Out of all of the student's in my kindergarten class, I would have to say that Rebecca is struggling most when it comes to reading and writing. By this time in the year, students should be reading at a level 12 according to the DRA's. This means that they should be able to read a short story, with a sentence on each page. Rebecca struggles to even recognize the letters in the alphabet. During field last week, I watched Rebecca during all of the literacy activities to try to see how (and how much) she is participating. What I realized is that every time the students are asked to do a literacy activity, they are in groups. In the morning, my CT reads a story and asks a morning message about it. During this time, the students are in a whole group at the rug. Rebecca never raises her hand to participate in the morning message. When they sing their ABC's, Rebecca looks embarrassed and does not sing along. This made me think... do I ever see Rebecca participating in front of a group?
After Mr. C reads the daily story he sends the kids into their centers. Here, they work in front of or with other students to complete literacy activities. When they go to work more closely with grandma, they are still in their center groups. Mr. C will sometimes pull kids to work with, but again, they are together.
To get a better understanding of Rebecca, I pulled her aside to talk about reading and writing one on one. I asked her if she liked to read. She said no. She also said she didn't like to write. The whole time, Rebecca looked away. I wondered why I had never noticed how shy Rebecca was before and it hit me. I never really noticed Rebecca. It is the loud, excited, and outgoing kids that catch your attention. It takes effort to really pay attention to the students who are shy and afraid to participate in front of others. I wonder if Rebecca would be more engaged with literacy if she had the opportunity to learn one on one with her teacher? But with a class of 31, I do not see many chances for that type of learning. So what else can I do?
Reading the Gibbons chapter made me think about the importance of group work. Rebecca could really benefit from working with her peers, and instead of solely focusing on how she may improve with individual attention, I think it's important to consider helping her become more comfortable in the classroom community.
Several activities stood out to me in the chapters. First, having students interview each other and fill out questionaires (although simple- putting a one word answer to a question about the other student) about their classmates would be a great way for Rebecca to get to know the other kids. There are many group activities throughout the day, but Rebecca is never challenged to participate. The students are supposed to, but expectations are not enforced. Having this activity would allow all students to learn about each other, and would challenge Rebecca to talk to and in front of others.
I really liked the Hot Seat activity, but I think it may be too complex for kindergarten. Instead, I think that if Mr. C had name sticks or some other random calling method, Rebecca would have to participate in discussion and morning message responses. She doesn't participate but knows she will never have to. If a name is called, Rebecca will get used to sharing just like everyone else. Learning to work with her peers will help build literacy skills that will hopefully translate to improved reading and writing.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Struggling Students
Kepler is a student in my class who always surprises me. He knows so much knowledge about the world because he travels so much throughout the year. His mother is a professional writer and he loves telling me all the things she writes about. He probably knows every type of train and his high vocabulary surprises me every time I am in the classroom. However, Kepler has so many ideas in his little head that struggles to convey his thoughts through writing. Whenever the students in my class are assigned to write in their journals, he always takes so long to come up with something to write about that he only has about one sentence on his paper when the rest of the students are moving on to the next activity. He is always in need of a teacher to talk him through his writing so he can come up with ideas to write about. Even when he knows what he wants to write, he writes very slowly, thinking about the spelling of every word. Kepler loves to read and always has a book to recommend to me!
Paris is another student in my class that struggles with conveying her thoughts through writing. However, she has many problems trying to understand what they are asking of her to write about. She is low-achieving in almost every subject and needs extra assistance on her assignments. Paris likes to read aloud to me, yet she skips over many words and does not read with much expression. Paris depends a lot on her peers to help her through her writing assignments, asking them what they are writing about and copying off their ideas. Paris never hesitates to ask for help.
Alan is another student in my classroom who does not like reading or writing. Whenever he is assigned either one he goofs around and distracts his peers. In order to get him to beginning writing a teacher has to sit down with him and get him started. He has an attitude like he does not care about what he is working on and the teacher basically ends up giving Alan all his ideas for his writing assignments because he never can come up with ideas on his own. I think teachers just get frustrated with him and he has learned that they will eventually help him through his entire assignments so he does not have to try on his own. Alan is an EI student and always has a parapro with him. When Alan is reading he seems to just look at the picture and not the text itself. He can read, but not very fluently and often asks how to say many of the words because he does not try to sound them out on his own.
