Posts Tagged Cooperative Learning

Internship Reflection – Week 7

April 17, 2011 at 8:14 am · Filed under L1: Learner Centered, L2: Classroom/School Centered, L3: Family/Neighborhood Centered, L4: Contextual Community Centered ·Tagged , , , , , , ,

STANDARD L META-REFLECTION—KNOWLEDGE OF LEARNERS AND THEIR DEVELOPMENT IN SOCIAL CONTEXTS. Devote a paragraph related each of the following four elements. L1: Learner-centered knowledge through a variety of culturally responsive, developmentally, and age appropriate strategies. (Answer how you differentiate instruction to best meet the needs of diverse learners.) L2: Classroom/school centered knowledge through learning, knowledge, and skills connected to classroom and school communities. (Tell how your instruction fosters social wellbeing through cooperative learning and other group activities.) L3: Family/neighborhood centered knowledge through informed by collaboration with families and neighborhoods. (Tell how you utilize family and communityresources, mentors, etc. to facilitate learning.) L4: Contextual community centered learning to promote responsible citizenship for an environmentally sustainable, globally interconnected, and diverse society. (Answer how you relate lessons to community needs and resources in order to teach environmental stewardship and an appreciation for cultural diversity.)

L1: Learner-Centered Knowledge

Although the school where I am interning is not highly diverse racially, the students come from a variety of backgrounds and walk into the classroom with their own set of experiences that make them all individuals. As a teacher, I try to consider each student and his/her skill levels, abilities, and background when I prepare a lesson. I have found that collaborative learning strategies, when the teacher chooses groups intentionally, are beneficial for almost every student in the classroom. Students work well with students of different ability levels and help one another through the learning process. It is important to note that the teacher chooses the group for these learning experiences. For example, in one American Politics and Global Issues (APGI) class, there is a student with Asperger’s Syndrome who must be partnered with select individuals from the class in order to ensure that he will succeed in the group and will have a quality learning experience. Furthermore, collaborative learning is a strategy that works well for many students from different ethnic backgrounds because their heritage revolves around having a strong community and working together. Many students in my classes have weak reading skills. While these students may prefer to abandon reading altogether, I know that they will benefit more if they work on their reading skills and seek to improve. Thus, I allow them to work in reading groups where they can practice reading skills as a group and have a support team as they work through text, whether it is an article, a primary document, or the textbook. Many of my students who have IEPs or 504 plans do not require extensive modifications and accommodations, more time is all that they need in order to complete an assignment; however, I do not want all of those assignments to pile up on them, so I am keep those students in mind when I plan units and the spacing between larger assignments, so as not to overwhelm them. In addition, I try to plan lessons that accommodate the different learning styles and teach in a way that is attentive to the students in order to help them engage with the material. Some students will do the work and succeed by simply reading the textbook and answering questions; however, the majority of students will not retain the information that they read and wrote down from a lesson like this. I try to plan lessons that will appeal to students visually with posters, movie clips, and PowerPoints; audibly with podcasts and audio clips; and kinesthetically through role-playing, demonstrations, and movement.


Artifact from L1: Personal Reflective Paper

L2: Classroom/School Centered Knowledge

Cooperative learning and group activities are very common in my teaching. It is rarely necessary for me to interrupt a group because they are not being respectful of the other group members, but once in a while students need the reminder. Normally, students excel when working in groups, not only in getting the task accomplished, but also in showing that they are community contributors who respect and are considerate of their peers. Due to the lack of ethnic diversity, students will joke about skin color and make associations based on skin color during group work time. When this happens it is normally between friends and is not in a racist context; however, I take this very seriously and make sure that my students know that those jokes are not respectful and are not allowed in our classroom – even if it is just between friends. This is not a big issue and it only arises because of the lack of ethnic diversity in the school, but it has the potential to hurt, even if it is unintended. One thing that my students do well and that I enjoy when groups do presentations during Jigsaws is that the rest of the class “claps them up” as my students call it. The class applauds for the group as it is walking to the front of the room to present the lesson as a way of encouraging one another. They also clap at the end of every presentation and I am no longer the one who initiates the applause. While this may seem simple, every single student receives a source of encouragement during any round of presentations. It is a goal for the Tahoma School District to instill the Habits of Mind in its students, using cooperative learning and small groups allows students to practice these habits. For example, Thinking Interdependently, one of the Habits of Mind, means the student “builds on other people’s thinking; works collaboratively” (Tahoma School District). Students can learn about interdependence on their own, but they cannot practice the skill if they do not work in groups. This is a Habit of Mind that has been modeled in the Humans and the Environment CBA that my APGI classes are currently working through. Students are working together in groups to prepare a lesson to teach some of the fourth grade students in our district to promote sustainability and teach the younger students how they can help improve a sustainability issue here in the community. The APGI students have had to work with one another to determine the issue they want to teach, how to present the lesson in ways that will engage small groups of ten year-olds, and how these ten year-olds can help be part of the solution. Since the students will actually be teaching these lessons to fourth grade students, they want their groups to succeed and really care about being successful in their groups. They behave maturely and put forth their best effort, which helps the entire group throughout the planning process.

