Something has occured to me. Many of the skills we're learning from engagement to class management come from tried and true interpersonal and coping skills. Group work not only provides an effective forum in which to teach, but it prepares our students for the workplace and to be good parents and partners. Overall, the communications skills they get from group work can be parlayed into every day life. Many parents and partners could be spared the money and time of having to go to therapy or take parenting classes if they had received good fundamental group working skills in school. Skills such as sending an "I" message instead of blame is something many adults could be spared of having to learn later on in life. Learning to reach consensus also isn't as evident as it seems. We know this when we witness congress in daily gridlock.
An additional benefit of effective group work is that it really is an effective way to hone problem solving, analytical thinking and decsision making. By striving to verbalize, summarize and analyze studnets are exercising higher order thinking. Mostly they create a space where they learn how to talk to each other. They exercise a dialectic where they recognize that the world is not black and white and that "there is often more than one legitimate perspective on a problem" (pg 57) The bottom line is that the other byproduct of effective group work is improved test scores and deeper understanding of the subject material.
Written instructions have so far been the biggest revelation in our group work. As we’ve used them, we’ve consistently marked up the page, mulled over a particular word and had them help us shape our project (re: Ethnography). For me, when I go to teach group work, I’ll remember this and be sure to stay PITHY. It’s my tendency to carry on, especially when I’m not clear. So I better be clear. The last thing I want is to seriously “misfire” well intentioned plans. Or worse confuse my students.
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Neat connections you are making while reading. It seems to drive home for you that you are teaching children first, content second. How cool is it that the byproduct of teaching the child is improved test scores! (because you are teaching children how to think and engage the content in a way that makes knowing more relevant, connected, personal, profound, ...)
ReplyDeleteMy written instructions most certainly carry WAY too much verbage. It is a battle for me. I would rather say, "Create an ethnography for your school site that answers the following question: ____", and let people make of that task as they would. Yet I feel swamped that people want specifics, assessment details, etc... aargh, I am of two minds on that (well, maybe not--maybe I know what I want, but am afraid to do it).
I am much better and in tune with simple verbal instructions in the classroom (certainly not perfect). But yes, I totally agree the less said, the better.