The reading that stuck out to me this week was in the chapter 8 of the Cohen book. This chapter was about grouping students with the multiple ability strategy. One of the quotes that stuck out to me was “Instead of uniformly high expectations, high status students are expect to show strengths and weaknesses like everyone else. The same is true for low status students who are now expected and expect themselves to be at some of the important abilities relevant to this task. The teacher has created a mixed set of expectations for everyone.” (Cohen, 123). The reason that I enjoyed this passage was because it makes each student say things they are good at and things they need to improve on. I think this helps higher students and lower students while working in groups. The higher students realize that they are not good at everything and they will need help from everyone in the group. The lower students realize that they have an important role in the group and it makes everyone else in the group realize they have an important role in the group.
This chapter mainly focuses on socioeconomic status or race however I think it can be applied to almost any situation where someone in the group feels like they are not as smart and someone believes they are superior of others. My students are mostly come from white-middle class families, so the main problem in groups the superior person. If everyone in the group knew they had worth, I believe group work would become even among the members (or closer to). Also as the Cohen chapter said, my students need to stop thinking the only “smart students” are the ones who read well or “get good grades”.
The chapters focus about students using group work to find out their special abilities (Cohen, 122). I personally found this a very interesting way of thinking about group work. I am someone who, as a student, did not always like group work. However, as a teacher I can see if it is organized correctly and introduced right, it can be very powerful. After thinking about how putting this in my classroom this year, I have came up with some different things. For instance, explain the assignment and have each person think of something they can bring to the project. Then think about something that they are not as strong at doing. Once they are in the groups they will need to share these ideas and then decide who will be doing what part of the project. This way, roles are assigned and everyone knows what they are doing before diving into the group work.
I can’t wait to see if this makes a difference in my classroom.
Megan,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post about group work. When I think of small group activities I usually think that I will make groups of students who have similar abilities or need the same type of help. what is most interesting is that sometimes you get a more richer conversation if you mix abilities. This means that you are getting students who are good a lots of different things.
I think it is so important that students know that the smart students are not just the students who read well or who get good grades. In our class we did a survey on "how many ways are you smart?" This gave students a chance to realize all of the potential ways students can contribute to our class. I think also this was a confidence booster to our students because they realized that they had things to offer to the class.
This connects to your comment about worth. Students need to feel needed in the classroom, explaining to them that what makes a classroom dynamic is all of the different perspectives, and experiences that they can bring into the classroom. Just because a student gets a better grade then another, doesn't mean that the one that received a lower grade doesn't have something to offer. It is so important that we teach our children that we need all of them! The mix is what makes for good discussions and helps us learn from each other.
Your post reminded me of our survey that we did and I could really connect to what you were saying.
Thanks!
Shannon
Megan,
ReplyDeleteI totally agree that having a discussion or talking about things that each student needs to improve on is a great idea. Not only does it show the lower-achieving students that these "smart" kids don't know everything, while also bringing those higher achieving students back to earth and teaching some humility. Like Shannon said, everyone has something to offer to a group discussion, sometimes the hardest part is just realizing that simple fact. Thanks for the great post!