The overall experience at Emerald High School was fantastic. It was amazing to see all subject areas working on individual projects that would help with their students soft skills. That is something my school struggles with as a whole in having all subject areas working on something that our students will be able to use in their future. As a science teacher I observed many aspects in the classrooms that I cannot wait to incorporate into my own classroom.
In the ELA classroom I loved how the teacher gave her students color personality tests to create classroom groups based on their personality rather than their ability. I would love to use this strategy in my class, due to my students consistently being in groups and working on independent group projects. I believe this would have a huge impact on their social skills ans work ethic.
I loved how in the biology classroom, I observed, the students were involved in a silent debate on the purpose of their PBL experience they were beginning, on whiteboards that were large enough for each student to reach and write their own response. When having my students come up with a whole group consensus, I have not been able to supply them with large enough boards or chart paper, for them all to work on at the same time, so I would love to get larger boards where they can erase or add more to it at the same time everyone else in the group is working. I believe this would cut back on students having their opinions swayed by what others have written and allows them to voice their opinions based on what they know, think, or what they have learned.
I also want to use the personality grouping with my students. Sixth graders will need some explanation of the traits, but I'm interested to see how groups turn out. Let us know how this works for you. :)
ReplyDeleteI was very impressed with the chemistry students!
Hi Kristi,
ReplyDeleteI am glad that you found the visit to Emerald High School beneficial and were able to find some take aways from the classroom observations that you could use in your classroom. Like you, I was intrigued by how the ELA teacher used the color personality tests. I did some online research and found a pdf template that was similar. I shared it on Taylor Thomas's post comments so check that out to see if it would work for you.
I also liked the way the chemistry class used the group sized dry erase boards for their collaborative work. You wrote about how you saw how these were large enough for each student to work individually at the same time in order to reach a consensus without one person doing all the work and/or dominating the decisions.
Thanks,
Dawn
I did like the color coded personality grouping. I recently decided to let the students create a list of four students they felt they could work with to create their spring PBL. They really liked picking other students that they could work with. Next, I created a chart and put at least two students who mentioned each other in a group. We haven't implemented the unit yet, so I can't say how it turned out yet.
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