If I was working with Alan on comprehension I would like to use the “Hot Seat” activity in the Gibbons text. Alan loves to be the center of attention and loves to make his peers laugh. Since he has trouble figuring out what he can write on paper, I believe this activity would allow him to convey his thoughts while talking to his peers through a fun activity. In this activity Alan would portray a character in from a book and then answer questions from his peers pretending to be a specific character. Alan would love to do this activity and it would allow him to shine, along with using his comprehension skills to act like the character in the story.
If I was working with Paris on being able to comprehend what she is reading along with learning from her peers rather than copying from them I would use the activity “I’m Thinking of” in the Gibbons text. This activity would allow Paris to work in a group, something she is comfortable doing, and however, it would allow her to be able to come up with her own ideas so she would not be tempted to copy off her peers. She will be able to use her previous knowledge and turn it into a game where her peers will try to guess what she is describing. This activity will also allow Paris to gain knowledge from her peers because they will be modeling for her when it is their turn.
If I was working on conveying Kepler’s thoughts on paper I would use the activity, “Journal Writing” from the Gibbons text. This is simple writing practice that will get Kepler into the routine of writing after every assignment. The more writing, the faster he will get with putting his thoughts into words on paper and keeping up with the rest of his class. This journal activity asks the question, “What did I learn.” Even though this may seem very tedious to Kepler, it allows the teacher to see not only the improvement in Kepler’s writing over time, but also it will be a good assessment for the teacher to see if Kepler understands what he is reading, and not just moving slow through his writing.
Paris is another student in my class that struggles with conveying her thoughts through writing. However, she has many problems trying to understand what they are asking of her to write about. She is low-achieving in almost every subject and needs extra assistance on her assignments. Paris likes to read aloud to me, yet she skips over many words and does not read with much expression. Paris depends a lot on her peers to help her through her writing assignments, asking them what they are writing about and copying off their ideas. Paris never hesitates to ask for help.
Alan is another student in my classroom who does not like reading or writing. Whenever he is assigned either one he goofs around and distracts his peers. In order to get him to beginning writing a teacher has to sit down with him and get him started. He has an attitude like he does not care about what he is working on and the teacher basically ends up giving Alan all his ideas for his writing assignments because he never can come up with ideas on his own. I think teachers just get frustrated with him and he has learned that they will eventually help him through his entire assignments so he does not have to try on his own. Alan is an EI student and always has a parapro with him. When Alan is reading he seems to just look at the picture and not the text itself. He can read, but not very fluently and often asks how to say many of the words because he does not try to sound them out on his own.
If I was working with Alan on comprehension I would like to use the “Hot Seat” activity in the Gibbons text. Alan loves to be the center of attention and loves to make his peers laugh. Since he has trouble figuring out what he can write on paper, I believe this activity would allow him to convey his thoughts while talking to his peers through a fun activity. In this activity Alan would portray a character in from a book and then answer questions from his peers pretending to be a specific character. Alan would love to do this activity and it would allow him to shine, along with using his comprehension skills to act like the character in the story.
If I was working with Paris on being able to comprehend what she is reading along with learning from her peers rather than copying from them I would use the activity “I’m Thinking of” in the Gibbons text. This activity would allow Paris to work in a group, something she is comfortable doing, and however, it would allow her to be able to come up with her own ideas so she would not be tempted to copy off her peers. She will be able to use her previous knowledge and turn it into a game where her peers will try to guess what she is describing. This activity will also allow Paris to gain knowledge from her peers because they will be modeling for her when it is their turn.
If I was working on conveying Kepler’s thoughts on paper I would use the activity, “Journal Writing” from the Gibbons text. This is simple writing practice that will get Kepler into the routine of writing after every assignment. The more writing, the faster he will get with putting his thoughts into words on paper and keeping up with the rest of his class. This journal activity asks the question, “What did I learn.” Even though this may seem very tedious to Kepler, it allows the teacher to see not only the improvement in Kepler’s writing over time, but also it will be a good assessment for the teacher to see if Kepler understands what he is reading, and not just moving slow through his writing.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Weekly Blog
In my class we have a lot of students who are struggling to write at grade level. The students are pretty much all over the map and range from a 2nd grade writing level to a 6th grade writing level. This makes teaching quite difficult because you do not want to create hard assignments that the majority of the class can not finish but you do not want the upper edge class to be bored.
