Week Four Reading Response- Designing Groupwork

According to chapter one there are two important features to effective groupwork. The first of these is that students are expected to work together without the direct supervision of a teacher. This allows them to be responsible and to struggle (which is a very important part of learning). The second feature is that the task that is assigned needs to be difficult enough that no one student can do it individually. This reminds me of how proud I would feel when I finally understood something that I really struggled with.




Chapter two mentions several reasons that groupwork is superior to individual work, and research that supports this position. Some of these reasons include that the students can learn some concepts more effectively through certain hands-on activities and watching and talking to other students, students can become resources to one another, and students can help each other by using their collective skills (where each individual does not contain all of the skills required to be successful). It also teaches students to listen to other peoples perspectives and try to understand what they are saying, creates positive relationships among students, helps students develop skills to solve complex problems (like they will need to do in life outside of school), and it allows the teacher to work with students who need help while the rest of the class is still being productive and learning. I am curious when groupwork will become a more positive part of school that engages more students.



Chapter three discusses some of the potential problems that arise when students work together in small groups. These problems are related to status being assigned to students. The status that is assigned often dictates how actively a group member will participate and is often assigned for reasons that are irrelevant to the task at hand. In my CPI experience I saw a groupwork activity in which the students were definitely aware of the status that each member had. The student who had higher status knew how to do what was being asked but would not help his classmates. How do I address a situation like this besides forming different groups?



I am interested to see what the book suggests as a solution to the potential problems. Also, I am curious which is more important appropriate grouping of students or laying a strong foundation for the expectations of all members of a group?

Week Three Reading Response- School Ethnography

3 things that I learned/connected with are

• Ethnography is guided by a point of view

• Ethnographies portray events from the point of view of members of the group being studied. To do this ethnographers must sometimes suppress their personal beliefs and feelings.

• Studies cannot be done holistically because there is too much information to take in, but at the same time they cannot completely ignore the holistic view.



2 things I disagree with or have questions about are

• The article suggests forming strong relationships with the informants- isn’t it possible that your views and ways of thinking will affect them?

• The article says that “American classrooms are odd not only in terms of what happens there, but in terms of what does not happen.” Our view of what should and should not be in a classroom is based on our viewpoints, is this something that we should include in our study?



1 thing I would really like to learn more about is

• School ethnographies that have been done in the past

Week Two Reading Reflection- Disrupting Class

3 things that I learned/connected with:

•  Gardner’s definition of intelligence (three bullets at the bottom of page 25 of the article.

• The difference in funding between students who have special needs and those who do not

• The idea that people who are good at certain subjects tend to think similarly and be the ones who teach and make all of the resources, making it difficult for people who think differently.

2 things I disagree with or have questions about:

• Computer based learning as a solution- sure it can be customized to each student but it takes away all human interaction. Don't kids already spend enough time plugged into electronic devices?

• The statement that even if a teacher makes a great effort to pay attention to multiple intelligences they will fail because of the way the system is set up.

1 thing I would really like to learn more about:

•  How to incorporate more different learning styles into my teaching and find resources that focus on the other learning styles.

Week One Reading Reflection - Rethinking High School

The part of the chapter that really resonated me was giving students the opportunity to choose which school they attended. The chapter mentioned that in Chicago students get to select which high school they attend. To me this is an interesting concept. In the city in which I attended high school, there were three high schools and there were certain reputations associated with each school and the type students that went there. I think that if we allowed students to pick which school they went to the schools would have to create programs that were engaging and appealing to students. It also might help create schools that were more heterogeneous as students were drawn in from different parts of town.

The chapter suggests that we create smaller schools within a larger school to help the school feel smaller. I am not sure that this seems like a great measure of reform because it seems to me that the campus will feel divided.

The Second to None “components of reform” that I found in the chapter were as follows:

• Creating curricular paths to success -the book suggests ITUs as a method to make large schools feel smaller
• Establishing comprehensive accountability and assessments- portfolios are developed in the example school (Best Practices High School)
• Integrated student support- smaller schools allow students and teachers to get to know each other better and be more supportive
• Restructuring the school- the book suggests that high schools should have no more than 400 students. Additionally, it suggests that the school should be small enough that all teachers can meet together and talk about what is going on with the students.
• Creating new professional roles- at Best Practices teachers work collaboratively and are given more opportunity to get to know their students.
  

I would like to investigate how funding for such small schools is possible and/or different from funding for larger schools.