Birth Order

For my Human Growth and Development class I have chosen to do my final research project on the significance that a child's birth order in a family may play in the role of shaping his/her academic success/IQ, and personality/behavior. What I have found thus far, I have found to be very interesting. I won't share all of the info I have collected and the specific characteristics which professionals have found for each scenario (i.e. the older brother of one sister, and the older sister of three brothers) because there are too many, but I thought some of the general info might be interesting and ties into some things we have talked about in EDEE-510 as well as other courses.

We have learned that parents play a huge role in shaping a child on a multidimensional level, in areas like developmental learning, social skills, and physical development. Before starting my research, I didn't realize the major impact siblings play in shaping each other and who they become. Studies on birth order have been done in correspondence to many fields, such as medicine, sociology, psychology, education, anthropology, history, economics, and biology. This subject of interest has also been around for quite a long time. Some things that I think are important from this research to realize are that research has not proven that birth order, effects a child's IQ, however, it has shown that birth order is a significant factor in determining the achievement of a child. What researchers have discovered is that the first born tend to be more successful academically, get higher grades in school, and on average are more successful in their careers later in life, which has been determined based on their annual salaries and net worth. At the same time they have proven that siblings from the same family generally have similar, if not the same IQ's as one another. The reason then for the higher achievement of the first-borns? Research has suggested there to be a number of causes that may lend themselves to possible explanations: first-borns are put under more pressure by parents to succeed; first-borns are more driven and accept the same values as their parents as they spent the most time with their parents early on, and also the most attention; first-borns are both more often conservative and conformists when compared to later born; first-borns feel the need to prove themselves and "regain" the focus and affection of their parents that the later born has taken away from them; firstborns tend to be more motivated and are used to the role of leadership and as a responsible role model for the later born; and finally the first born has on average a slightly more developed vocabulary due the fact they spent more one on one time with their parents at an early age, and were exposed to only their parents speech shaping, whereas the later born, had to share time with parents and were also exposed to the firstborn's vocabulary patterns part of the time.

On the other hand, one way the later born have proven to benefit from their birth order, is both socially and athletically. The later born have spent more time around a larger peer group, such as siblings (especially if from a large family). They are more empathetic and socially concerned with the world around them. They tend to be more creative as well, and more connected emotionally. You may think that an older child is more emotionally "connected" because they are much more verbal and temperamental (on avg.), but the younger child is more interested in learning to communicate, interact, and work with others. This may be one reason they tend to succeed more athletically, which is to say they are better equipped to be a team player and enjoy sports more. Also research has suggested that because they tend to not be able to compete with the first born or older siblings verbally and intellectually (especially early on because the gaps between developmental stages are much bigger) and so they try and "out-do" their older sibling physically.

Family size, age spacing, and gender of the child in relation to the gender(s) of the other sibling(s) also play an important role in the equation. One thing that research has long proven is that the larger the family, and therefore, as one more child is added and then another, that as "we" move down the "pecking order" the child exhibits the common characteristics of a young(est/er) child, and as "we" move up the "pecking order" the oldest child tends hold more of the traits of the firstborn. In regards to the spacing within siblings, meaning the age gaps between the birth of one child to the next, the smaller the gap, the more intense the competition and rivalry is, especially for the parents' affection.

I would have never thought to consider this as an important factor as a teacher, but I now know that for certain kids' and families’ birth order does play an important role in a child's development, and how they see themselves in relations to others. It effects their motivation, self esteem, learning style, behavior, and personality. All of these characteristics of a child take on significance in a classroom, and are a huge part of the child's identity. I therefore believe it is important for the teacher to understand the home life of each child, beyond just the parents, in order to understand the student better, and help them to achieve, capitalizing on their strengths and weaknesses, to the best of their ability. It may also help solve classroom problems between children or understand why certain situations may arise. Common strengths and weaknesses as result of birth order are also discussed in much of my research, going into more depth, order and gender scenarios, and other circumstances. What I have learned, may not always be true, but it has fit what I know to be true from my own life experience and the family dynamics of others who are close to me. It has been VERY accurate and therefore the reasearch may be a possible tool for teachers and parents alike.

My Third Grade Experience

I decided to write some about my own personal experience of being in third grade, since this past Monday we were unable to do our fieldwork because of a teacher development day. I figure it might be helpful to try and remember activities that I enjoyed that I could alter or incorporate pieces of into my lesson plans...

I went to pre-school in West Granby CT, and then my family moved to Orinda, CA (northern) right before I started kindergarten. I went to school there from Kindergarten through high school. I was very lucky because it had a great public school system, but at the same time, very aggressive and demanding parents, so I am sure it is a difficult district in which to teach. I went to elementary school at Glorietta Elementary School, which was one of three elementary schools in our town. I have very fond memories of both my pre-school and elementary school experience, especially specifically the third grade.

