responses but reassure them that misspellings will not be counting against them. Discussions 1) Response cards allow the teacher to teach facts and definitions more effectively than any other group response techniques. 2) The rate of students’ academic content learning ability is more in RC than other techniques . 3) This technique is more reliable in increasing the frequency of active student response. 4) Response cards are less disruptive and stays more on task unlike hand raising technique. 5) The disadvantage of not being called upon in hand raising techniques is not present in response cards. So every student gets involved in the class. 6) There is more fun involved in this technique than the other techniques , so students will actively participate in the class instead of sitting idle . Response card techniques is replicable by any teacher as it involves no difficulty in implementing it in the class rooms. In fact they provide better results than other group response techniques . But the teachers shouldn’t handle the students in a rigor manner . Strictness , Harshness, Severity should be ruled out while dealing with students. Students preferences During the end of the study, personal interviews are conducted for students and many students said they preferred response card over hand raising as the response card helped them in learning more academic content than Hand raising did. Conclusion The study has proved that the use of response cards is most effective than other group response techniques because it has got more advantages than the other techniques illustrated in the paper and also it helps the students in increasing the learning ability , and makes more students to involve in the class room sessions more actively. References Heward. W. L (1996). Three low tech strategies for increasing the frequency of active student response during group instruction In R. Gardner ,D. M. Sainato,J. OCooper,T. E. Heron,W. L. Heward,J. W. Eshelman,T. A. Grossi (Eds) Behavior analysis in education :focus on measurably superior instruction(pp. 283-320). Pacific Grove ,CA:Brooks/Cole Journal of applied behavior analysis, 1994, spring ,R. Gardner, W. L. Heward, T. A. Grossi Teaching of psychology, Taylor and Francis group, Routledge publishers Meta analysis and research on response cards: Effects on test achievements, Randolph journal of positive behavior interventions. 2007,9:113-238

Capital Punishment: The Best Solution Essay -- Death Penalty

Capital Punishment is defined as the legal infliction of the death penalty. The death penalty is corporal punishment in its most severe form and is used instead of life long imprisonment. Putting people to death that have committed extremely terrible crimes is an ancient practice, but it has become a very controversial issue in today's society. Capital punishment has been used for centuries, even the Bible contains over thirty stories or incidents about a person put to death for a crime they committed. Public executions stopped after 1936. The death penalty has been inflicted in many different ways. Today in the United States, there are five ways that the death penalty is performed. These criminals are put to death by a lethal injection, electrocution, lynching, a firing squad, or the gas chamber. These punishments are much less severe than the forms of execution in the past. In the past, people were executed by crucifixion, boiling in oil, drawing and quartering, impalement, beheadi ng, burning alive, crushing, tearing, stoning, and even drowning. The methods used today compared to those of history are not meant for torture but instead for punishment for heinous crimes and to rid the earth of these dangerous people. The majority of America supports the death penalty. There are many reasons why capital punishment is a good thing, and should be enforced and used more. First off, capital punishment is a good thing because it deters crime. For example, in the 1960s while the number of executions was decreasing, the homicide rate was increasing. As execution started to increase, statistics show that the homicide rate slowly decreased or stayed the same, but it did not increase. Fear of death deters people from committing crime. The... ...ling do not deserve to live in our society. The death penalty is a sever penalty for severe crimes. Capital punishment is essential for a stable and safe society. No executed murderer has ever killed again. No one can say that about the criminals sentenced for time in prison. Work Cited Good News Bible: Todays English Version.. American Bible Society. New York. 1996. Web. 26 May 2015. https://www.biblegateway.com/versions/Good-News-Translation-GNT-Bible/ Works Consulted Death Penalty Focus (2015). Facts. Web. 8 June 2015. http://www.deathpenalty.org/index.php?pid=facts Eddlem, T. R. (2004). Ten Anti-Death Penalty Fallacies.The New American. 2002. Web. 10 June 2015. http://www.thenewamerican.com/tna/2002/06-03-2002/vo18no11_fallacies.htm Pro-Death Penalty (2014). Death Penalty Paper. Web. 8 June 2015. http://www.prodeathpenalty.com/DP.html