Artifact from L2: Classroom Management Plan

L3: Family/Neighborhood Centered Knowledge

One of the things that is often neglected and that I would like to change at the high school level is the amount of family involvement in a student’s learning. My mentor teachers forward any emails from parents to me and allow me to handle those emails since I am now the one running the classroom, and I welcome that interaction with parents. Most of these emails that come in are simply questions about grades and how to pull a student’s grade up in my class. As my APGI class was working through the editing process of their research papers, parents were the ones that did the editing for their students, instead of friends. There were some rare exceptions that had to be made because some parents of students do not speak English. I chose for the parents to edit these papers because they will often take this process more seriously than other students and because it helps them become involved in the learning process and for them to see what their students are learning and producing. It is easier for their to be parental involvement at the younger level, but it is just as important for those communications lines to remain open and continue into the secondary level.
In an upcoming unit for APGI we will be modeling a whole unit around The Game of Life. This will be done at a level that is appropriate for a class or high school seniors and will focus on different topics that they will need to know about as adults. This unit will revolve around involvement from other members of the community. For example, some people who teach a course on finances to other adults will be coming in and during one class. Some local landlords will come in and explain how the process of renting a house or an apartment works and what these students can do to be good tenants, All of these are skills that students need to have; there is not a better way for them to learn about these things than from experts from the community.

Artifact for L3: Diversity

L4: Contextual Community Centered Learning

The community is more than just the local neighborhood. Recently, oil and American dependence on it has been a large topic in my APGI classes because we were discussing American Foreign Policy. During this time we discussed America’s need for oil and why we continue to get involved in Middle Eastern conflicts. Although it is not the only reason that America remains involved in the Middle East, our need for that specific resource is a critical part of our foreign policy. Both my American Studies and APGI classes have been involved in environmental and sustainability CBAs during my internship. These CBAs model that students understand the need to be good stewards of our resources and to live in ways that are more sustainable. The American Studies class made blogs that discussed different industries and how the industry is making progress toward being more sustainable in addition to providing action plans for people to help make this industry more sustainable. Students in APGI are in the middle of a CBA in which they are taking their knowledge of sustainability, adding to that knowledge through research, and teaching that knowledge to fourth grade students from our district. These students are not only providing the fourth grade students with knowledge, but they are also providing activities for the students to participate in to help be more sustainable. For example, some students will be given seeds to plant trees when they go home, others will be starting small vegetable gardens to take home, and some will go around to the storm drains at the elementary school to discourage dumping and contaminating the water.
It is important for students to be appreciative of diversity and different cultures so they do not miss out on any new and unique experiences. While most students say they appreciate diversity, lessons that have been sensitive to this topic have proven beneficial. During the unit on the Middle East in APGI, students learned about Islam and the Islamic jihad. One of the goals of this unit was for my students to understand that Muslim people are real people too, who are trying to live their lives just like we are. Some students made comments about Muslims being terrorists to their neighbors when this unit first started. I was quick to tell the entire class that comments like those are completely unacceptable and not true. We talked about how why some Muslims believe in jihad and where it comes from in their holy texts, giving students the chance to see why people continue to fight. We compared Islam to other religious beliefs so the students were able to make connections with the unfamiliar to the familiar. During a lesson on Women in Islam, students read a magazine article about a Muslim woman in France who was denied citizenship because she wore her veil for religious purposes. This spurred some anxiety in the students who believed that the woman should be able to wear her veil if she wanted to, a comment that some students would not have made at the beginning of the unit. Throughout this unit, students were not only learning about the Middle East, they were developing an appreciation for cultural diversity and showed empathy toward people from different cultures.

Artifact from L4: American Education

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Internship Reflection – Week 6

April 16, 2011 at 6:23 pm · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged , , , ,

Week 6: Reflection
As you continue to observe a number of different teachers, consider how responsive these teachers have been to the moods or interests of their students. Have the teachers been treating the various students differently in terms of grouping, time allocation, tasks, standards, expectations, etc.? How has this been influencing your own instructional decision-making?

In a classroom of thirty students or more, teachers have the difficult task of managing a classroom and at the same time meeting the individual needs of each of their students. Most students do not require accommodations or modifications and work well with almost anyone in the classroom; however, almost every class has students that do have more needs than the other students. Through observations of my mentor teachers and other teachers at my placement school, I have observed how different teachers treat students differently. Since every student is different, treating all students the same is not fair and is not how most teachers manage their classes.

Accommodations and modifications can make lesson planning more of a challenge than it already is. For example, in one of my internship classrooms includes a student with Asperger’s Syndrome. Creating groups for a cooperative learning lesson must be very strategic to ensure that this student is placed with peers who will help him along the way and make sure that he is treated with respect. It is unfortunate that the student cannot simply work in a group with anyone in the class, but some students will simply tear him down if they are placed in the same group. This is something that I had to learn about dealing with very early on in my internship; fortunately, my mentor teacher is always on the lookout to make sure her student is doing well. In addition, there are other students that do not have formal IEP’s or 504 plans but still require extra consideration from their teachers.  I have observed teachers who simply know their students well enough to know that even though the student does not have a formal IEP or 504 plan, that student still requires some accommodating. In one of the classrooms I observed I saw a teacher who often allowed a girl to take extra time to complete assignments even though she did not have an IEP or 504. The teacher explained to me that this girl is a hard worker and really tries at school but still needs the extra time. Sometimes students slip through the cracks and do not receive the formal help that they probably need. One of my mentor teachers explained that it is difficult for high school students who have not been put on an IEP or 504 to get one in high school. In those cases, it is simply up to the teacher to use his/her best judgment to help that student however he/she can.

As I continue to observe teachers and receive advice from them on how to work with students, I am constantly being reminded that while procedures and expectations need to be made clear for every student, sometimes life in the classroom is not really such a set formula. Due dates are constantly being adjusted due to field trips, surgeries, illness, and a vast array of other reasons. Instructions that were covered with the entire class are not always clear enough for a couple of students who will need extra time and clarification. Fire drills, assemblies, half-days, announcements, test days, and other interruptions intrude into the time that had been previously allotted for learning. Regardless of what is causing a disturbance in student learning, whether it is from inside the student or an outside factor, all students deserve to learn and I, as their teacher, need to make sure that each student is given every chance to learn. It does not matter what type of interruption is wedging itself between a student and learning, it is my goal to work with each student to achieve the desired learning goals.

