Reading Reflection: Designing Groupwork

The first chapter of Designing Groupwork is about how properly designed, well-inplemented groupwork is an incredibly good practice to bring into the classroom. Groupwork requires face-to-face interaction, it teaches communication skills, and it requires students to thin classroom k aloud and work through problems together. The chapter acknowledges that groupwork certainly comes with it's own challenges, but that a thorough and well-thought out plan can really help students grasp concepts and improve critical thinking skills. Last semester while teaching 7th grade, I found one of my most successful assignments to be a group poster project in which students worked very well together and seemed to walk away with a great understanding of the lesson.

Chapter two discusses why groupwork should be implemented. The chapter notes how beneficial groupwork is for english language learners, and also that it is an excellent technique for conceptual learning, problem solving, and communication. In a typical classroom lesson, students will write a response to the teacher at some point, such as an essay or quiz, turn the assessment in, and then wait several weeks before getting a response or grade. That means it could be weeks before a students knows if they understand a lesson or not. When groupwork is implemented, students are much more likely to discuss concepts with each other and quickly realize if they have a clear understanding of the lesson. Based on my observation of students involved in groups, as long as students are vocal, they seem to self-correct one another.

Chapter three discusses possible problems with groupwork, mainly that classrooms consist of a student-hierarchy that can greatly effect a groups interaction. The most vocal member of a group is usually seen as the strongest member, while the quietest student is viewed as the weakest link. Heterogeneous groupings can help mediate groups creating these high and low ranking status members. I have certainly been a member of many groups where the loudest member becomes the leader, even though other members may have better ideas. Also, in middle and high school it often appears that the group member perceived to be the most popular becomes the leader.

One aspect of groupwork that I am most curious about is how to set up and present groupwork to the class. Based on experience, it seems that a lot of preparation goes into creating these group assignments, and I would like to know what I should consider when planning for groupwork.

Week Three Reading Reflection: Ethnography

This week’s reading was about the specifics of an ethnography report, basically what it is and what it is not. The article went into great detail about what an ethnography should include, and what the author should be paying attentions to. One of the elements mentioned that stood out to me was that the ethnographer should be paying just as much attention to what they do not observe at the school site, to what they do observe.  An ethnography is about conveying the feeling of a school, and missing elements will certainly contribute to that feeling. Does the school have a strong athletics department? If so, do they have lots of school spirit? Does the school have a paper, and are there frequently re-visited stories? What about dances? All of these extra-curricular activities could be taken for granted at one school, but hard-fought at another. Both the presence of something, and the lack of presence should play into a complete ethnography

The article also discussed the bias of the person gathering information for the ethnography. It acknowledged that this bias is perfectly normal, because it is a person looking at a school through a particular perspective. If I am conducting research at a school that I graduated from, or that was a rival of my school, I’m sure to bring a bias to the table. Though the example doesn’t need to be quit as harsh, simply the fact that I am the person conducting the research and not another person brings its own spin to the ethnography.

Though this article was very factual and informative, it was rather dry. I am glad that we were able to see a video example of the ethnography in Watts, so I could really get an idea of what this project can be. I’m looking forward to getting the different perspectives of students and others when I conduct my research at Orange Glen.

Week Two Reading Reflection: Disrupting Class

Disrupting the Classroom is about changing the way we teach to students, and taking all students learning styles into account. Gardner’s theory about the eight different intelligences has had a huge impact on the educational community, but have we really implemented his suggestions? Based on my school observation experience, not really. I think this can be attributed to one quote in particular, “Teachers are similarly trapped by their own strengths.”  Teachers, especially those who have been teaching for a long time, are often afraid to try something new. They know what has worked in the past, with the majority of students, and want to stick to pattern and routine. That’s part of the beauty of new teachers fresh to the profession: we don’t know what works, so we’re willing to give anything a shot!

This is of course all related to what works best for students. It’s daunting to think of a class with 40 students, all of whom learn differently. Teach to the majority seems like a safe enough approach, but then you are completely missing some students. This is where the “disruption” comes into play. The article encourages using technology and innovative strategies to help the “Robs” who struggle to understand material. This doesn’t mean that a teacher has to try something new and cutting-edge every day, but a good mix is likely to help more students grasp material.

The best ways to find new teaching ideas and strategies is to stay current via professional development, talking to other teachers, and trial-and-error. A strategy that works well in one class may bomb in another, put continuing to try more ideas is bound to reach a broader range of students.

Professional Development Prezi

Rethinking High School, Chapter 11: Professional Development on Prezi

Week One Reading Reflection - Rethinking High School

After reading the chapter Best Practice by Design, the element that most caught my eye was the enthusiasm the author has for creating a new high school. Based on what I have seen so far at the schools I have observed, enthusiasm on an administrator or teachers part has the greatest impact on the students. When teachers are passionate about what they teach, and administrators are passionate about providing the best educational experience, many of the reforms mentioned in the article seem to fall in place naturally. But then, of course, the real world worries of budget-issues, class sizes and quality of teachers steps in, and your left with the majority of the US high schools we see today.

One of the most important elements discussed in the chapter was class size. This really resonates with me, because I attended a private high school that had no more than 15 students/classroom. This was an ideal learning environment because it felt safe, there was plenty of individual attention, classroom discussions flourished with this amount of students, and you cant get away with anything in a class of 15. Walking into classrooms now, I'm confronted with 34 students, in rows, looking up at me, or, more often, staring into space. How can you create a welcoming, safe environment when you have so many students? How can you provide the individual attention that they need, and get to know them? Especially in an English classroom when so much writing is occurring and some of the work is of a personal nature, I believe the class sizes need to be reduced, and that this should be a priority.

The amount of changes that the authors were looking to make in their Best Practices High School is reasonable if starting a new school, but for existing high schools this seems overly-ambitious. It seems that high schools have been chugging along, often ineffectively, changing little since they were originally opened. The world around them has completely changed, yet the schools themselves are still doing things the same way they did 40 years ago. If schools could start incorporating elements of reform, one at a time, I think we would start to move in a positive direction. But every effort needs to be put behind the change at hand, to set it up for success.