For me, third grade was when everything I had learned and was learning, started to "click." A huge part of this was because of my teacher, Mrs. Lowery. She was very personable and very creative in her methods of teaching. Art has always been something I love and I consider myself a very visual learner and therefore her style of teaching really worked with me and I was able to relate to her. However, she was an amazing teacher because she somehow found a way to connect with every student. I honestly do not know one student who didn't like her. She challenged us, was kind, we did interesting and fun projects, and most importantly we learned a ton!

Some of my favorite projects in the third grade where the crayfish study we did, where we observed crayfish and make observations of their habitat, their physical changes, and their behavior/interaction with others. We did this by drawing and writing about them. In math I believe we did long division and multiplication and I can literally remember and picture the day and where I was sitting on the carpet, when the light bulb went on for me in math. From that point on, I felt like math was strength. It's strange how one day you can be learning but not entirely confident with yourself about yourself in a subject matter, and then the next be very comfortable and start to enjoy a subject. I think that was another great thing about this teacher, in that she made the things we did really fun, and made us enjoy learning and everyone was more motivated and wanted to learn. We were much more self-motivated.

Strangely, I can also remember every book that Mrs. Lowery read out loud to us and to this day many of them remain my favorites. Some of the books included: “Witches”, “Matilda”, and the “Wolves of Willaby Chase”. Mrs. Lowery would read to us out loud every day for about a half hour to 45 minutes, while we all sat on the carpet. She was a great story-teller because really spoke with enthusiasm, energy, enunciated, and even incorporated character voices. In third grade I struggled with reading and it was my third grade teacher who took action with about 3 or four of us who had been with a brand new teacher in the first grade and the school believed we had not been prepared, or sufficiently taught what we needed for a strong foundation. She was so nice to me and really careful with how she handled the situation. She made it very private and made sure not to embarrass any of us. We all improved because of a special tutoring session we did after school. I think I went from a 2nd grade reading level to a 4th/5th grade reading level by the time I was done. It is amazing how simple skills you learn in reading can make a huge impact on the overall level. For example simple decoding skills, and reading comprehension. And all of these can affect the students self confidence in reading, and in learning in general.

I think the teacher's role is most important in enjoying one grade from the next and in shaping your future success as a student, especially early on. I can remember more about my favorite teachers in elementary school (Kindergarten: Mrs. Burch, Third Grade: Mrs. Lowery, and 5th grade: Mr. Roberts) than any of the actual projects we did, and why I specifically liked those grades so much. To me this infers that the teacher and the things they do to "hook a child" onto learning, and to get them engaged in what they are learning is by far the most important aspect of learning.

We also did many art projects that were related to the things we did in other subjects, which was a nice way to tie art in. Every Friday afternoon she took us outside, with a separate PE time (other than the one we had twice a week with the specified PE teacher. We also had a music teacher we went to twice a week, a drama teacher once a week, and art was taught by the main teacher.) It was fun for us to get to do something outside the classroom with our teacher that involved gross motor skills and moving around, especially on a Friday afternoon. We played games like capture the flag, dodge ball, kickball, etc. I remember that Mr. Lowery would even get involved when we played games like dodge ball.

 

And besides the fact that I am aware that I have gotten too carried away with this post, I am also aware that plenty of things have changed since I was in third grade, not to mention the fact that I went to school across the country in the west and up north. I look forward to seeing what things may be similar and what things are different through my field work. I think the teacher's role is most important in enjoying one grade from the next and in shaping your future success as a student, especially early on. It's quite apparent to me as to why I chose early childhood education, and one of those reasons in because it was my personal favorite time that I spent in school, where with the right teacher a child will come to class every day looking forward to learning and being part of the classroom community. In fact, the two grades I think I might want to teach (as of this point, with the little experience I have) happen to be kindergarten and third grade, two grades in which I had amazing teachers. I can remember more about my favorite teachers in elementary school (Kindergarten: Mrs. Burch, Third Grade: Mrs. Lowery, and 5th grade: Mr. Roberts) than any of the actual projects we did, and why I specifically liked those grades so much. To me this infers that the teacher and the things they do to "hook a child" onto learning, and to get them engaged in what they are learning is by far the most important aspect of learning. And the word, "hook" may not be appropriate, but I feel like once a child is excited about the idea of learning and has realized what they can accomplish, that child has got a pretty good foundation set, and is much more likely to have a positive learning attitude toward learning throughout the remainder of their education.