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Internship Reflection – Week 5

April 2, 2011 at 9:33 am · Filed under S1: Content Driven, S2: Curriculum Standards/Outcomes, S3: Integrated Content Areas ·Tagged , , , , , ,

Reflection: Week 5
Devote a paragraph relating your use of student-based evidence to each of the following three elements. S1: Content driven so students develop understanding and problem-solving expertise in the content area(s), using reading, written, and oral communication and technology. (Answer how you develop student understanding through your teaching.) S2. Aligned with curriculum standards and outcomes so students know the learning targets and their progress toward meeting them. (Tell how you share the learning targets with your students.) S3. Integrated across content areas so students learn subject matter that integrates mathematical, scientific and aesthetic reasoning. (Answer how students demonstrate their learning using reading, written and oral communication, and technology.)

Tahoma Senior High School (THS) is dedicated to student learning. Staff development days are dedicated to improving staff skills to better student learning. The school district has adopted Arthur L. Costa’s “Habits of Mind” as part of the requirements for students to develop during their classroom experience. THS wants its students to be capable of using a variety of technologies and started a Digital Backpack Project for students to be able to bring their own laptops and netbooks to school. These practices coincide with the state’s standards and help to integrate student learning across curriculums. Students in the classrooms where I am interning are developing knowledge of social studies that are in line with the curriculum standards and also incorporate subject matter from other content areas.

S1: Content Driven
Student understanding is a vital part of the learning process. In my social studies classes, student understanding is accomplished through multiple methods. The administration at THS encourages teachers to use best practices in their teaching to ensure student learning. For example, direct instruction is an effective best practice if used appropriately. Instead of using direct instruction every day in class, jigsaws, cooperative learning, and other best practice instructional methods are used. In psychology, students spent time learning about the brain by working in groups to learn about one specific part of the brain and then teaching the rest of the class about that section. After all of the lessons, the entire class knew about each part of the brain. The student’s did not simply do a PowerPoint presentation; they created a mini lesson that included a student involvement activity to immerse their peers in the content being presented. Students used the social studies department’s netbooks to do their research; every student was working on a netbook or laptop during this project. Students helped share their information with the class using the projector and document camera, some even used video. In American Politics and Global Issues, students read articles from The New York Times Upfront magazine for students and listen to podcasts from NPR and other news broadcasts to learn about current events around the world. Another way to develop understanding is through the use of “Checking for Understanding Strategies.” Teachers at THS have been equipped with a chart of these different strategies and are encouraged to use them on a daily basis in their classroom as a way to evaluate how much students understand throughout a lesson. These strategies allow teachers to evaluate if the class is prepared to move on to the next lesson or if more time must be spent on the content. Students are developing skills in the classroom that will be benefit them throughout their lives; these skills are a result of studying and learning social studies content in a variety of ways.

S2: Aligned With Curriculum Standards and Outcomes
It is a common trend for high school students to think that the work they are doing in class is busy work; students need to know what the objectives are during class so they see a purpose to the work they are doing. While teachers give assignments point-values, those points do not answer the reason why the work must be done. In American Politics and Global Issues there are specified locations for students to look to see the key concepts that they will be learning that day in addition to the Habit of Mind they will be exercising and the thinking skills required to complete the work. All of these pieces give purpose to the work the students do. For example, currently the students are learning about the Middle East. The thinking skill required for the students on Friday, April 01, 2011, was “finding facts and sequencing.” The Habit of Mind the students were developing was “remains open to continuous learning,” and the key content/concept was to become educated on how women of Islam are treated throughout the world. The students do not only have to look at a whiteboard to learn about the learning targets for each day. At the beginning of each class I take the time to tell them the agenda for the day, what they will be doing and why they will be doing it. While studying the brain in psychology, students spent multiple class periods examining how neurons function. When I introduced an assignment to the students on neurons on a day after I had already used direct instruction to teach them about the topic I explained to them that our brains need to hear information more than once to store it in our long term memory. They already knew that knowing about neurons was important; they needed to know that more time was being spent on the topic to help them retain the information.

S3: Integrated Across Content Areas
The social studies field allows many opportunities for subject matter from different content areas to be incorporated into student learning. Psychology is one example that clearly incorporates both the social studies field and science. Students must understand how the brain works in order to understand why people behave in certain manners. While studying the brain, students were expected to learn about its different parts and how information travels throughout the brain. Students looked at pictures of the brain and diagrams of the endocrine and nervous system to discover how our bodies function. Students in American Politics and Global Issues use reading skills to gain a thorough understanding of the articles that they read about current events in the Middle East. They use pre-reading techniques like looking at the subtitles, captions, and pictures to make educated guesses about the content of the articles. In addition, they use primary documents like a cable sent to President Carter in Washington DC from U.S. Ambassador William Sullivan. Students studied this document to better understand how the United States makes its decisions about its foreign policy. Students also study economics in American Politics and Global Issues and are required to use their math reasoning skills to understand how the economy works, which influences the country’s international relations. Technology is a helpful tool with all of this because the students have access to current information like the cost of oil and up to date information on current events. Students are also able to share the information that they gain with the public by setting up blogs about environmental issues, like the students in American Studies did for a CBA earlier during my internship. Social studies is a content area that cannot truly be understood without also using science, math, reading, and writing.