What I like to do is give the students an open-ended question that can have a multitude of answers; for instance, what would you do if you moved into the White House. This way the students who are above grade level writing can write as much as they want and be as specific as they want to be. Meanwhile the students who are struggling have a simple question where they can work on their writing and outlines. When we begin writing I try to go around and make sure that the struggling readers are working on an outline to get their ideas from their heads to the paper. I find that the majority of the problems that my students have stem when the students go to transcribe their thoughts onto the paper. I have also found that the students who excel with their writing and in other subjects some times have problems with transferring their thoughts onto the paper.
Another technique that I believe is very important for 4th and 5th graders is building their proofreading skills. The Tompkins article stats that a beginning writer should start to proofread their compositions in order to build a strong argument and make sure they are conveying the proper message. I have found that a lot of times students will not answer the question rather they will start answering the question and than go off into a tangent without knowing it. The major differences between the beginning reader and the fluent reader category is the student’s ability to be proficient in the proofreading and grammar areas, so I believe we should start them early.
One student however baffles me with how much knowledge he has and how he can connect complex ideas to other ideas. This student can tell you what anti-matter is and he can tell you the reasons why WWI happened. However this student cannot transfer the thoughts in his head to paper to save his life. The always complains about writing and how he never likes to write about his life because it is boring. He often says that he enjoys writing about fantasy but when he gets that opportunity he will only write one paragraph if that. He often wants to read me what he wrote but I always tell him that I need to read his paper, trying to get him to proofread it before he gives it to me to read. If you guys have any suggestions on how to develop his transfer ideas let me know!
What I like to do is give the students an open-ended question that can have a multitude of answers; for instance, what would you do if you moved into the White House. This way the students who are above grade level writing can write as much as they want and be as specific as they want to be. Meanwhile the students who are struggling have a simple question where they can work on their writing and outlines. When we begin writing I try to go around and make sure that the struggling readers are working on an outline to get their ideas from their heads to the paper. I find that the majority of the problems that my students have stem when the students go to transcribe their thoughts onto the paper. I have also found that the students who excel with their writing and in other subjects some times have problems with transferring their thoughts onto the paper.
Another technique that I believe is very important for 4th and 5th graders is building their proofreading skills. The Tompkins article stats that a beginning writer should start to proofread their compositions in order to build a strong argument and make sure they are conveying the proper message. I have found that a lot of times students will not answer the question rather they will start answering the question and than go off into a tangent without knowing it. The major differences between the beginning reader and the fluent reader category is the student’s ability to be proficient in the proofreading and grammar areas, so I believe we should start them early.
One student however baffles me with how much knowledge he has and how he can connect complex ideas to other ideas. This student can tell you what anti-matter is and he can tell you the reasons why WWI happened. However this student cannot transfer the thoughts in his head to paper to save his life. The always complains about writing and how he never likes to write about his life because it is boring. He often says that he enjoys writing about fantasy but when he gets that opportunity he will only write one paragraph if that. He often wants to read me what he wrote but I always tell him that I need to read his paper, trying to get him to proofread it before he gives it to me to read. If you guys have any suggestions on how to develop his transfer ideas let me know!
Monday, February 16, 2009
Issues with Phonics
There is one boy in my class who struggles with phonics, specifically with segmenting and blending to form words. He knows his letter sounds but is unable to separate words out into their individual phonemes and then blend them together when we read a story. He does know some sight words but still struggles with many of these as well. Right now he spends his time practicing reading but I feel that he may need to back up a step or at least spend more time with just practicing how to put words together through segmenting and blending. He could really benefit from some one-on-one help.
The main concept that he needs work with then before he can move forward towards reading is probably getting some practice with segmenting and blending words. The first activity I might try with him is just focusing on beginning sounds by providing him with a word and asking him to just give me the beginning sound or the first sound he hears in that word. Then I would ask him for the middle sound and then finally the last sound. (I would make these short words such as cat, log, red, bin, etc). After that we would practice putting the word together to form a whole word. We would practice these together and then I would ask him to try a few on his own.
A second activity I might try would be one similar to the phonological awareness activities we did in class today, blending phonemes into real words. I would say the different phonemes of a word (i.e. /d/ /o/ /g/) and then ask him to tell me what the word is. Along with this activity I would include having him segment the words that I say (i.e. I give him the word “not” and he replies /n/ /o/ /t/). This would help him get some practice with segmenting and blending orally before looking at an actual word on paper and trying it on his own.
