Reading Response #3

The first chapter in "Designing Groupwork" defines exactly what groupwork is and briefly defines what the teacher's role is. As defined by the book, groupwork is a small group of students where everyone is participating on a task that has clear objectives. I like this because the focus is on everyone participating, and if they are participating, then they are learning. The chapter concludes with stating that the teacher must decide what principles discussed in the book will work for them. This book is not an exact recipe, the principles must be applied and adjusted. This is very important for the author to point out. A theories may have to be modified or adjusted based on the need's of each class. In fact, group work may look different for each class that a teacher has.

The second chapter deals with why to use groupwork and when to use groupwork. By now, we are pretty familiar on the benefits of groupwork. Groupwork helps keep students involved, helps to address a wide spectrum of learners, and has social benefits. One interesting point that I had not thought of that the chapter addresses is not using groupwork to complete routine computational examples. Groupwork is best when a difficult task is assigned that the group can explore together. In my short experience as a math teacher, I have seen groupwork used to complete routine examples. The book is right, most students just copy off of the group member who has completed the problem. This is something that the book made me realize and I will keep in mind as I teach.

Chapter three discusses the potential problems associated with groupwork such as unequal participation and undesirable domination of groups. This applies to both adults in the real world and kids in school. Often, the group member who talks the loudest and the most will lead the group, even though it may be in the wrong direction. This individual who talks the most will also be perceived as the one who does the most in the group. The chapter also discusses that those seen as better in schoolwork and having a high social standing also tended to dominate groups more. The first two chapters were very engaging, but I feel that this chapter took us on tangent that could of been left out. I want to know how to construct, implement, and manage effective groups. It is good to know the power struggles within a group, however I feel that this chapter used broad generalization's about minorities, etc. Each class is going to have different power struggles within their groups that the teacher must address.

The next thing that I would like to know about groupwork is how the author recommends groups be formed and if roles should be given out. Should the students form their own groups, if the teachers - how should they base the formation? Also, if specific roles should be assigned, and if so what roles. I imagine there is not a concrete answer and the author will discuss different strategies for different situations, this is what I am looking for.

Most suprising thing in a classroom.............

Good timing, today I was teaching PE. Long story short, I approach a kid sitting in the outfield, head between his knees, bawling. He proceeds to tell me he is being harrassed by all the other kids and no one likes him. Then he tells me it has been like this since the third grade. He bawled in the outfield for the entire period, with my efforts helping him little. Then proceeded to have a tantrum in the locker room throwing around backpacks. Sad situation for this middle schooler. I brought it up to the other coach, and the reply I got was that the kid needed a special education aid.

Reading Reflection 2

One of the things the article opened my eyes up to was the idea that nations that attain a certain level of prosperity leads to a student shift into studies of humanities and the arts. Once this concept was explained, it made perfect sense to me and I fell is a very valid point. Another thing I learned is that there is a name for the teaching strategy that goes along the lines, this is how I teach, some will learn, some will not, it is up to them. This poor and unfortunately often used strategy is called triage. The third thing I learned was that in many districts almsot one third of the budget was spent on special education. Realistically, special education makes up probably 5% of the students (the article claims 10%, but they may be including kids with ADD), so they should not take up 33% of the budget, this is ridiculous.

The biggest point that I disagree with is the emphasis the authors put on software as an important delivery device for modularity. I think software is a great tool to use to learn the standards, but group interaction must lead to deeper thinking. I also disagreed how the author suggested that the teacher with 5 classes and 120 students and a huge amount of students. 24 students in a class seems like a dream sitaution to me. Last, I would like to learn more about the last section of the article, pertaining to if we can customize economically. The authors believe that yes we can, but we must take small steps to get their. I would like to see more thought put into this and see what a plan to move a district or city to this model would look like.

Week 1 Reading Reflection

In the book "Rethinking High School" the specific concept that stuck in my mind was the idea of creating smaller schools. In many of today's mega high schools, it is very easy for students to slip through the cracks and go unnoticed. In the environment of a smaller school, even if it is within a larger school, it is much harder for a student to continously slide by. Hopefully smaller schools would mean smaller class sizes, but lets be realistic. Smaller class sizes are ideal, however smaller schools will foster more communication between the teachers, and create a close knit community for the students. This feeling of community is huge for a student in need.

Last semester I taught at a mega high school, and I attended a mega high school. This semester I am student teaching at a small school and definetly see a tighter sense of community. However, I do feel that the students are missing out on interacting with a larger and more diverse student body. The students are in the same small area of the school all day, interacting with the same students. So, I feel that some diversity and social activities are needed to get the students ready for the "general population." Following along on this general theme, I would like to see a study that forecasts if some of these Charter school models that have been very successful, such as High Tech High and the Best Practices School, can be implemented successfully into the mainstream. Would it be possible with budget constrataints, larger class sizes, etc.? I don't know......