Having a great summer still? I bet you are!!
Noting the quote from Kati Delahanty on page 14, have you really realize this or thought in depth about the importance of community for tweens, our students?
Have you made or do you make excuses for not using some of the strategies referred to in this chapter? Have you taught students how to talk to each other and interact in a group?
What do you think of the Courtesy Contract? Could this work for you? How important was it for Heather to do one for herself?
What will you apply from this chapter's information to your practice this year?
First, I love this book!!
ReplyDeleteThe quote on page 14 I believe is accurate. The more secure students are the more opportunities they will have to learn...life skills & academic concepts.
I will confess I have made excuses for not doing group work. This chapter has given me a new perspective. I have tried to teach students how to talk to each other and how to critique PowerPoint presentations using rubrics. The students for the most part responded postiviely.
I can't wait to do the Courtesy Contracts.
I am going to work on how to do small groups in my computer lab, and I am going to designate places on the wall that each class period will be responsible for designing.
Working in groups is not one of my strengths. Last year I put my math students with partners. I kept this arrangement all year (desks); I did change their partners every 9 weeks. When assigning partners I considered personality and strengths and tried to put students together who I thought could help each other. This year I am going to try groups of 3. (Trying to be a brave and daring teacher!) I like the idea of group names and even individual desk names. I do like the idea of competition between classes. Last year I had a class that always outscored the others, when I finally mentioned this to the other classes the students then wanted to know which class had the highest average after each test. I am going to try and develop that further this year, competition between classes and between groups. I like the idea of a data bulletin board to help promote this competition. (Now to figure out how to do the bulletin board!) At the beginning of the year I do have my students exchange phone numbers so they have a study buddy. Being a math major, creativity and decorating are very painful for me. Once I finally figure out what I like change is not something I embrace. I like my room to be cheery and bright, but changing bulletin boards and seating configuration are definitely not strengths. In conclusion, I have a lot of obstacles to overcome!
ReplyDeleteGo back to the idea in chapter one and let your students design your data bulletin board. You will accomplish two things at once!
DeleteI loved this chapter. I really want to focus on creating a feeling of community of learners in each classroom this year.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I liked the idea of class to class competition because it help builds a team within the class, not just competition between students. I've found, especially in advanced math, that some students are just so talented in that subject area that it can intimidate the other students in class. By having more classroom competitions, I think the playing field would even out and each student's effort would be valued because it could not rely on a few individual students.
I like the idea of community that this book is promoting, and think that quote is spot on. I try to make my students feel like they belong to a family; of course, with that comes sibling spats, too. Allowing students to hang out in the bandroom in the mornings was a great way to promote the 'family,' but also created its own special problems with 'clique-iness', so I stopped that this past year.
ReplyDeleteThis year, I am desginating some afterschool time 2-3 days a week for small group instruction, with the goal of both increased participation as well as competition among these small groups. Building these small groups does take an effort to make them compatible and yet still challenge the students to grow, too. I liked the idea of 'academic allies' and hope to put that in my terms and have 'practice partners' this year: buddies that check up and encourage each other to practice.
I really liked the "3 stars and a wish" evaluation, too. I want to try something similar this year with my students!
I like the suggestion of building a community within the classroom, and think that should be expanded to building a community in the greater school environment. With all admin, teachers, counselors, librarians, etc…working toward establishing a safe and secure environment students can safely take risks and hopefully, as the author states” provide a place that allows students to be the best of themselves, and you’ll never have to see the worst of each kid.” Tweens can be their insecure and vulnerable selves, but in a safe environment. I think we have to build a community among ourselves first to model for students how taking risks can be scary, but also rewarding…you never what you’ll get until you give something a try. It’s very similar to school improvement efforts we go through every year. The process can be painful…being expected to change and try new things, and it won’t all be successful. But we take from our efforts the small successes and build upon those to create a stronger community, which for tweens and adults, needs to be secure with small groups, constructive critique, praise, and recognition of accomplishment. The courtesy contract is a perfect jumping off point where we can begin to model for the students our expectations and how to concretely express those thoughts.
ReplyDeleteI liked the group work ideas that were provided in this chapter. I am not going to even pretend that group work is my favorite thing because I have to make myself do it and try new things. However, I have found that the two greatest challenges for me with group work are individual student accountability and keeping them on task. The author provides one specific example that I really like where each student takes part in doing the assignment, and then the group decides, based on EACH student example, how the final assignment will be completed. This speaks directly to my student accountability issue. Additionally, she gave examples of individual jobs that can be assigned in a group (I always provide different jobs, but this gives another set of possibilities to build on). I also like the ideas she gave on how to label with character names in order to easily move the groups around.
ReplyDeleteIn response to the importance I place on building community in my classroom, I believe it is absolutely necessary. I want them to feel safe to make mistakes. This is one of the most valuable learning tools. I try to show that I value their efforts and their ideas from the very beginning. This also provides the sense of security they need to take chances. Of course, not every class has shown the same evidence of community building, even though I believe that I go to the same lengths in each class to build that foundation. Every class has its own unique quirks, which still fascinates me. I had one class last year that everyone just seemed to grow together and bond as a class. They felt so secure and safe that Mrs. Carr will probably recall seeing 3/4 of them leaving my room crying after finishing a novel, which was a result of so many of them connecting to the characters and relating to their own experience. When teen boys leave the room crying over a novel because they really got in the character's head, then you have truly connected! HA!