In sum, students at THS are pushed to learn because of the approach the school takes to learning. The faculty and staff are aware that students learn better when best practice techniques are used in the classroom and when the students know what they are seeking to learn. Technology is incorporated into all of this because the world demands those skills. In the social studies classroom students use skills from so many other content areas that they are used to using math and science in the social studies class. They understand that they need to use reading skills in social studies in order to comprehend the information being taught. When teachers use effective techniques, the use of technology and incorporating other subject areas can be done in a way that is seamless for their students.

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Internship Reflection – Week 4

March 27, 2011 at 11:13 pm · Filed under L1: Learner Centered, L2: Classroom/School Centered ·Tagged , , , , , ,

Reflection: Week 4
Review the textbooks and curriculum resources that your mentor teacher has to support his/her teaching. What seem to be the general beliefs about the best methods of teaching? Is the expected role of a teacher a transmitter of information, a group facilitator, a resource person, a source of intellectual stimulation, a coach, a social worker or counselor, a task master, or some other role? What roles are learners expected to play? How has this been influencing your first teaching experiences as an intern? Do you feel that this is in agreement with your philosophy of teaching?

The social studies department at Tahoma High School (THS) utilizes a variety of different resources to support the teaching within the department. My two mentor teachers are both a part of this department and use a wide variety of resources. Textbooks are a tool in both of my mentor teacher’s classrooms; they are not used every day by either teacher. Instead, outside resources are utilized. For example, both of my mentor teachers have adopted units from the Choices Program for social studies teachers. In American Politics and Global Issues, we have been working on a unit from this curriculum called Shifting Sands: Balancing U.S. Interests in the Middle East. My mentor teacher and I have altered the unit to fit the class’s needs and have included additional notes on Islam and articles about the recent protests in Middle East. In American Studies, students recently participated in a mock debate over the idea of Lend Lease using the Choices Program’s Between World Wars: FDR and the Age of Isolationism material. Both of my mentor teachers also use a lot of technology in the classroom. Students in Mr. Peter’s classroom are constantly working on their researching skills using the Internet on the social studies department’s netbooks. Mrs. Muller also uses films from The Annenberg Foundation instead of relying on direct instruction all of the time. These films are well made and cover the information in depth. In addition, teachers in the social studies department share their own knowledge and resources with one another. This is helpful for teachers taking on courses they have not yet taught but their peers have. While each teacher places his/her own twist on things, it is useful to have a foundation to build from.

During my experience at THS during the staff development days before the school year started, the principal went over recent research in education and discussed how THS teachers are expected to incorporate best practice teaching methods in their classrooms. Mr. Peters and Mrs. Muller use cooperative learning on a regular basis, have opportunities for reflections, use entry tasks, and are constantly checking for understanding. From attending staff development meetings, it is clear that THS makes it a priority to use teaching methods that have been found to be successful by current research.

Teachers are expected to take on multiple roles in the classroom. In my reflection for week three I discussed how my mentor teachers take on the role of coaches as they support and encourage their students to succeed in academics. Both teachers also take on the role of group facilitators, a role that they choose for themselves because they choose to incorporate so much cooperative learning in their classrooms. Students are often working in groups and rely on Mr. Peters and Mrs. Muller to help facilitate what is going on. Mr. Peters and Mrs. Muller also act as counselors in their classrooms. They have both shown me that they are deliberate about investing in the lives of their students, showing the students that teachers do care about their students. By doing this, the teachers have gained the trust of their students and the students then seek guidance and advice from Mr. Peters and Mrs. Muller, about academics, college, and other aspects of their lives. In the midst of all of these roles, Mr. Peters and Mrs. Muller still take on the role of being a source of intellectual stimulation. One thing I find so exciting about the social studies field is that there really is something for everyone in it. Teachers can help students find what interests them and encourage them to pursue that interest for further learning. In addition, Mr. Peters and Mrs. Muller encourage intellectual growth by using different types of lessons and probing at the students’ interests by sharing new knowledge. In the midst of all of the roles that the teachers take on, students must act as sponges that absorb the knowledge. They are responsible for actually taking in the information that their teachers share with them. Mr. Peters and Mrs. Muller’s students must act as social scientists. They use researching skills, writing, reading, and technology to take charge of their own learning. These students are not sitting in a desk working silently for ninety minutes at a time; instead, they are collaborating and discussing their learning with their peers, which often makes for a noisy classroom.

There is often a stereotype that a social studies classroom is boring: full of students memorizing the names and dates of important people and dates in history. My mentor teachers and their classrooms are examples of how this stereotype is not always true. These examples continue to make my experiences as an intern full of new learning. I am constantly learning new ways to teach lessons to the students because of my mentor teachers. My classroom management skills are improving based on how I have seen my mentor teachers model classroom management techniques in a wide variety of circumstances. I appreciate how Mr. Peters and Mrs. Muller care about their students not only in academics, but also in life, they want their students to succeed academically and in the rest of life. This all falls right in line with my philosophy of teaching. I believe that teachers and students need to be on the same team to help students learn. Learning cannot take place to its full capacity with just a teacher or just students; it needs both teacher and students working alongside one another. I also believe that a teacher cannot be as effective in the lives of his/her students if he/she does not know his/her students. It is important that teachers show their students that they care about their students as individuals. When students know that they are cared for in a classroom, they will put more effort into the work being done in that classroom. All of this makes for a classroom that is inviting and promotes learning.

