Julianna Lux PBL Course 2 Blog #2 Video Selfie Reflection

Assignment Overview: I recorded my class’s creation of their class speech.  Each student had already written a Dream speech during the previous class periods, with the exception of the young lady in maroon (she was absent on that day and her speech’s lines were later added in). The students’ speeches were cut up into individual sentences. During this class period, students were to sort through the strips of paper they were given and organize them according to commonalities (sentence starters, such as “I have a dream…,” “Together,” “Now is the time…” and ideas such as freedom and equality). They weeded out the sentences that didn’t seem to fit and selected sentences they couldn’t live without. After sorting out the commonalities, we looked for common topics--equality, school, homelessness, etc.  Students grouped those ideas, and then they began piecing all of these together into separate paragraphs, which they taped onto the posters.  I then took their individual paragraphs, tweaked them a little (but not much), and then gave them their speech during the next class period. In order to accomplish all of this, they needed to understand how to structure a paragraph, connect similar ideas, and work together as a group.

Identifying What’s Important

In the segment on which I’m reflecting, I’m moving my students on to the last step of a class speech writing session--organizing the sentences into a paragraph.  I wish I’d asked my students what steps they think they should follow to create the paragraphs.  Perhaps by creating that sense of ownership in the process, more students would be willingly involved in the assignment. I notice that I provide some good feedback to the students, helping them understand to which categories their strips belong.  I need to learn to ask more questions instead of making statements.  When I’m working with each of the partnerships along the center row, I found I directed them more than guided them.  How much are they learning if I don’t grant them that ownership?  I am proud of my flexibility, though.  One of the group’s sentences didn’t fit as a paragraph, so I asked them to go around to the rest of the class’s paragraphs and work them into what the other students were creating.  I was reluctant because of how I know my students handle that form of interaction/distraction; however, they did well, and I had less sentence strips to incorporate on my own.

Making Connections

I did not give my students an assignment sheet for this because I wanted the flexibility of adapting it as we went along.  For some students, I believe that made each step harder because they didn’t have a reference when they lost track of what they were supposed to do.  Providing them with clearer instructions would decrease the downtime and questions they had.  I would have more time to provide feedback to each of the groups and not feel like I was losing my mind.  I also would have more time to focus on the random questions my students ask; I noticed a few asked me questions that I completely ignored, albeit unintentionally.

Incorporating Contextual Knowledge

Students were grouped into small groups of two to four students according to who I know works well together and ability levels. The three groups who were initially groups of four were larger because of the number of sentence strips I anticipated them receiving during earlier steps. I divided one of the groups during this section of the class because the number of topics we’d gathered required more groups. This also broke up a group in the back that hadn’t been as focused as they should have been unless I stood directly next to them.

Drafting Next Steps

In the future, I plan to have a more structured plan with instructions either projected on the board or on paper for them to read. I also plan to have the tables arranged in a way that allows me to traverse the outside of a circle/rectangle and keeps the students further apart from each other.  I believe the structure and arrangement will create a less chaotic environment and encourage the students to focus on the work in front of them as opposed to the students around them.