A third activity I would want to do with him would then be to do some practice with putting letters together to form words as well as rhyming. I would cut out squares that had different letters on each square. I would then segment a word out loud and ask him to find the corresponding letters to the sounds and put them together to then discover the word. For example, if I said /r/ /a/ /g/, he would have to find the letter that corresponds with each sound and put them together, then look at the word himself and blend in order to come up with the word. I would make it so that some words would have similar beginning sounds and others would have similar ending sounds (i.e. doing “rat” and “rag”, or “hat” and “sat”). This would help him start to form a better idea of how words are put together and that many words are very similar and only vary but a single letter or sound.
Through all of this I feel it would be important to just move slowly. I feel that he is being rushed through a lot of the work and is failing to grasp concepts but the rest of the class continues to move forward while he falls further and further behind. Through activities such as these I feel he could gain some valuable insight into phonics and other aspects of phonemic awareness that would be really helpful for him. In addition to these types of one-on-one activities, in whole group discussion I would spend time incorporating other activities for beginning readers as is mentioned on p. 97 of the Tompkins book, like reading charts of poems and songs using choral reading. I think that had activities such as these been incorporated into daily learning right from the start of his education then this student may not have had as many issues as he currently faces.
The main concept that he needs work with then before he can move forward towards reading is probably getting some practice with segmenting and blending words. The first activity I might try with him is just focusing on beginning sounds by providing him with a word and asking him to just give me the beginning sound or the first sound he hears in that word. Then I would ask him for the middle sound and then finally the last sound. (I would make these short words such as cat, log, red, bin, etc). After that we would practice putting the word together to form a whole word. We would practice these together and then I would ask him to try a few on his own.
A second activity I might try would be one similar to the phonological awareness activities we did in class today, blending phonemes into real words. I would say the different phonemes of a word (i.e. /d/ /o/ /g/) and then ask him to tell me what the word is. Along with this activity I would include having him segment the words that I say (i.e. I give him the word “not” and he replies /n/ /o/ /t/). This would help him get some practice with segmenting and blending orally before looking at an actual word on paper and trying it on his own.
A third activity I would want to do with him would then be to do some practice with putting letters together to form words as well as rhyming. I would cut out squares that had different letters on each square. I would then segment a word out loud and ask him to find the corresponding letters to the sounds and put them together to then discover the word. For example, if I said /r/ /a/ /g/, he would have to find the letter that corresponds with each sound and put them together, then look at the word himself and blend in order to come up with the word. I would make it so that some words would have similar beginning sounds and others would have similar ending sounds (i.e. doing “rat” and “rag”, or “hat” and “sat”). This would help him start to form a better idea of how words are put together and that many words are very similar and only vary but a single letter or sound.
Through all of this I feel it would be important to just move slowly. I feel that he is being rushed through a lot of the work and is failing to grasp concepts but the rest of the class continues to move forward while he falls further and further behind. Through activities such as these I feel he could gain some valuable insight into phonics and other aspects of phonemic awareness that would be really helpful for him. In addition to these types of one-on-one activities, in whole group discussion I would spend time incorporating other activities for beginning readers as is mentioned on p. 97 of the Tompkins book, like reading charts of poems and songs using choral reading. I think that had activities such as these been incorporated into daily learning right from the start of his education then this student may not have had as many issues as he currently faces.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Elementary Discussions
In the Triplett article I read for our class jigsaw reading I learned different ways on how I can incorporate discussion into an elementary classroom. Before reading this article I thought it would be way too difficult to incorporate discussions into a classroom at the elementary level. Triplett stated, “Elementary students can have discussions that promote higher order thinking. When topics are related to children developing identities, including race, gender, and class.” Triplett also stated later in the article that, “Students reported in interviews that book discussions were the most important aspect of their motivation and comprehension.” These two statements taught me that it is very necessary that teachers involve elementary students in discussion at an early age to aid in their comprehension and open doors for students to relate what they are reading to their everyday lives.
Monday in class we also talked about recitations and discussions which also made me think about incorporating them into my classrooms. I really liked how we talked about how discussions made students aware that there are multiple answers to questions, and how both recitations and discussions are a good way to balance comprehension. We talked about how it is necessary to have multiple ways of assessment for variety and balance. Above all, I remember someone in class brought up wait time. This made me think about my current placement. During my social studies and science lessons I taught for 401, my teacher always gave me wonderful feedback. For both lessons she told me I need to improve on my wait time. She said I asked wonderful questions but I did not allow enough wait time so that all the students had time to think about what I was asking them. I feel that this component is very necessary in a classroom because every learner is different. Every learner comprehends knowledge at different levels, and we as teachers need to acknowledge this and allow enough time for students to think about the question they are being asked. If a teacher allows enough wait time, then the students will be able to have a more fruitful discussion because hopefully every student will be able to contribute.