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Unit by Design Lesson — Our Foundations Unit

December 8, 2010 at 4:15 pm · Filed under L1: Learner Centered, L2: Classroom/School Centered, P2: Reflective/Collaborative/Professional Growth-Centered, S1: Content Driven, S2: Curriculum Standards/Outcomes, T1: Standards-Based Assessment, T2: Planned, T3: Instructional Strategies, T4: Technology ·Tagged , , , , , , ,

As a part of EDU 6135 General Teaching Methods, we designed a two week (or longer) lesson plan. The Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction website (http://standards.ospi.k12.wa.us/) includes the required EALRs and GLEs for each grade level and content area. Wiggins and McTighe’s (2005) book Understanding by Design includes a unit planning guide. The below unit plan is a social studies lesson for eleventh grade students according to this design template. In addition, there are four lesson plans that I selected from this unit to practice teaching in class. Further, all of the extra documents such as handouts, directions, rubrics, and parent involvement emails are included. Two of the lessons also contain Seattle Pacific University Lesson Plan Rationales, which is a source of accountability when planning lessons. Creating this unit plan was not an easy task and has been a great experience as I continue on my journey of becoming a teacher. I am gaining a deeper understanding of how to design units and lessons in accordance with the Washington State Standards, which is not an easy task.

Unit Lesson Plan: Our Foundations
UbD_Template

Lesson One: The Failure of the Articles of Confederation
Articles of Confederation Lesson Template
Advance Organizer
PowerPoint for Articles of Confederation
Persuasive Letter Directions

Lesson Two: Reenacting the Ratification of the Bill of Rights
Bill of Rights Lesson Template
Directions for Group Activity and skits

Lesson Three: A Breakdown of the Preamble
Preamble Lesson Plan Template
Preamble Handout
Concept Pattern Organizer

Lesson Four: Boldt Decision Debate
Boldt Decision Lesson Template
Lesson Plan Rationale
Parent Email
The Boldt Decision Handout
Debate Rubric

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Lesson 3: Reflection

November 10, 2010 at 1:40 pm · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged , , , , , , ,

            Preparing for lesson three was a difficult task. In class last week we were told that the twenty minutes we have been planning our lessons around is simply an arbitrary number and that we should plan our next couple lessons for a longer time frame and only teach a portion of them. So when I began to think of a bigger lesson to go with Civics EALR 1, “the student understands and applies knowledge of government, law, politics, and the nation’s fundamental documents about local, national, and international issues and to demonstrate thoughtful, participatory citizenship,” I began to think even bigger than a single class period (Online Grade Level Standards & Resources, 2010). Component 1 is that the student “understands key ideals and principles of the United State, including those in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and other fundamental documents” and the first GLE with this is that the student “analyzes and evaluates the ways in which the U.S. Constitution and other fundamental documents promote key ideals and principles” (Online Grade Level Standards & Resources, 2010). I liked the opportunity this lesson provided for me to teach about a local issue. Instead of teaching about something that took place across the country a hundred years ago, I was able to teach about the Boldt decision, a topic based in Washington State and took place in the 1970s. I love the idea of teaching about court cases because there are automatically at least two sides to the situation. My objective read, I can analyze the amount of justice produced from the Boldt decision. I decided to make this another discovery lesson where the students would hold a debate, with one side arguing the decision promoted justice and the other side saying the decision was unjust. That was when the lesson got bigger than one period.
          The lesson began with a Bell Starter activity where students took a few minutes to answer the question, “what does justice mean to you?” Bell starter activities are a highly recommended tool for classroom management (Charles, 2011, p. 113). After a minute or two of the students writing, I offered a suggestion if they were stuck or were having problems getting started. That little bit of advice received positive feedback from my peers. I had not planned to do it ahead of time, but offering some guidance after the students have had time to think is something I will try to use more in the future. After the students turned in their responses, we discussed what justice is; the students interacted with one another and had great answers. This was when I segued into the debate.
          By making the Boldt decision a debate, I had to allow enough time for students to research, write opening and closing statements, prepare questions for the opposing side, and prepare answers to their opponent’s questions. While the students may already be familiar with the way a debate works, this case was one that they would have little to no familiarity with. In a real classroom I would plan on them reading about this in a textbook or a packet the night before, but for our in-class lessons, I was going to have to provide them all the time they needed for research. This was my biggest challenge for the lesson: how was I going to give my students enough time to plan a quality debate without being able to assume prior knowledge. I decided it would be best if the students had an entire period to research and design their arguments and to come to class the next day prepared for a debate. The school I did my observations at for my September Experience had carts with laptops that teachers could check out for use in their classrooms. I acted as if I had this opportunity and assumed that the research would be done on laptops in class. The period that I taught to my colleagues was then the first of this two-day lesson. I divided them into heterogeneous groups like I did in lesson two because that method is supported by research (Cruickshank, Jenkins, &Metcalf, 2009). The next trial that this brought up may seem minor, but still brought me some confusion. I became unsure of how to make the objectives and write the lesson plan for a lesson that would take two days. I was unsure if I was supposed to treat the two days separately or keep them both on the same planning template. When I discussed this with Dr. Williams she said it was fine to not include every detail that would happen on day two on the first lesson plan, but to make sure I included assessments in day one. The debate was obviously going to be a big part of the assessment; I created a rubric for the actual debate using a tool I have been shown in an earlier class called Rubistar (rubistar.4teachers.org). I also decided to use an “I Learned” statement (Ellis, 2001) as a way to do some formative assessment at the end of the research day. This way, the students have the opportunity to take a few minutes to think back over the information they had been reading for the last hour and really assess what they had learned. I also required that the different teams show me their outlines for the debate before they left at the end of the day as a form of accountability to keep them on task.
          I really appreciate the feedback I receive from my peers. The last time I gave an assignment involving use of the Internet they suggested that I provide some possible sites since I was requesting they use credible sources. I made sure to do that for this assignment and they appreciated that. A couple of my peers said that I was well composed again, remaining calm when I was in the front of the class. I am still not sure that I will feel this way in front of high school students; however, the practice of teaching in front of the classroom (even if it only has three other people in it) is helping me to feel more comfortable. One thing that I have struggled with in the past is giving clear directions the first time around. I am always able to clarify things when students ask questions, but this time I was told that I had “great explanations” and I did not find myself having to re-explain things to each individual. I also received positive remarks for my parent involvement attempts. My plan was to email parents the week before the debate and ask them to go over their student’s arguments for the debate and ask them possible opposing questions. I wanted to help make the parents a support cause in this lesson, someone who would help build the confidence of students who may be nervous before the debate.
            The social studies are often filled with topics that do not always have a right or a wrong answer. This is why I like the idea of using debates when I am a teacher. Students can present different sides and neither one is necessarily wrong, they are just different. Debates can help show students that life is full of gray areas and build their abilities to become informed on these topics. In class we have talked about making sure we are involving parents in our classroom. I had a difficult time trying to decide how to involve parents in this, but now I really like the idea of putting them in a position where they are a support cause, not someone who is always checking over their student’s shoulders to make sure homework is getting done. Encouraging parents and students to have conversations about the topics we discuss will open up the communication lines and also spur the students’ thinking. One of my goals as a social studies teacher will be to encourage my students to be informed citizens. Debates – not arguments – with their peers and discussions with their parents will help to build the practice of being an informed citizen.
          I am continuing on the path of becoming a better lesson planner. Planning these lessons are helping me to become acquainted with the EALRs and GLEs and learning how to tie all of the pieces together. I know I still need to work on making modifications and accommodations; this is something that seems so vague to me since I am not thinking of one particular student when I am making my lessons. However, I know that as I continue to get better at planning lessons, this too will become easier to plan.