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Reflections on ECDC's 4's and Kindergarteners

When I arrived the 4's and 5's were seperated by age at this time in the morning, whereas sometimes they are combined, which is more often in the afternoon. The kindergarteners were in the multi-purpose room for PE because it was raining and the 4's were finishing playing a game of "Simon says" with the lead teacher on the carpet. The 4's then transistioned into an activity. They were each given the same science booklet called, "Let's Find Out", published by Scholastic. It seemed almost like a very short magazine or journal with pictures and photographs, and this one happened to be all about bats. The teacher told the kids that they would read it independently, then go over it, and do the activity on the back together, and then go to their seats and do it  independently. The students first discussed what they knew about bats, and looking at the word bat and what it rhymes with. I was very impressed when the kids could identify other rhyming words and break the word down to explain which parts of the words makes make them rhyme. This showed me that tehy understand phonemes. Next the teacher went over the proper way to hold the folder booklet in order to read it correctly, helping them with their bookhandling skills. When the teacher told the class that they were going to read it together, my initial thought was that the teacher would be reading to them, but instead, the teacher had each child read about a sentence in each box. Even though the kids could only really read site words or word they have been exposed to a lot and guess at words because of their knowledge of literacy language and concept story, I was very amazed with their level. To me this seems advanced for 4 year olds. One boy recognized the word "fish" and the word "night" whcih he has probably seen in class or in other books. After they went through the reading and most of the activity on the back, the teacher sent them to their tables to do the activity independently by writing words and circling things. I noticed that the kids who did not uderstand parts of theworksheet, where looking of of the other children's papers and copying their answes, but the teacher was aware ofthis, and tried to individually help these students, using scaffolding.


The children then shifted their focus to another topic in science, which was living organisms and more specifically the project they had created to sttudy plants. The students had planteda vegetable garden outside where they had planted vegeatbles. They were learning what essential things a living organism needs to grow and how to take care of plants, as well as good nutrition and healthy eating because this project was getting the children exctied about growing vegetables.Before going outside the teacher reviewed the idea of observing and measuring methods. Each child took a clipboard outside to record the changes and draw a picture of the plants.


When the 5's retunred to the room, and the 4's went to the multi-purpose room, the 5's did some idependent activities and cenetrs based on what they wanted to do. Some took turns playing with the guitar, some played house and dressup with  babydolls, played boardgames, and did art-both making kites out of string and construction paper, and drawing/coloring. There were more behavioral problems with this group, as compared to the 4's. The GA had to continually remind kids about proper manners, saying "please", "thank you", "I'm sorry", and "excuse me". The lead teacher also spoke to all the kids as a group about treating eachother better as friends, and respecting eachothers physical space and not hurting eachothers feelings. I was wondering if kids develope more social and behavioral problems around early elementary school, before they start to mature, or if kids are maturing throughout the learning process, since the time of birth.

Case 7- Question # 3:

             Dalia involves the family in both the initial and final stages of the Library Construction Project. Before starting the class is involved with the project she gathers background information on each child, by explaining the project to the parents and asking what interests the children have in construction. This is a way for her to asses how much each child knows about construction, how much they have been exposed to any construction/have a experience with construction (for example if they have done construction on their house), and how interested each child is likely to be about learning about this topic. It is also important that the teacher acknowledges the parents’ choices and goals for the children, and keeps in contact with the parents, so that “an open dialogue” is created between parents and teacher.

            Dalia wants to create unity in her classroom with background information before she takes her class to visit the construction. She gets feedback from parents and book suggestions that she shares with the class. She also makes the families feel welcome in the classroom and involves the parents, by inviting them to come in and see what the children have learned from the project, which she has documented in various ways-recording, a curriculum web, and through photographs of the process of exploring different aspects of construction. By inviting the 1^st grade class who also did a project on the construction to her classroom as well, parents of Dalia’s students are able to see what children are doing. This may help them to understand how their child should be progressing in the next few years. It also is beneficial for the younger kids to see what the older children have done. By sharing with the parents what the children have done, the parent is able to understand ways to communicate with their child about what they have learned and how to build upon that knowledge.

            As the children’s project comes to a close, Dalia, invited parents to gain feedback from them about the project, and their child. It also gives the parents an opportunity to ask the teacher any questions or concerns they may have. For example, Maggie’s father shares with Dalia that Maggie is now interested in her brother’s trucks, and before this project she had not been. Maggie’s parents also ask Dalia how they can continue to keep her interested on this topic at home. The teacher in return is able to reflect on the individual child’s interests on this topic in the classroom and give some suggestions. Dalia has put together compiled what the children have learned in several ways (picture album, recording, and a picture web) not only to display to show the parents but to help the children to continuously reflect as they progress through the year on what they have learned. If the parents can also continue to help them learn at home and reinforce the ideas, that will be very beneficial. Many studies report that parent involvement is crucial in the early years in a child’s learning and development.

