Anderson’s communication models made me think a lot about the types of communication prevalent in my teaching. In my classroom there is a lot of teacher-student interaction. My goals are to find ways to make this more personal or one-on-one. I find that these interactions are more effective.
Another goal that I have is to increase the amount of student-student interaction in my class. Last week, to go over the homework assignment, I put the students into small groups and gave them some guidelines for discussion, rather than ask volunteers to come to the board and write examples. Theoretically I think everyone gets a lot more out of this arrangement. Practically, in my classes where students are less focused learners, it didn’t work. Many students saw the discussion time as an opportunity to talk about which 8th grader dumped which other 8th grader between period 1 and 2. However, in my focused groups it worked very well. I am not giving up yet on this type of interaction in the other groups. I may be very calculating in what students I put in each group, keeping chatty students who know each other well separated.
As far as my current use of web based resources in my classes, the interaction is entirely student-content. The online class environment is presented to the students solely as a supplemental resource. They can log on and find different activities and resources to help them review and practice Spanish.
I found Peyton’s studies on the initial stages of using internet chat in education interesting. The examples of how language learners can learn and improve from interaction with more proficient speakers contrast recent worries that texting and chat reinforce poor grammar and spelling. Obviously controlled chat for the purpose of language improvement is different than student texting on their phones after school. I wonder of early researchers saw the problem coming.
Recent developments have found ways to keep students accountable for their interactions in online courses. Discussion threads, blogs, and other asynchronous interactions help keep conversation focused on a single topic.
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3 comments:
It can be very difficult to implement student-student interaction, especially with student who aren't used to this arrangement.
Give me freedom and I'll run :)
I would suggest requiring a deliverable (presentation, document, ect.) that everyone has a hand in developing. In an arrangement like this it's best to have some sort of formalized roles (i.e., leader, recorder, researcher, etc.).
This holds them accountable for a product that does beyond what they did for their homework. The activity should move beyond this and require the input from each member.
I know that this is still an ideal situation, but it's worth a try (or 2 or 3).
Dan
Thanks for the idea. Even though I know I can look and immediately see who is on task, and who isn't, if the students know they will be required to turn in some kind of tangible product as a result of the activity, they will be more focused. hmmmmmm
One thing I always try to remember when I have kids in groupwork is that they are definitely showing their commitment at that time. Their attention is clearly visible to me because they need to be active and focused in order to complete their task. However, when I am lecturing, or when there is a single student presentting, they can often drift off into LaLa Land and I am not as cognizant of it. So some side conversation and poking needs to be tolerated. Perhaps that is the most involved that student has been in a while! We have trouble knowing for certain.
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