This week the whole fourth grade (my class and Ms. Lewis's (Marie) class) went to Camp Duncan. This camp was all about team building, working together and overall just suppose to be a great adventurous and unique opportunity for the campers to be apart of.
Several students in my class have difficulties working with others when they are in a large group. A lot of them are leaders and prefer students who will just listen to their ideas and say what they want however, that does not work out so well when every student in the group is like that. They all do not listen to each other and they all got mad. This has affected several students from finishing their in class assignments which results in a zero for their grade.
This two day, overnight field trip really helped those students come together and work well. It was not easy getting them to this process and making sure that they were listening to each other and agreeing more instead of disagreeing but eventually they got there. It was very nice to see my students in all the activities today work well, help one another out and make sure that every one was included. No one purposely excluded someone else, or tried to lead the whole group they all realized that by working together and participating they could really accomplish a lot more.
It is interesting that you are connecting these more social activities to the academic work that you might do in class.
ReplyDeleteI think it is important that you specify (for yourself, as well as for your own instructional plans and future professional portfolio),
What are the process goals you want students to develop?
Why are these important for their academic / intellectual progress? (other than simply giving them a zero for participation...how is joint participation important for learning the mathematical concepts?)
How can you facilitate, develop, and manage students' social processes in your own class during mathematics instruction?
There are all important professional questions to wrestle with.