Oberserving the 3's: dealing with a child's frustration...

I had a lot of fun observing the 3's classroom this afternoon at ECDC. It was quite an eventful afternoon in that room, or at least the hour I shared observing it. When I got there it was the end of nap time, so all of the lights were off, but most kids were not on their mats. I watched one girl, whose mat was situated close to the observation room, play with a puzzle that involved both shapes and color to piece together. When nap time was over, the kids packed up their things and put their shoes on. It was then snack time, however today most kids did not want to eat snack, after washing their hands, and moved on to play dough. Most of the kids did what they were instructed and were very cooperative, however, one child had some difficulty.


I have worked in this room numerous times and dealt with one child who has trouble "using her words", and often gets upset after naptime, when it comes time to pack up and put her shoes on, and today, she got very frustrated. It was the same thing that she always gets frustrated with, which is wanting to be independent and put her things away by herself, but also needing help, and her inability to express what she does and does not need help with. I watched how the lead teacher dealt with this, first by repeating "use your words", and then explaining to the child after the tantrum continued, that she had one minute to calm down or she would have to leave the room. When this didn't work she took the child outside into the hallway. Still crying, the teacher returned, and proceeded to take the child outside, under the overhang since it was raining. I thought this was a great idea because sometimes fresh air and a change of scenery can calm people down. The child still continues to cry, and at this point seemed to be crying out of frustration rather than any one specific thing. So, the teacher took the child and told her that she could not behave that way and that she was "done for the day". About ten minutes later the teacher returned with the child, who was now a calm and happy child. She explained to the Teacher's assistant that she had called the mother and told her to pick the child up or to speak with her over the phone. So, the mother got on the phone and told her child to,"count, breath deeply, and blow that anger out." The teacher reported that surprisingly it had worked. I think this shows how important it is that teachers get to know what works with each individual student and a good way to do that is by communicating with parents.


While the lead teacher dealt with calming one of the children down, the teachers assistant supervised them playing with play dough at a table, and also put on Disney music. After the music was turned on, all but 2 students danced and made faces into the mirror (the mirror that we were oserving from behind). Some kids sang along to the recognizable Disney songs. I was amazed with the different faces they made into the mirror (and observation room) and how much they enjoyed watching themselves dance in the mirror. Some kids did their own thing, while other kids imitated others. The kids' energy seemed to build off of one another, and it was quite and entertaining for us who were observing as they often came up face-face with the mirror.

ECDC observations

When observing and working in the 3's classroom, I have noticed that they really emphasis that the children be able to do things independently. They are expected to be able to eat their lunch independently, as well as clean it up and prepare/clean their nap belongings. Kids are tying shoes and putting things away without the help of others. For 3 years old this really impressed me. They are also expected to behave certain ways, and already learning manners, like staying seated while eating and sitting with others until they are done eating, before leaving the table. This too, seemed very advanced for a three year old. Before transitioning from inside to out, as well as to the multi-purpose room, the kids always line up. I have noticed that this way of "self regulation"(?) or self control is being taught in many different ways throughout.


I noticed some things about the classroom environment as well. For example, the classroom does not even have a television (or at least I did not see one)and only during nap time do the children listen to audio tapes to calm down or fall asleep. All of their activities are very interactive with the teacher or other kids. Even book sharing routines with the teacher involve not only the teacher reading aloud to the children, but also asking them literal & inferential questions about the text, and helping them to personally relate to the text. A lot of time is spent outside playing and working on motor skills as well as social skills. With regards to the setup of the classroom, like in a montessori classroom, all the furniture in ECDC is scaled to a much smaller size that is appropriate to the child. Even the dress up clothes are hung at a very low level. Their environment is catered to them.

Amish Education comparison

I have recently done research on technology and it's negative effects on learning for one of my other courses, and decided to look at other cultures in comparison to the US. One such culture that was of interest to me was the Amish due to their relatively primitive lifestyle, absent of most technology. I learned that Amish children on average test higher on standardized testing that their public school counterparts. The reasons for their success are believed to be the following: lack of technological equipment and therefore more of a reliance on human and community cooperation; a focus on community results in the learning of factual knowledge, society values, student interaction, parent involvement, strong student-teacher bond, and strong parent-teacher bond; Amish value of cooperation; students teach eachother, eliminate competition, glorify personal achievement; absence of mockery, shame, and ridicule in the classroom environment among students; partnership between school and parents. I was veruy impressed with their values and the way they teach. I think our culture could really learn from their educational system. From what the Amish practice, I drew some connections/parrallels to some of the schools and principles we have studied, as well as, what I have observed recently in working and observing at ECDC.

