“The Label of ‘problematic student’ should never be seen as permanent or as indicative of unchanging characteristics of the person. Similarly, avoid seeing some students as ‘natural leaders.’ With proper training and your insistence that people play their roles most students should be able to perform leadership functions” (Cohen 75).
This quote stood out to me for many reasons. But first off, I haven’t seen structured group work in the classroom yet but there has been group work, casually. No one has necessarily had jobs or “leader positions” because there has only been brainstorming or paired group activities. I do know that students will be in groups for guided reading but this is based off of their reading levels and I am wondering if there will be group activities for them to do as well. I am interested to see what happens throughout the year and I hope to include this form of regulated group work that includes both individual work as well as group responsibilities. I thought that was a key point in the article, as well. Students need to have individual responsibilities but then report to the group and participate in collaboration and I hope to plan for this in the classroom.
As for the quote, I thought that this is indicative to our teaching profession. Teachers, as hard as they may try not to, judge students based on their behavior, but often forget that students behavior differs based on the situation they are in at the time. Students who have a difficult time with group instruction may actually work better in groups and possess attributes teachers may overlook. This ideal is crucial to keep in mind. With this being said the article gave a great comparison and challenged to teachers to take this farther and avoid seeing certain students as leaders. Although students many be natural leaders other students need to be challenged in these positions as well and leaders must also learn to take a step back and allow others to lead them. In real world scenarios people need to be versatile in their roles and we need to prepare our students for all of these roles. Overall this article was very beneficial and I am hoping to incorporate all forms of group work in my teaching and planning as well as challenge my students for many roles in life.
I agree that it can be difficult as an educator to sometimes not put "labels" on our students. We discussed in during our first week of class about reading the children's files to see if they were a behavior. By classifying a child as a behavior issue, usually falls into the way they are treated academically. I know that I have a few children in my class that are labeled as a behavior problem on their file. A majority of these students are also at the low end of the academic spectrum. However, there is one student that is an extremely high reader and is also excelling at mathematics.
ReplyDeleteWhile doing group work, it is difficult not to keep a closer eye on these behavior issue students. I know that the higher level learner, behavior issued student struggles during math lessons. He is at a 3rd grade level and therefore gets bored and starts to disrupt the rest of the class. Recently, we have been having him work with another high leveled math student during our mathematics time. They both work on third grade level work and help one another. It is amazing to see the difference in the behavior issued child's behavior when he is doing grade leveled work and when he is able to do work that provides a bit of a challenge to him.
I believe that knowing your students capabilities and personalities can help to eliminate the "bad kid" persona. Too often, I believe that these students with behavior problems are simple judged and continue to carry that sigma. it is important, as you say, to find jobs that suit them rather than setting them up for failure.
Sarah,
ReplyDeleteAgreeing with both you and Jessica it is hard for teachers to not label their students sometimes because we are human and as humans judging and labeling people is part of our nature--although I am sure we all wish it wasn't. Group work can be a challenging task for both teacher and student because there are always going to be those students that struggle or challenge you. I think that if group work rules are kept in view and are reviewed then students may have a better chance of following them and behaving in a way that is appropriate for group work tasks.
I think a great solution for group work would be sitting in on each group throughout the school year when students are in group work, seeing what is working and what is not working--this way you get a detailed version of what is going on. Good post Sarah, raises lots of ideas!