I am excited for our Language Arts lesson because we will be able to have a discussion with our students. In science we were able to have a mini discussion with a small group of students. Through that discussion I learned that it is hard for a teacher to prepare for what will come up during the discussion so it is important for teachers not to over-prepare and allow students to bring up what is on their mind.
Monday in class we also talked about recitations and discussions which also made me think about incorporating them into my classrooms. I really liked how we talked about how discussions made students aware that there are multiple answers to questions, and how both recitations and discussions are a good way to balance comprehension. We talked about how it is necessary to have multiple ways of assessment for variety and balance. Above all, I remember someone in class brought up wait time. This made me think about my current placement. During my social studies and science lessons I taught for 401, my teacher always gave me wonderful feedback. For both lessons she told me I need to improve on my wait time. She said I asked wonderful questions but I did not allow enough wait time so that all the students had time to think about what I was asking them. I feel that this component is very necessary in a classroom because every learner is different. Every learner comprehends knowledge at different levels, and we as teachers need to acknowledge this and allow enough time for students to think about the question they are being asked. If a teacher allows enough wait time, then the students will be able to have a more fruitful discussion because hopefully every student will be able to contribute.
I am excited for our Language Arts lesson because we will be able to have a discussion with our students. In science we were able to have a mini discussion with a small group of students. Through that discussion I learned that it is hard for a teacher to prepare for what will come up during the discussion so it is important for teachers not to over-prepare and allow students to bring up what is on their mind.
kids say the darndest things...
I have always imagined myself to be the type of teacher that incorporated discussion into the classroom whenever possible. I loved the classes (although there were very few of them) that allowed students to think out loud and bounce ideas off of their peers. To me, this is one of the best ways to learn. I must admit, though, that the idea of students becoming comfortable in a discussion and expressing their ideas can be a little bit scary. Not because I am afraid of what they will say, exactly, but because I have learned the importance of keeping students on task and focused throughout a lesson. From my experience in field over the past couple of years, I have seen how excited students get during a discussion. They are able to share their own experiences and make connections to their life outside of the classroom more freely when they are discussing a topic rather than being spoken to about a topic. However, students (especially in the lower grades) tend to get off task and go on rather long tangents when they become more comfortable speaking. Personally, I think that a lot of good ideas come from these "tangents", and as a facilitator of discussion, a teacher must help to point out the ideas within a student's response and help others to make connections to what their peers are saying. However, kids do say "the darndest things", and maintaining a balance between allowing students to discuss and keeping them on track is a challenge that I think will take a great deal of practice... and patience.
Reading Chapter Ten of Weinstein's Elementary Classroom Management really helped me to feel less anxious about facilitating discussions. What I found most helpful is the practical tips that were outlined for both recitations and discussions. I think that the portion on discussion tips is really relevant for lower elementary classrooms. I do not remember having any type of discussion until high school, so I want to make sure this is incorporated at an earlier age. One of the teachers mentioned in the text points out that "it takes time to learn how to participate in a discussion, and it's not easy to break out of the teacher-dominated interaction pattern so characteristic of classrooms". I think that if we start teaching students how to have an effective discussion earlier, they will be able to engage in this type of learning for a longer amount of time, which will help make meaningful connections before a high school setting.
The tips in the chapter make this seem possible. First, it mentions carefully planning a discussion question. Giving the students a jumping off point is critical to good discussion. Careful planning allows for creating subquestions in case students need a little more prompting later on in the discussion. I like how the text also points out that you should not give answers to the question if students seem stuck, and instead invite the students to tell anything they know about the question, or what it means to them. Finally, I think it is important to remember not to comment after the first student's contribution, and instead give proper wait time, which is something we discussed a lot in class. Allowing students time to think is very important and will result in better quality responses. Colleen also pointed out in class that younger students probably just need more wait time while participating in discussion. I am glad she pointed that out because I had the mindset that younger students wouldn't be able to have a meaningful discussion because they seem to be unable to make connections to what their peers are saying. I never considered the amount of wait time they are being given, and I am interested to see what happens when you allow them more time to really think about what is being said.
