I'm Thinking- Reflection 5

hus far my experience working with students with special needs has been a real eye opener experience. I have to some extent, completely let go of what I think the best teaching style is for my students, and have let my students show me what works best for them. I am currently teaching in a Special Day/Resource class and for most of the day I have five or less students. My fifth and sixth period also called Read 180 has about 15-20 students. The Read 180 class mostly consist of group work that is poorly implemented and has no real structure to it besides grouping students by five and spreading them out in different areas of the classroom to do work that can be done individually. For many of the students, they find this class a joke and take signing up to go use the restroom more serious than their teacher assigning them mundane reading tasks.  

I have seen group-work done properly and members within a group reap the benefits of collaborative efforts. However, this is on a college level where the instructor has trained students on the roles and specific behaviors that accompany those roles along with cooperation skills needed for members to work successfully and respectfully within a group. I agree with Cohen, there must be some type of training of roles and cooperative skills if group work is going to work at its best. I also agree that it is important for teachers to be able to let go of their authority and delegate authority to students, while still maintaining authority of the classroom.  

As I continue with student-teaching, I will want to try group work with my students using strategies and techniques posed by Cohen particularly in the Read 180 class. It is interesting because the Read 180 class is also team taught. There is a resource and a general education teacher in the class, but I feel as though students are not receiving relevant instruction, let alone meaningful tasks to help improve their reading. For example, a group of students listen to the teacher read a section of a text and then are directed to silently read. Students are not held accountable, let alone following what the teacher is reading. Unfortunately, there are students in the class that get stuck on reading the word “the.” Thus, once I begin full-time student teaching, I plan to try implementing some cooperative activities in which students work in groups to accomplish group and individual tasks based on their role, and see how it works. I don’t expect that it will be a grand success the first couple of attempts, but I do want kids to do more and me do less. I want to encourage more interaction from students in discussion and let them work around grasping the content or theme in the readings with support of their peers. In sum, I see the value of group work as a collaborative and effective tool for all students learning when implemented right. I believe the training of roles and cooperative skills among students’ is equally important to teachers’ being trained in implementing group work.

Reading Reflection 4

I find some merit to using group work as a social means to promote learning and higher level thinking skills. In looking back on group work throughout this semester, I can say I learned a lot from listening to other people’s views that differed from mine and it did stimulate higher levels of thinking among all members within the group. Cohen suggest how students work together depends on the objective of group work (routine or conceptual) and the level of interaction we want to see students engaged in. The objective of group work also determines the level of exchange among members within a group (limited exchange or equal exchange).  

I find this true and interesting at the same time. In PE there are lots of opportunities for students to work on group tasks, however these task are simply fact/recall and usually includes a limited number of people taking control over the task. There are never really opportunities for students to produce high level thinking skills, but of course this rests upon the teaching methods. In Special education, I rarely see group work used as a tool for learning. I think depending on the needs in the classroom group work should be encouraged that promotes higher level thinking skills.

As a special/physical education, it will be up to me to work and create higher level thinking tasks within small groups. This will be a challenge, but just from personal experience the benefits are endless. Students learn through conversation, disagreements and providing explanations behind what they believe. It’s a powerful thing. Of course, preparing students for cooperation is critical before any of this can occur, but using group work as a means to stimulation tool for further inquiry and discussion put learning back into the students hands. 

Reading Response 3

Ch 1- Group Work As A Strategy For Classrooms

Designing group work entails small heterogeneous groups of students, each assigned a task with the ability to make choices in how they will complete the task, delegate responsibilities, and work within the group to accomplish the task. Designing group work is not grouping students by ability, one member of the group taking control over the whole task or the teacher having control of how students complete the task. My experience with group work at the college level, has been for the most part, successful. I think group work, properly designed around specific goals, is extremely beneficial to students learning, developing critical thinking and problem-solving skills and constructing knowledge. It’s a process in which students have to trust themselves and members within the group to accomplish a task.

