Designing Groupwork: Strategies for the Heterogeneous Classroom Chapters 1-3

Children learn by talking and working together. I have noticed that even though a teachers intuition tends to believe that this talk is off task, in reality, students are very capable of making connections and holding converstations that are on task. In fact, students tend to learn more about the content when they are able to learn from each other. This kind of learning is considered active learning as opposed to passive which would be a teacher centered model that allows students to take notes, rarely ask questions, and at times tune out of what is happening in the class. Groups are particularly useful for mixed academic and language skills. This is because you can either create heterogenous groups or homogeneous groups depending on the assignment, allowing for students in these mixed settings to succeed. However, the author admits that he does not know "whether the principles hold under all conditions." I think what I would like to learn about some more is how much growth actually happens during groupwork compared to the alternative, and if empirical evidence is necessary. I have found through this whole program how interesting and important groupwork actually is in academic learning.
Why Groupwork- Groupwork is effective for achieving certain intellectual and social learning goals. For starters, students grow very fast intellectually when they are able to bounce ideas off of each other, sparing new ideas and contesting others. I remember in college my favorite thing to do when I was reading something very interesting was to find somebody and talk to them about it. Socially, the growth should be easy to see. Obviously, students working together in groups are going to learn how to cooperate. Groupwork also allows students to get the abstract concepts that are usually so difficult to achieve in other sorts of classrooms. Even though the author talks about how groupwork is not good for all situations, I think that groupwork can excel in most, if not all situations. I would like to learn more about this.
The Dilemma of Groupwork is mostly about the problems that occur during groupwork when things are not fully thought out by teachers and the social hierarchies that occur among groups on several levels.

Ethnography

Ethnography should always be considered when teaching in an area. Social Organiztion in schools was a really kind of eye opener that allowed me to understand the inter-workings of the school system. Also, I found it interesting that, even though ethnography is important, it is not always the best way to get the entire perspective of the school.
I would like to understand more the possible generaliztions that come from ethnography and the best ways to implement are findings.
I would like to know more about asking researchable questions.

Disrupting Class

This week I learned that there are a few things schools should shoot for in order to be successful: Maximize Human Potential, Create School Democracy, Hone Student Skills, and Nuture Student Devolopment. Also schools should differentiate the way they teach according to the students they have in class. This relates well with the Ethnography reading because it displays the importance to understand and know the background of students. Finally, I learned a little more about what my goals should be as an example. For instance, I should help my student solve real world problems, generate new problems to solve, and give them a skill to offer the world once they leave school.
A couple of things I disagreed with were the sections on standardized testing and always introducing new theories about learning. I think as far as standardized testing is concerned the theory is good but since things are motivated by money schools do not really use the test for its real purpose, but rather for a way to earn money. With regards to new theories, there is no real way to test the effectiveness of these new theories without throwing a bunch of money at them.
What I would like to learn more about is how to really implement Gardner's theories into the classroom.

Disrupting Class

In the brief introduction we read in class tonight, I found it interesting when the article talked about all the possible reasons American students are falling behind students from other countries; however,the book refutes that all of those possible causes are the root of the problem, and instead, argues that the extrinsic values are not the same here as they are in other countries. More specifically, the introduction argues that since the United States has become prosperous and its citizens do not necessarily need to fight for those practical jobs to be wealthy, they choose more fluffy occupations and interests to pursue in College.

Reading Response 1

Jason Gaylord
EDSS 530, Heil
February 2, 2010
Reading Response 1
Rethinking High School: Best Practice by Design

This chapter talked about the foundation of a new high school in Chicago, Illinois. The school focuses on “reading,” “writing,” and “thinking.” Not only are Best Practice High Schools supposed to produce students that were well versed in reading, writing, and thinking, but also, become a school were safety, personal attention, and extra help would be a staple. The book, in particular, speaks on reforming existing high schools, starting new programs within the larger school, breaking big schools into smaller ones, creating new public, charter or independent high schools, and starting to think about what these new choices mean in our own public school districts. Issues most significant in starting a new and effective school include size, climate, voice and leadership, teaching, curriculum, community experiences, scheduling, technology and materials, assessment, professional development, and finally relationships. This list was compiled by looking at several different factors that affect schools in the United States today. Several philosophies the first chapter discussed briefly were student-centered teaching, experiential, holistic, authentic, expressive, reflective, social, collaborative, democratic, cognitive, developmental, constructivist, and challenging learning.
Keeping this new model in mind, several schools have implemented several forms of this and been fairly successful; however, there is no way to be for sure since the ideas are fairly new and recently limited in funding. Right now, America’s high schools need to be reformed and brought into the future. We must challenge our students and hope that we will find the support we need. There is a great need to keep up with the times and further America’s education system into the future.