Reading Reflection 5 - I'm thinking...

...of an animal, mineral, or vegetable that is invisible yet has the ability to muddle minds into pulpy, circuit-shorted, puddles of mush within mere moments. Sigh. I am not, not happy about this digital age thing, and all of its myriad windows and buttons and sites and micromanaging, at all. Which probably makes the idea of group work...especially non tech-dependent group work, seem like a welcome antidote.

Cohen reinforces many principles that we have already explored at CSUSM in terms of setting clear roles for students in group work, providing challenging and diverse tasks, and designing activities that include all learners. She emphasizes assessment that evaluates the individual as well as the group. She describes the importance of teacher's making their objectives clear to students, and of modeling, directing, and reinforcing group skills such as sensitivity, receptivity, openness, and reciprocity. These are all important components. But in some ways, I feel as if more concrete examples of how this would look like in each subject area would be are needed.

While it is important for us to understand the research and philosophy behind these principles, we once again have a clash between theory, or ideal group work, and practice. Right now in my CP II at San Dieguito Academy, I am already seeing a lot of group work modeled and executed by an expert teacher. The problem is, yes, you do have dynamics where some students don't do the work; the higher level students take over; some students aren't polite; and the most recent challenge: a very vocal student who blurts out outrageous comments is now being mocked and shunned by his peers, and he feels like a pariah. These are ninth graders who are still learning about consideration and maturity. So I have some ideas of what to do...for example, to try to reinforce with the groups that everyone has the right to speak and to comment, and that no one should dominate. And to talk to the student directly to let him know that his insight is appreciated, but he doesn't have to comment all of the time, and needs to take more time before blurting out his responses.

However; we can preach democracy and equality all we want--but to some degree, we will still be working with students who can be savage. I have a hard time seeing that and calling kids out on that. And I feel like those individual conferences and adjustments may be just as important as promoting good group behavior.