Ch 2- Why Group work-
Group work when implemented properly, presents various learning opportunities for students to become active and engaged learners through interaction, investigation, and exploration. Many of these learning opportunities allow students to get a feel of how it is to be an adult and collaborate with members to carry out a task. Not only does heterogeneous learning groups provide students the opportunity to give constant informal feedback, it lets students construct and extend conceptual understanding of what it is being learned through group discussion and explanation. The social support and encouragement that comes out of group work when students are trained in cooperative learning techniques presents a “Win-Win” situation. We are social creatures, let’s utilize everyone’s knowledge, experience and expertise, and help students see that their peers are also valuable resources in learning.  

Ch 3- The Dilemma of Group-work
As a designer of group work, it is critical that I establish and teach students ground rules and skills needed for working in a group. I believe a teacher must be aware of each students strengths and weaknesses academically and socially. Perceptions based on status (societal, social, expert and academic) will be inescapable and will impact how students work and contribute within a group. Recently, I had a group assignment in which members automatically elected me as the group leader (probably because of my age- Lol!). I know it was not because of my competence as we have a bright and intelligent cohort, but I am perceived as organized and task-oriented. This did not bother me so much, but I felt to some extent that I had to carry the group. Too much pressure for one person =).  

In closing, referring back to a statement in the text, “Students can often address other students questions more effectively than the teacher” made me think and influenced the way I will teach my students. Everyone in the class is a valuable resource and an expert on some topic or another so let students teach and learn from one another.  

School Reform

Lincoln High School
http://lincolnhighsd.net/hornets/

Reform: The school was torn down and reopened in 2007 due to a lack of resources, poor infrastructure, etc. To create a smaller feel in a big school. The school has create four schools (aka centers) that allow students to have a more direct focus in the areas of Social Justice, Arts, Science and Engineering which were not at the school before.

Reading Reflection 2 BPHS- Sorry It's Long!

Scheduling is an important component in creating curricular paths to success.  Sadly, school schedules often determine what and how much a student learns. With BPHS flexible and student-centered schedule they can offer students academic instruction and technical training through internships. Students have the opportunity to apply what they are learning in school to work outside of school walls in turn creating a path that is personal to them and their interest.

To successfully teach and support all students, preventative measures must be taken to ensure that a positive, productive, safe and personable climate exists. In looking at BPHS school climate, they are working towards a climate that is inclusive and provides comprehensive support for all students. They recognize the issues that must be addressed and explored as learning opportunities to establish a school climate like above, and our taking necessary action to provide an atmosphere that is positive for all students. I believe the climate of a school connects to the academic support students receive as well as community services and resources for students and their families.  

A great quote I found, and my apologies as I do not know the author of this quote, “If learning have not occurred, teaching has not occurred.” Powerful teaching and learning is what sets apart BPHS from other high schools. Not only do they take educational risk in teaching and learning from students, they use the problems they run into as learning experiences and continue striving towards “best practice” teaching.  Teachers at BPHS understands that powerful teaching and learning only occurs when students are behind the steering wheel and are able to make meaning for themselves while being supported and encouraged to succeed. 

Creating new professional roles. Guajome Park Academy have broaden teachers roles. For instance, my cooperating teacher was responsible for the 11grade house in which she met with a group of teachers each week and discuss ways to provide support to students. She also had to do “duty” once a week in which she monitored students getting dropped off in the morning for school and was the advisory teacher for juniors and seniors sixth period. Although the advisory period was a joke, her roles had become wider than just a PE teacher and allowed her to form relationships with many students.  

Although I am not too familiar with their accountability and assessment system (seeing as though my cooperating teaching never took it seriously-no excuse ). Guajome Park Academy is an International Baccalaureate (IB) school that offers a Middle Years and a Diploma Program. The middle school IB program works to provide continuous assessment throughout the course and teachers are responsible for implementing a variety of assessment tasks that align with standards and are valid. However, in PE I did not see this take place.  

I predict the size of BPHS will no longer be in practice. Seeing as though they are raising the bar for other high schools, students will want to come to a school that promotes choice and is linking classroom learning with out of school experiences. 21st century teaching. Yes! Thus, I think because of their accomplishments the size of the school will drastically change unless they put a cap on the number of students they want to attend.