Shedding Some Light on My Learners….

1. …and how I teach them. 5 photos from Mr. Werley’s room Shedding Some Light on My Learners….

2. Yes/No • Type of Learning: This activity can be anything from conceptual to evaluative, analytical to applicative; it all depends on what questions you want to ask and how the students interact. The instructor poses a (purposefully open-ended) question, and the students must position themselves on one side of the room or the other, based on their yes or no response to the question; they must also, of course, be prepared to offer reasons as to why they are “taking their stand”.

3. Yes/No Continued • AIMS/PURPOSES: The main purpose behind this assignment is to get students to think about the critical questions that our reading is raising for us, or to get them to analyze and speculate on why the world works the way it does, and how/why that is reflected in our literature. • The learners that do well with this task are the social learners and the deep thinkers; the rest of the students benefit from hearing the conversation, and with certain topics I use strategies to make sure my more reluctant talkers work their way into the conversation; the quiet students tend to float to the outside of the group. • Strengths: This activity lends itself to quickly moving up the levels of Bloom’s into higher order processes of evaluating and analyzing--the students are forced to defend their rationale, and if it becomes personal, this can be a rather intense process. • Weaknesses: That occasional intensity has caused some emotional flare-ups before. There are also students that tend to try to dominate the conversation. • When it works best: At the beginning of units; introducing new concepts or enduring questions; after particularly emotive reading assignments.

4. Mixed Media Group Work • I love interactive group work, and I rely rather heavily on it in my instruction, in one form or another. Here, students are working in pairs with old magazines to construct satirical captions in an early part of a unit on satire. They had to find an appropriate advertisement, provide a satirical caption, and write up why their caption was satirical, along with the techniques of satire they felt they were using.

5. MMGW, Continued • AIMS/PURPOSES: To have the students interact with each other while also simultaneously interacting with the manipulatives--whether they are magazines, or youtube videos, or etc. Depending on pairing/grouping, to develop/combine the strengths and weaknesses of the individuals in the group. • If grouped properly, I feel that most of my students, with the possible exception being my very independent/introverted learners, learn well in situations like these. The trick is to find groups that are balanced that the students enjoy; easier in some classes than others. • Strengths: At its best, allows for interactive, inquisitive learning, with all members of the group contributing their individual skills. • Weaknesses: At worst, “parasitic”learning, or complete dominance by one member of the group/pair. • When it works best: To build concepts that are not quite new to students, but with which they have not fully constructed expertise as of yet. Also, for concepts or learnings that may be difficult for all learners, as it allows them to throw multiple minds at a challenging question/prompt/assignment.

6. Fishbowl • I have taken to using this strategy with increasing regularity as a method for final discussion over a piece of literature. The students receive 5-6 prompts and choose 2, one of which will be their primary prompt. The 4-5 students signed up for each primary prompt then lead a discussion over the prompt, with their pre-prepared answers providing for much of the conversation, as they sit in a circle of desks in the middle of the classroom. Other students may earn additional points by “jumping in” to the conversation (hence the extra, empty desk in the circle). Students are assessed over their prepared written answers and their participation in the discussion.

7. Fishbowl continued • AIMS/PURPOSES: To allow students to apply their reading and learning in a very pointed manner. They are on the spot, and they recognize the type of responses it takes to score points during the discussion. Thus, they dig deeper for more meaningful responses more consistently than when the conversation is just casual and teacher directed; in this way it becomes a great review tool, especially if the students on the outside of the fishbowl remain engaged. • Grouping here is key and can make or break the assignment. Students who grasp the concept of questioning skills will do well, as they will be able to keep the group moving. Groups of too many or too few leaders may quickly find themselves in trouble during one of these conversations. • Strengths: The amount of topics and the depth with which they are often covered is excellent here. Learning is also extremely student centered. • Weaknesses: It is occasionally difficult for me to intervene without causing some embarrassment for the group; preparation from all group members is critical for success; absences can cripple this activity as well. • When it works best: This activity has worked very well for me as a unit/novel review.

8. Modeling • I have found modeling student work to be invaluable, although at times very exasperating. I typically show these samples to my students either before (longer, out of class papers) or after (in-class timed writings or test essays) writing assessments in order to converse about approach, technique, and characteristics of successful writing. I typically use work of the high B to low A range, so we can thoroughly discuss what was successful and what could be improved.

9. Modeling, Continued • AIMS/PURPOSES--The main reason for using modeling is to force students to interact and think critically about the performance criteria for writing, as well as doing so with different audiences and purposes in mind. This also allows for students to have a chance to reflect on their own writing and to consider what they may wish to change or how to better focus their efforts. • Reflective and metacognitive workers typically do the best with this type of activity; they are the most willing to thoroughly delve into the analysis of the piece. Frustratingly, I have found that this activity typically doesn’t work well with my more reluctant writers--although they ARE typically able to distinguish different levels of writing ability, if given the opportunity. • Strengths: This activity allows for the chance for students to be evaluators. They can step away from their own work, put themselves into my shoes, frequently with a good amount of accuracy. • Weaknesses: Students can tend to focus to heavily on the content of the model essays-- “But mine had this part too, why did I get xxxxxx?” There is a level of maturity that must accompany exposing individual work to public scrutiny. • When it works best: When a writing assignment did not go well with much of the class; when one writing assignment shortly precedes another.

10. Forum Group Work • Well the pictures are rough, but this was my first foray into the use of an online resource as a means of discussion and communication amongst my students. They were provided with background information about the characteristics of British romanticism, and were asked to search for a youtube video that personified their characteristic. They were then to post the video and a short write up on the discussion forum on turnitin.com, and respond to three other groups’ postings.

11. Forum Group Work, Continued • AIMS/PURPOSES: This ended up working much the same way as a standard jigsaw, simply with the technological element added. The information sharing was more or less the same. • In a senior class with 26 students, I actually had almost half of them expressing their displeasure for using the online forum. I attribute some of this to the clumsiness of the forum itself, and some of this to the reluctance of my learners to transition their thinking to this type of environment. • Strengths: The paperless element was very appealing for me, and I also liked being able to sort through each student’s individual posts. It allowed for them to sort through the information on their own time as well. • Weaknesses: Issues of access remain a bit of a concern at my school, and this issue seems to be growing rather than shrinking. • When it works best: I would have to get back to you on this. I liked it for this particular assignment (jigsaw style) and I want to experiment with other uses.