Climate Change Mitigation

Climate change mitigation is the action to reduce the intensity of radiative forcing in order to reduce the effects of global warming (IPCC, 2006). Climate change mitigation can be done through several means such as developing alternative energy which includes renewable and nuclear energy, decreasing the carbon intensity of fossil fuel through carbon capture and sequestering, reforestation and also simply by conserving energy.Based on the cost-benefit analysis of each methods, I believe that the effectiveness and practically of each methods can be ranked, in decreasing order, as such – (1) Reducing energy use by conservation (2) Developing renewable energy (3) Carbon capture and sequestering (4) Building more nuclear power plant and lastly (5) Reforestation. The most cost effective and practical way to mitigate climate change is through conservation of energy. Energy conservation encompasses using less energy, for example through behavioural change and using energy efficient i nnovations and designs.Energy conservation focuses on reducing our dependence on fossil fuels thus lowering the amount of carbon emissions generated by human activities. Unlike the other mitigation methods, energy conservation usually does not require huge investment cost and in the long run can also bring about cost savings to both the individuals and organisations. For instance, by switching from using CFLs to LED lights, one can experience a 100% annual cost savings as the annual operating cost of CFLs is twice that of the annual operating cost of LED lights (Design Recycle Inc, 2011).Energy conservation is also the most practical way for us to fight against climate change because it enables us to reduce our resource inputs to the economy, thus, it ensures that the non-renewable resources available will be able to support human activities for a longer period of time. Despite being the most cost-effective and practical way for climate change mitigation, it is definitely not an eas y task to effect energy conservation programs. Strict government regulations will have to be enforced to ensure that every organisation comply with ‘green standards’.Educational programs and price signals (high electricity cost) will have to be in place to bring about a behavioural change amongst every individual for successful energy conservation. Developing renewable energy ranks next after energy conservation in terms of its effectiveness and practicality. In 2006, about 19% of the global electricity is generated from renewable sources such as hydropower, wind and solar-generated energy (REN21, 2006). This indicates the effectiveness in developing renewable energy as it is able to contribute a reasonable amount of electricity to supplement human activities.Furthermore, the development of renewable energy as an alternative form of energy can help to reduce our dependence on fossil fuel, hence, reducing carbon emissions in the long run. However, developing renewable en ergy pales in terms practically as it often requires huge investment cost yet the amount of energy that can be generated is often variable and less efficient as compared to combusting fossil fuels. For instance, installation of a highly efficient solar cell can cost more than $1000, and some households may need more than one solar cell.This makes the initial installation of solar panels very costly and solar panels are only able to generate electricity during daylight hours. This means for around half of each day, solar panels are not producing energy for your home (Clean Energy Ideas, 2007). Hence, it may not be very practical to focus on developing renewable energy so as to mitigate climate change. However, it is definitely important to continue developing and finding new ways to improve on the current renewable energy technology so that renewable energy can be more affordable and reliable in the near future.Although carbon capture and sequestering (CCS) do not help to reduce our dependence on fossil fuel, it is however still effective in reducing climate change. It is estimated that CCS could contribute between 10% and 55% of the cumulative worldwide carbon-mitigation effort over the next 90 years (Robinson, 2010). Though it requires up to 40% more energy to run a CCS coal power plant than a regular coal plant, CCS could potentially capture about 90% of all the carbon emitted by the plant.As of late 2011, the total Carbon Dioxide storage capacity of all 14 projects in operation or under construction is broadly equivalent to preventing the emissions from more than six million cars from entering the atmosphere each year (Global CCS Institute, 2011). This indicates the effectiveness of CCS in reducing the impact of human activities on the environment as large amounts of our outputs can be captured and stored safely to prevent emission back to the atmosphere.However, unlike the first two options of energy conservation and developing renewable energy, CCS may no t be effective in the long run as it does not reduce our dependence on burning fossil fuel. Due to the huge investment costs involved in building CCS operations, less developed countries may not be able to afford such technologies. Therefore, it will be a more practical option for developed countries to adopt so as to reduce their carbon emissions contributed by industrial activities.Despite the effectiveness of nuclear power plants in generating energy for human activities, it is not a very practical option to build more nuclear power plants due to safety concerns. The fact that nuclear power plants currently supply around 15% of the world’s electricity illustrates the effectiveness of the project. In countries like France where 75% of their electricity is derived from nuclear power plants (World Nuclear Association, 2013), constant development and improvement of nuclear power plants is inevitable.However, developing more nuclear power plants may not a practical way to help mitigate climate change despite its ability to help reduce our dependence on burning fossil fuels. First, developing nuclear power plants requires high investment which includes the construction cost, operation cost, and also the cost of plant decommissioning and nuclear waste storage cost. Second, nuclear power plants are susceptible to natural disasters, military attacks and operational error.For example, the tsunami in Fukushima Japan has led to the meltdown of the reactors which caused chemical explosions to occur, releasing radioactive materials into the environment (CBS News, 2011). Nuclear power plants have also become a potential target for military attacks as illustrated by the frequent bombings of nuclear power plants in the Middle East region (Sovacool, 2011). Such nuclear accidents can have a long term effect on the organisms living in vicinity of the nuclear power plants. As such, taking into account the probability of occurrence of such accidents, it is not practical f or countries to develop more nuclear power plants.Reforestation ranks last in terms of effectiveness and practically. Although reforestation facilitates biosequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide and rebuilds habitat for organisms at the same time, it is however, impractical for reforestation to be carried out in large scale. First, as many countries move towards urbanization, it is unlikely that sufficient space will be available for reforestation to be conducted at a scale that can bring about a tangible reduction in atmospheric carbon dioxide. Second, reforestation requires long term investment as it takes time for the plants and trees to grow.At the rate at which human activities generates carbon emissions, reforestation will be ineffective in capturing carbon dioxide at a comparable rate that can decrease the level of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Instead of reforestation, avoiding deforestation will be a more feasible way and effective way to mitigate climate change. In conc lusion, to effectively mitigate climate change, proposals need to look at either reducing our carbon emissions by decreasing our dependence on burning fossil fuel or clearing up the carbon emissions which we have emitted to the atmosphere.In the long run, proposals that can reduce our dependence on burning fossil fuel will be a more effective method as it reduces the amount of carbon emissions to the atmosphere, hence, energy conservation and developing renewable energy is ranked as the top two means to mitigate climate changes. Although carbon capture does not reduce our dependence on fossil fuel, it nevertheless is an effective way in the short run, for us to store carbon emissions before we can develop cheaper ways to harness renewable energy and before we can successful implement energy conservation programs.Due to the safety concerns related to developing nuclear power plants, such developments need to be exercise with caution. Countries should also look at imposing laws to avo id deforestation rather than carrying out reforestation projects that may not be as effective and practical in mitigating climate changes. Works Cited CBS News. (2011, May 14). Worker dies at damaged Fukushima nuclear plant. Retrieved March 20, 2013, from CBS News: http://www. cbsnews. com/stories/2011/05/14/501364/main20062987. shtml Clean Energy Ideas. (2007). Pros and Cons of Solar Energy. Retrieved March 19, 2013, from Clean Energy Ideas: http://www. lean-energy-ideas. com/articles/pros_and_cons_of_solar_energy. html Design Recycle Inc. (2011). Comparison Chart. Retrieved March 13, 2013, from Design Recycle Inc: http://www. designrecycleinc. com/led%20comp%20chart. html Global CCS Institute. (2011). The Global Status of CCS: 2011. Canberra, Australia: Global CCS Institute. IPCC. (2006). Glossary. Retrieved March 13, 2013, from Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: http://www. ipcc. ch/pdf/glossary/ar4-wg3. pdf REN21. (2006). Changing Climates, The role of renewable energy i n carbon-constrained world. REN21. Robinson, S. (2010, January 22). Cutting Carbon: Should We Capture and Store