I noticed that the Amish use their own children to teach younger kids, help those who are struggling, and to help present and teach the knowledge as an activity. They are very supportive of eachother. In Montessori schools they use a principle by combining multiple ages so that the younger kids can learn from the older kids and the older kids can reinforce what they undertsand by teaching it to the younger kids. I know from my own experience that when you teach something to someone else, you actually learn it better because you have to understand it inside and out, and be able to communicate it in precise detail to another person. Also, the Amish learn from daily life experiences as they do daily chores around the house, on their farms, and as a member of the community. This helps to develope problem solving skills both appliquable to academics and real life experiences. In ECDC, I have watched the kids do many things outside and learn through hands on tasks, problem solving, and experiences that will translate into their daily lives. All kids are expected to feed themselves and clean up at both lunch and snack, pour their own drinks, clean up spills, set up and clean up their things at nap time,  put on their own shoes and clothes, and learn to self regulate in many ways. Sometimes I see scaffolding by the teaching if a student is struggling but kids generally do these things themselves. I have also seen kids trying to help eachother if they are struggling with things such as tying their shoes, or putting together a puzzle.

I also noticed that one way the Amish differ quite a bit from the general American culture is that we are a very competitive culture and tend to put ourselves before others, unfortunately focused a great deal on greed and often when it comes to a person's career and education, the prinicple, "every man for themself". People are driven by competition, as sports are a big part of our culture. People in our culture tend to judge, criticize, and push others down in the attempt to climb to the top. Don't get me wrong, our culture has it's positive aspects and I am not trying to sound pessimistic, but in the sphere of education this tends to be an unfortunate flaw to our value system. Competition to some degree is healthy and a good thing to keep a person motivated and to challenge eachother to do better, but the Amish do things to improve themselves and being the best they can be, rather than focusing on being better than others. I really like the support system they have and think it is very emotionally healthy, building trust, confidence, good values, and happier kids. These are important building blocks for children early on. When I am working at ECDC, I have noticed that already starting in the 3's, kids are very competitve, pushing eachother as they race on the playground, and girls (who are best friends) argueing over about who is going to have a bigger and better birthday party and deciding they won't invite eachother to their's seems ridiculous. However, I know I was at that stage once and did the same thing. I am actually very against the principle of choosing teams in activies like physical education, sports, or classroom activities because it informally ranks kids on popularity or ability, and leaves kids out. Someone always has to be chosen last and is left feeling like they are not as good. I know part of the reason I worked so hard at school and tennis was to compete with my older sister, and I was always trying to out-do my best friend on art projects. In the 5th grade, for example, on my pilgram report, I can remember pulling an all-nighter, so that my illustrations would be better than my friend's, and instead of my motivation being to do my best, it was to do better than someone else. The Amish children also do not have to deal with put downs and mockery at an early age, which makes kids more confident and helps them develope a more positive sense of self. This is very important in education. It effects motivation, confidence skills, which reflect in work, public speaking, attitude in learning, etc. A child who gets made fun of is not going to enjoy learning or school as much. I have seen plenty of kids, both at ECDC and many other places make-fun, name-call, mock, and put down other kids. Part of this is because parents are not spending enough time instilling important values in their children early on. This is a skill kids need to come to pre-school already having started to establish. I think this is prodominately learned through parent's modeling. Many parents may ridicule co-workers, other parents, their friends, etc..

And lastly, the Amish's strong sense and focus of community and community involvement set them apart from the general American culture. Parents are very involved in the schools and it is not considered abnormal for an Amish parent to drop by their child's classroom to see what they are doing on a weekly basis. Parents are involved in the school on a parental and developmental level, serving on boards, and planning comittees. They are much more connected with the teachers (partly because they are viewed as important community members), whereas, in public schools in the US, according to this article, teachers try and keep parents seperate from the school and their educational sphere, so that they can do their job. I think that parents with children in the Charleston area, who are from an upper-middle class society generally work full time high paying jobs, have received good education, and hold high expectations. This is not everyone in this area, but this type of a parent tends to be very busy, over-scheduling themselves and their kids, and therefore cannot be very involved in the schools.


This may seem a little off-fous or random as a comparison to what I have observed but I found this article to be so interesting and a great way to compare our culture with another, in order to determine strengths and weaknesses. It also could serve as a tool for coming up with ideas on how to strengthen certain principles we teach in our schools.