Reading Chapter Ten of Weinstein's Elementary Classroom Management really helped me to feel less anxious about facilitating discussions. What I found most helpful is the practical tips that were outlined for both recitations and discussions. I think that the portion on discussion tips is really relevant for lower elementary classrooms. I do not remember having any type of discussion until high school, so I want to make sure this is incorporated at an earlier age. One of the teachers mentioned in the text points out that "it takes time to learn how to participate in a discussion, and it's not easy to break out of the teacher-dominated interaction pattern so characteristic of classrooms". I think that if we start teaching students how to have an effective discussion earlier, they will be able to engage in this type of learning for a longer amount of time, which will help make meaningful connections before a high school setting.
The tips in the chapter make this seem possible. First, it mentions carefully planning a discussion question. Giving the students a jumping off point is critical to good discussion. Careful planning allows for creating subquestions in case students need a little more prompting later on in the discussion. I like how the text also points out that you should not give answers to the question if students seem stuck, and instead invite the students to tell anything they know about the question, or what it means to them. Finally, I think it is important to remember not to comment after the first student's contribution, and instead give proper wait time, which is something we discussed a lot in class. Allowing students time to think is very important and will result in better quality responses. Colleen also pointed out in class that younger students probably just need more wait time while participating in discussion. I am glad she pointed that out because I had the mindset that younger students wouldn't be able to have a meaningful discussion because they seem to be unable to make connections to what their peers are saying. I never considered the amount of wait time they are being given, and I am interested to see what happens when you allow them more time to really think about what is being said.
Monday, February 9, 2009
WAR
A discussion to me is a conversation where the students respond to a prompt and than the students shape the conversation. I led a discussion the other day in my 4th/5th grade classroom on the topics of; was war the best solution to WWI and WII?
Before I gave the students the prompt I set some of the ground rules that the students must follow in order to be involved in the discussion and to remain in the discussion. I told them that in order to participate in the discussion they had to have completed their homework from the day before (since the prompt came from the homework) and that they must follow the rules that we establish.
I told the students that they must raise their hand if they want to talk and when another student stopped talking I would point at them and they could respond. We have had some issues with students just talking over other students so I figured that would be a solid approach.
I wanted to do this discussion because it seemed that the students really wanted to talk about their different perspectives with the group but the teacher did not really allow them time to do so. McGee states, “In a group, readers share their own understandings and significant insights and must convince others of the value of their insights.” I believe that this type of skill is a necessity for survival and success in this modern day and age. In high school, college, and the job world you will not be judged for the most part about the facts you know but on how you can apply those facts and make the best possible decision.
So we started the discussion and the students talked about how the war was “going to happen” because of the events that took place. Rather than answering the question the students took it to a different level and talked about the type of things that you could go to war for. They came up with “Ideas, if people are hurting other people, and if someone bad was doing something really bad” but what we shouldn’t go to war over was “Land”
They created the discussion all on their own and everyone was really engaged in the discussion.
Before I thought about doing the discussion I had to know several things about the students as learners. I had to know how the students work with other students in a discussion type setting. I also had to know if the students could handle the discussion topic which was about the touchy subject of war.
Before I gave the students the prompt I set some of the ground rules that the students must follow in order to be involved in the discussion and to remain in the discussion. I told them that in order to participate in the discussion they had to have completed their homework from the day before (since the prompt came from the homework) and that they must follow the rules that we establish.
I told the students that they must raise their hand if they want to talk and when another student stopped talking I would point at them and they could respond. We have had some issues with students just talking over other students so I figured that would be a solid approach.
I wanted to do this discussion because it seemed that the students really wanted to talk about their different perspectives with the group but the teacher did not really allow them time to do so. McGee states, “In a group, readers share their own understandings and significant insights and must convince others of the value of their insights.” I believe that this type of skill is a necessity for survival and success in this modern day and age. In high school, college, and the job world you will not be judged for the most part about the facts you know but on how you can apply those facts and make the best possible decision.
So we started the discussion and the students talked about how the war was “going to happen” because of the events that took place. Rather than answering the question the students took it to a different level and talked about the type of things that you could go to war for. They came up with “Ideas, if people are hurting other people, and if someone bad was doing something really bad” but what we shouldn’t go to war over was “Land”
They created the discussion all on their own and everyone was really engaged in the discussion.
Before I thought about doing the discussion I had to know several things about the students as learners. I had to know how the students work with other students in a discussion type setting. I also had to know if the students could handle the discussion topic which was about the touchy subject of war.
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