References

Cruickshank, D.R., Jenkins, D.B., & Metcalf, K.K. (2009). The act of teaching (5th ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill Higher Education

Ellis, A.K. (2001). Teaching, learning, and assessment together: The reflective classroom. Larchmont, NY: Eye On Education.

Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (2010). Eleventh grade – Unit Outlines. Olympia, WA.

Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (2010). Social studies standards – Essential academic learning requirements: A recommended grade-by-grade sequence for grade level expectations – Grades k-12. Olympia, WA.

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Instructional Strategies Final Paper

May 16, 2010 at 7:38 am · Filed under T3: Instructional Strategies, Uncategorized ·Tagged , , , , , , ,

Role Playing and Jigsaw:
Bringing Life Back to the Social Studies Classroom

            Dates and dead people. These are the two traits that are most commonly attributed to a high school history class. Two of my goals in becoming a high school social studies teacher are to increase the interest and participation levels in social studies courses. Teachers have the ability to make a social studies classroom come alive, which is what I hope to do. If a teacher wants to make this happen, he/she needs to be intentional about the instructional models used in the classroom. These models not only have the ability to bring life to a previously stale classroom, but more importantly, they address and support the different learning styles of students. It will be my job as a teacher to make sure that the students in my classroom understand the content I am sharing with them. Using different instructional strategies will allow for students with different learning styles to better understand the content. As a social studies teacher, I fully intend on using the cooperative learning models of Role Playing and Jigsaw because they encourage students to interact both with one another and the content while also supporting academic achievement for all students.
Role Playing
          Role Playing is a method that transforms the dead people of a boring history textbook into living, breathing, people—students. Dell’Olio and Donk (2007, p. 282) explain the purpose of Role Playing as “a model of teaching that facilitates social problem solving” that can also be used academically in the social studies. Role Playing uses multiple opportunities for students to act out a scenario and discussions to decide on the best way for people to handle a situation (Dell’Olio & Donk, 2007). These scenarios can be made up by the teacher or based upon current or historical events. An opportunity that allows everyone to get involved, Role Playing allows for a few student actors and the rest of the class to be an active audience who share their comments in between takes. Students who are too nervous to be actors in the front of the class still have important roles as observers in the audience.
          The steps to Role Playing are rather simple, but all of them are vital for the success of the lesson. First, the teacher must warm up the class using verbal and physical exercises so the students will be ready to participate (Dell’Olio & Donk, 2007). Student volunteers are then chosen to be the first set of actors; specifically, students “who will most likely get the role play session off to a good start” (Dell’Olio & Donk, 2007, p. 297). The next step is the teacher’s most important job: to review the purpose for the Role Playing and asks students to describe the context and scenery, in addition to preparing the audience members, who may undervalue their role because they are not in the front of the room (Dell’Olio & Donk, 2007). The actors then take charge and begin Role Playing the situation for the first time, while the audience watches attentively (Dell’Olio & Donk, 2007). After the first role play, students discuss and evaluate what they just saw; the teacher does not need to say a lot during this time, just prompt the students as the dialogue dwindles (Dell’Olio & Donk, 2007). The second scene can be acted out with the same set of actors or with new volunteers; it begins after the first discussion is finished, but is altered from the first scene in some way (Dell’Olio & Donk, 2007). The second scene is followed by another evaluative discussion; after which, new volunteers are selected for another reenactment of the again-slightly-altered scene (Dell’Olio & Donk, 2007). These two steps can be repeated as many times as the teacher believes to be necessary. The final discussion compares and contrasts the scenes and comes to a conclusion about them all, such as choosing the best solution, how each person is impacted by the solution, or which is most realistic from history (Dell’Olio & Donk, 2007). Even though high school class periods are often rushed at the end, this final discussion is important because it connects the entire lesson and allows students to come to some sort of conclusion about what they just participated in.
          The social studies classroom allows for many different opportunities to take advantage of Role Playing. First, in terms of how Dell’Olio and Donk (2007) described its use for social problem solving. Many social studies classes discuss controversial issues such as abortion, immigration, and war. The Role Playing model allows for students to present different approaches to these topics in a neutral manner because students are acting on behalf of characters and cannot be attacked for their own beliefs (Dell’Olio & Donk, 2007). Second, many history classes read historical novels. Dell’Olio and Donk (2007, p. 298) suggest that students act out “scenes that do not exist in the actual work.” For example, conversations that may take place between two characters that an author does not write or how a situation in the book may turn out differently based on alternative decision making (Dell’Olio & Donk, 2007). Role Playing in this situation encourages students to think critically about the book and forces them to analyze literature outside of the English classroom.
