Kimberly Trott, World History, Ancient Greece, Self- Assessment Reflection

Kimberly Trott, World History, Ancient Greece, Self- Assessment Reflection

After reading the notes that Mrs. Mitchell took upon observing and interviewing my classroom, I decided the best thing to do would be to read the observation again and take notes, paying close attention to what the students were saying.  Therefore, after looking through my notes, and reading the self-analysis rubric this is what I noticed.

Identifying what’s Important: After reading through the observation, I focused on what students commented on.  The following topics are what I felt were helpful in either confirming my decisions or altering the unit for the next implementation.  Three themes emerged: creating better rubrics to hold students accountable for their group participation and behavior; adding more websites with vital information to help the students find answers to their research questions or making them somehow use the ones provided more efficiently (I found when working with them many only relied on the first website they went to, also maybe a requirement for books if I can check out some from the main library), and creating a way to divide up the project tasks among the students within each group to allow for student decision making (that is fair to all group members, but fosters independence) and group collaboration and cooperation.

Making Connection: I do see how discussing collaboration and communication, along with monitoring students as they work in their groups and providing verbal feedback even before the observation reinforced the students understanding of the need to work as a group and share the responsibility of completing the work.  I realized that the group who had the student who got out of his desk or was not participating had not voiced that concern to me and that was a part of the behavior contract we discussed.  If a student was not participating, a member should notify the teacher to help resolve the issue. 

Incorporating Contextual Knowledge:  I also noticed that student groups which were based on a combination of test scores and behavior based still needed to also be placed away from other groups of students that they were friends with or have behavioral issues with.  Contextual knowledge is learning occurs when teachers present information that students are able to construct meaning from based on their own personal experiences. As an entry into research on the Olympics, I tried to relate their knowledge of Michael Phelps to the Olympics to show them that this event came from the Greeks. 

What stood out more than any other thing is that student groups all employed various ways in which they thought they fairly assigned tasks in the group.  One of the main goals of contextual learning is to develop an authentic task to assess performance. It was impressive that students were able to regulate and assign different tasks within the group without me having to tell them who was going to do what.  They performed this real world experience well.  As the week progressed, I was also very impressed by several of my ESOL students and their desire to ask questions and gain further insight about the topics.  So, students were able to self-regulate who did what tasks if multiple elements were involved.  Along with that, after previewing a portion of their research and looking over material researched so far I noticed patterns in certain groups.  There were several students who failed to speak up in their groups and make sure their research sections were complete when it required them to get the information from fellow group members, so this is an area I need to deal with in helping shy students speak up and not work independently within a group setting.   

Drafting Next Steps:  Several issues will need to be addressed before the next implementation of the unit. Students need more web sites or somehow the ability to go beyond the first one.  One thing I noticed is that as I helped students; they tried to get all of their information from the first website I listed, versus scanning through multiple websites and finding multiple source that would help expand their answer.  Secondly, I am not sure the students should be dividing the workload themselves or if I should.  I know students found ways to divvy up the work but is that the fairest way. It seemed every group came up with a way.  I guess that is how it is done in the real world.  I definitely will need to do more self-assessments along the way.  I did one right after the observation but I think a more frequent group, combined with self-assessment would useful in reminding the students that they will be assessed on this portion of the project.  After making and giving the self-assessment, I realized I want to add a self-more detailed questioning. For example, asking the students to reflect on their dialogue with all the teammates, their behavior (did they get out of their desks, converse with other groups, etc…).  Also for time managements sake I will have to alter all of the research questions.  It took the students too long to research the material.  I will streamline it next time and get rid of any unnecessary or redundant questions.