Why I Choose The Army - 1356 Words

The Career I want is to be in the military. The branch I choose is U.S Army. The reason I choose the Army is because the Special Forces they have are more appealing than the Marine Corp, or the Navy. The Army has; the Green Beret, the Rangers, and the one I want to join: 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment - Delta, this branch is more commonly known as Delta Force. The U.S Army has a ton of different jobs with the Army, there is; Infantry Branch, Military Police Branch, Air Defense Artillery Branch, Military Intelligence Branch, and a lot more. My choice of job is to go Active Duty. Active Duty is a full time job, my initial goal is to join U.S Army Infantry. I would have to through Infantry School, a 14 week program, that†¦show more content†¦Being physically in shape will need to be a major priority. Basic Training will easier if I do as much conditioning, running and stretching before I participate in Basic Training. Playing sports will be crucial if I want to get the best possible shape before Basic. Right know I am currently playing Rugby Sevens and Fifteens, there is a lot of conditioning involved in rugby. From running barks, pitches, suicides, bodybuilder suicides, tackling drills, holding defensive positions, scrimmages, rucks, scrum practice, and many more. In order to join the Infantry I have to have to score of minimum score of 87. Basic Combat Training consists of three phases; Phase One - Red, Phase Two - White, Phase Three - Blue, and finally Graduation. Basic is a Ten Week program, during Red Phase recruits are given haircuts and uniforms, learn about Nuclear Biological and Chemical Defense, they do rappelling at the confidence tower, recruits learn about Army Heritage and The Seven Army Core Values which consist of: Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity, and Personal Courage. These values are the makeup of the mental and physical effort that military personnel put into keeping America safe and secure. Warrior Ethos - I am an American Soldier. I am a Warrior and a member of a team. I serve the people of the United States, and live the Army Values. I will always place the mission first. I will never accept defeat. I will never quit. I will never leave a fallen