I liked the courtesy contract. It was something that they can take pride in and use as a self reflection at the end of the course. It was important for the author to write her own because it allows the students to see her as a real person...just like them. She shows them that she still has room for improvement, she is still trying new things, and that there will be times when things don't work out as planned. It is so important for them to know, as we encourage them to be lifelong learners, that we are asking no more of them than we are expecting of ourselves...it shows relevance. My cooperating teacher, during my student-teaching, had her 9th graders write letters to their senior selves that were similar to this. The best part was that she had them bring in a self-addressed, stamped envelope, and when they were in the last month of their senior year, she mailed them back to them. This would be really awesome to incorporate with the courtesy contracts. I know some would move, some wouldn't bring in envelopes, etc. However, for those who did receive their contracts back, these would be an amazing reminder of their own expectations and goals they had set for themselves.
I had not thought about my classroom as a "community" before reading this chapter. I have always wanted my students to feel comfortable in class and small group discussions but had not considered these specific techniques to reach that goal. I agree that community is extremely important and want to achieve this in my classroom this year.
ReplyDeleteI have not specifically taught students how to work together in a group. I usually just intervened when I saw a developing problem. This year I will take the time to have a lesson on what group work is and what it should look like in my classroom. I like the prompts that she uses to teach her students to speak to each other respectfully. I would like to have these laminated and then they can be in the group basket with the other materials so the students can refer to it as needed.
I have used group strategies such as giving everyone a job title. That is an excellent way to help everyone actively participate. I loved her idea of having each student write a paragraph and then combine those to make a group essay. This sounds like a great idea for student accountability. I would like to use this technique in my room this year. We often analyze primary sources and there is one group worksheet to fill out. I can give each student a different question to work on and they can come together as a group to look at the answers and then all contribute to the complete handout.
Jennifer I like your pointing out students may need to be "taught" to work in groups. Simply by human nature we work together in groups, but being organized, working toward a common goal, and efficiently dividing the labor among the group is a learned behavior. We probably just assume students know how to do this without giving them the direction they need first. Excellent point!
DeleteI like that she refers to the classroom as a community. For students to truly reach their potential, it’s crucial that they feel comfortable in their environment. I definitely plan to work harder at creating a positive “community” for my students.
ReplyDeleteI've definitely made excuses for not doing group work. I used to do it often when I taught seniors, but I found it to be more difficult with 8th graders. Last year during the second semester, I arranged my desks into groups of three. This made doing group work much easier for me. In the past, I always found group work very chaotic and noisy because we had to move desks around and students had to get up and move to their new seats. This stressed me out (yes, I'm crazy). Having the desks (and students) already grouped made things go so much more smoothly, and I actually began to enjoy doing group work again. I plan to keep that same desk arrangement this year. It's easy to make a new seating chart so that the kids aren't always working with the same group. I also think it’s important to assign roles to each student in order to hold everyone accountable.
I like the idea of the "Courtesy Contract." I always give my students a contract for them and their parents to sign on the first day of school, but I think having them create their own contract will be so much more meaningful. I also like that she created one of her own to share with her students. Students seem to love it when they see their teachers participating in an activity that they have been asked to do. I’m going to try this this year.
This is outstanding dialogue. I am encouraged by your honesty and openness to the idea of change and by the fact that you are developing a plan for this coming year.
ReplyDeleteThis is great information. I am looking forward to the remainder of the book.
I have never thought of my class as a community. This concept really made me think a lot. I feel like I do my best when I’m in a familiar, comfortable setting. I always expect a lot out of my students, and I admit that I get frustrated sometimes when their work isn’t “what I think it should be.” Never once did it cross my mind that they may not be comfortable in my class. Reading this made me think back to this one particular class I had in high school. I dreaded going to that class every day because I didn’t have any close friends in that class, and I usually just kept to myself. We were never encouraged to branch out and create “teams” or “groups” with others. If we had, maybe I would have been more comfortable to do better work or be open to more learning instead of get in and get out.
ReplyDeleteI like the ideas on group work. I do something very similar to this at the end of the year when we do our propaganda group project. Everyone is assigned a special role and held accountable for his or her own part. I would love to modify this and do more group projects like this throughout the whole year.
I really like the contract. I will definitely be using this in my class this year.
I, too, agree that group work is not one of my strong areas. However, this year I allowed my Pre-AP students to work in partners during LTF Lessons, and the students actually did a great job with it!! I now feel more comfortable doing group work with all classes for the upcoming year.
ReplyDeleteI also plan to incorporate more differentiated instruction. Last year during the practice walkthroughs, our group visited a classroom that used differentiated instruction for ARMT Review. The teacher did an excellent job; her students were on task and worked diligently with each other to complete their assignments. Hopefully, I can get my eighth graders to model the same concept and integrate some of the community-building activities from the book.
I am anxious to implement the building of communities in my classroom this upcoming school year. I really liked this chapter!
ReplyDeleteI really like the community idea and the sense of belonging that can be created in a classroom, grade and school. Her courtesy contract was great! Her humor and honesty is relatable and refreshing. I like the friendly competitions as well. That idea does not seem great at first, because you might lose, but she points out how the experience is good for everyone. It is cool how much the teacher can influence and create tweens environments.
ReplyDeleteAs I read this chapter I swelled with pride because I believe Mrs. Barry and I have created a sense of community in our classroom. Because we teach inclusion, group work is a matter of survival for my lower functioning students. We often refer to group members as "your family". I believe most if not all our students felt comfortable in our classroom. We really saw a growth in our students over the year. They seemed more confident and more capable. I am very proud of our students and I'm looking forward to next year. This book is really getting me fired up to make a difference. I
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