          One wonderful benefit to Role Playing is that it allows the teacher to step back from the front of the class and for the students to have more of a lead in the lesson. Teachers are facilitators during role playing. The teacher still needs to spend time setting up the scenario and preparing prompting questions for the students to begin discussions from; however, the students gain ownership over their learning by being the actors and carrying on the discussion. Additionally, according to Alvarez (2008, p. 188), who conducted a study on using Role Playing simulations in the classroom, students found the most difficult of the three Role Playing exercises (averaging a 3.06 out of 5) the role play that brought the most enjoyment “(3.14 versus 2.96 and 2.92)” and the most amount of learning (3.55 versus 3.52 and 3.51).” Alvarez (2008) further tested the success of these simulation activities with an end of the year survey which found that the top ranked Role Playing activity was also the class’ third overall favorite activity; two field trips were rated in the first and second positions. This means that not only are students learning necessary information from these activities, but that they truly are enjoying the class more than if they were spending the period doing an alternative activity. Therefore, opportunities to use Role Playing need to be embraced by teachers and not avoided, why not encourage enjoyable learning? Furthermore, Role Playing “engage[s] the multiple intelligences” and “clearly challenge[s] the interpersonal skills of all students and their ability to work with each other” (Alvarez, 2008, p. 187). Students are not only learning about human interaction in these social studies classrooms, they are becoming successful at human interactions themselves; this is a skill that schools cannot afford to skip over.
          While Role Playing does have its downsides, the positives outweigh these negative aspects. One complaint of Alvarez (2008) about the instruction model is that it is time-consuming. This is probably a major complaint about this activity by many teachers because Role Playing does normally consume an entire class period. However, the impact that it has on students academically, socially, and interpersonally make it worth the time because of everything that students gain from this one activity. From my experience with working with high school students on a regular basis, I can predict that a potential hazard may be that the same students swill be the actors during the acting portions of Role Playing. While students may enjoy watching their funnier peers participate as the actors, a teacher needs to be able to push for all students to have the opportunity to participate as actors during Role Playing throughout the year. Initially, shy students may want to avoid this at all costs; on the other hand, they may enjoy being given a very small part that just allows them to participate up front more than anything else. While it is great to get everyone involved as an actor, Role Playing is set up for the non-actors to have a valuable impact on the activity through the group discussions. Teacher s can facilitate to make sure that these students especially are given a voice during these times. While Role Playing is not the perfect activity, it is evident that teachers have the ability to work around these possible drawbacks that are not strong enough reasons to dismiss this cooperative learning instruction model.
Jigsaw
          The Jigsaw model of instruction follows suit with the Role Playing model in that student learning is interdependent. Students need the participation of one another in order to gain the most information from either model. The Jigsaw model of instruction is described by Dell’Olio and Donk (2007, p. 246) as “a type of cooperative learning experience that promotes both academic and social goals for students.” These very words can be used to describe Role Playing; however, Jigsaw revolves around small group work instead of one big group. Jigsaw can be used in the high school social studies classroom as well as in many other disciplines and many other grade levels, making this a very flexible instruction model. The way that the Jigsaw works is “each member of a Jigsaw group has one portion of the total content to be learned, and the members will each teach their portion to all of the group members” (Dell’Olio & Donk, 2007, p. 246). Each expert group learns about a different topic, for example, the different regions of the United States of America, and become experts on their area. After the first group discussion with this original group, students then break up into groups with students who were assigned different regions and teach one another what they have learned (Dell’Olio & Donk, 2007). How the information is displayed or evaluated is up to the teacher each time a Jigsaw is performed (Dell’Olio & Donk, 2007). Students may post blogs, make slideshows, use posters, small dramas – the possibilities are nearly endless! The students can do a final presentation in front of the class with their expert group and the class can have any final discussions to help make sense of the new information, tying it all together (Dell’Olio & Donk, 2007). Finally, the teacher can use an individual assessment to check for understanding from each student. The steps in a Jigsaw are very simple and allow room for creativity and adaptations, making it an instruction model that can fit into any social studies classroom from history to economics to psychology.
          Aside from flexibility and simplicity, the Jigsaw model has many benefits. Part of the positives of the Jigsaw comes from the reason it was created. As a part of the multicultural movement, “the original intent of Jigsaw learning was to provide children from diverse backgrounds the opportunity to work effectively and interdependently with one another” (Dell’Olio & Donk, 2007, p. 257). Teachers can be very intentional about placing students in groups with students they do not often work with or talk to, creating groups that are both racially and academically diverse (Dell’Olio & Donk, 2007). With the work divided among everyone, students have the opportunity to see that their peers can do work equally well. This is another benefit of the Jigsaw model as opposed to other group assignments. Jigsaw is designed for everyone to have to contribute to the work, “no one student can dominate the group” (Dell’Olio & Donk, 2007, p. 246). Students are each assigned a portion of their topic to become experts on and teach to the rest of their group; the group is depending on that student for the group success. Johnson and Johnson (as cited in Dell’Olio & Donk, 2007, p. 246) organized five essential components for cooperative learning; Jigsaw is an academic model that actually encourages all five components: positive interdependence, face-to-face interaction, individual accountability, social skills development, and group processing opportunities. This instruction model is beneficial for the social studies classroom because students gain valuable life-skills that do not form from reading a textbook and answering questions. Sadler and Klosterman (2009) studied the use of Jigsaw in a high school science classroom using the topic of global warming. The researchers used video to observe the groups’ interactions with one another and observed “that most students were actively engaged in analyzing the different perspectives and contributing to small-group discussions” (Sadler & Klosterman, 2009, p. 12). Many teachers know from their own previous experience as students that group projects have the tendency to be dominated by only a couple of students from the group. Research on the Jigsaw method shows that the majority of students actively participate in this small group setting, making it a model worthy of implementation. In addition, Sadler and Klosterman (2009, p. 12) claim “that the activity seemed to help students keep an open mind throughout the unit because they did not feel as though we were forcing them to adopt a predetermined position.” High school students are at a point in life when they want to make decisions for themselves. Jigsaw presents the facts but allows the students to decide on a position for themselves. The Jigsaw model is a method that encourages student interaction, improves cooperative learning skills, and increases student learning.
          Just like Role Playing, Jigsaw has its negative impacts. Like many cooperative learning models, Jigsaw requires a lot of time. Sadler and Klosterman (2009, p. 12) explain that “students had to rush a bit but completed the task in a 55-min class period.” It may even be better to provide one and one half or two class periods for the assignment; that way students will be guaranteed enough time for each group session and to debrief as a class at the end. While Jigsaw teaches students to work with people they would not normally choose to work with, there is still the potential for higher-achieving students to become frustrated or dissatisfied with the work done by other students in their expert group. Dell’Olio and Donk (2007) suggest that teachers leave expert groups together for at least a couple of Jigsaws, which can lead to built up frustrations because the higher-achieving students are continuously disappointed in the work of their peers. However, this in itself is a learning opportunity and the teacher can take advantage of this opportunity to discuss more than just racial differences. In addition, teachers can assess students separately, instead of giving one group grade. This solution will relieve a lot of the stress on students which will allow them to interact more positively with their peers. Time is a drawback of cooperative learning that cannot be remedied, but the benefits of the time spent outweigh that time spent on one activity and the potential for students to become dissatisfied with their groups can be dealt with by the way the teacher handles the situation; thus, the negatives about Jigsaw are not strong enough to not use this activity in a class.
Beneficial teaching for all
          Role Playing and Jigsaw are intentional cooperative learning strategies that coincide with the multicultural movement. Diversity and multicultural education are two very important components of education in the twenty-first century. I am not even a certified teacher yet and I myself have already taken two diversity courses in preparation to become a teacher. Lisa Delpit is an author who focuses on equal education for every student, regardless of skin-tone or background. In her book Other People’s Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom, Delpit (2006, p. 140) cites researcher B. Holliday who found “that motivation in African-American children from low socioeconomic groups is more influenced by the need for affiliation than for achievement.” Teachers who use cooperative learning are surrounding students with their peers, encouraging African-American students to affiliate with their peers through academics. If African-American students are not motivated on their own, working with a group may help them to become more motivated. Researcher Harry Morgan did a study in 1990 that is consistent with the finding s of Holliday (as cited in Delpit, 2006). Morgan found “that a classroom that allows for greater movement and interaction will better facilitate the learning and social styles of African-American boys, while one that disallows such activity will unduly penalize them” (as cited in Delpit, 2006, p. 169). Both Role Playing and Jigsaw encourage student interaction and involve getting up and moving around the classroom, criteria needed to improve academic achievement among African-American students, especially boys. The multicultural movement seeks to remove the Eurocentric focus of the United States’ education system. The content used during Role Playing and Jigsaw do not need to be directly about diversity or multiculturalism in order for them to be sensitive to this movement, their formats are what make them positive contributors to a multicultural education. Teachers who have any level of diversity in their classrooms need to be aware of how their students learn best. For example, if I have a student who I know needs to be able to talk about content with his/her peers, I will do what I can to make that a possibility for him/her. When there is a student who needs to be able to get up and move around during class, I will be inclined to ask him/her to be a volunteer during a Role Playing lesson, just so he/she can get up from the desk. Teachers want students to succeed, that is why they are teachers; therefore, they need to be aware of learning strategies that can help to make their students more successful.
           In conclusion, though I am not yet a teacher, I have a solid grasp on what learning strategies have the ability to have positive influences on a high school social studies classroom in the twenty-first century. Students gain motivation and show more engagement with material when they actively interact with the content. These two components are influential in promoting academic success. Cooperative learning strategies like Role Playing and Jigsaw give students the opportunity to interact with one another and gain social skills for life outside of high school and in the workforce. When students face difficult content matter they embrace it as a group and are given the opportunity to work through the coursework together. Additionally, cooperative learning is a positive response to the multicultural movement because it is responsive to the needs of American students with different learning needs. Role Playing and Jigsaw may be only two cooperative learning strategies out of many; however, they show evidence of success and are responsive to quality student learning.

Works Cited

Alvarez, Patricia (2008). Students play the notables: Testing a simulation exercise. History Teacher, 41(2), 179-97.

Dell’Olio, J. M., & Donk, T. (2007). Models of teaching: Connecting student learning with standards. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Delpit, Lisa. (2006). Other people’s children: Cultural conflict in the classroom. New York, NY: The New Press.

Sadler, T. D., & Klosterman, M. L. (2009). Exploring the sociopolitical dimensions of global warming. Science Activities: Classroom Projects and Curriculum Ideas, 42(4), 9-13.

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