Genre unit day four was definitely one of my favorite lessons thus far. I really felt like the students learned so much content but did it in a way that was new and interesting for them. I also felt that the students did a lot of self-regulating of their own behavior and therefore, I did not have to intervene for behavior management issues as much as I would have expected when introducing a new learning style. We decided to test out the “fishbowl” strategy that we learned about in book club plus! We did alter it a bit for scaffolding purposes but I was very pleased at the result. The students applied the 6 strategies from Strategies that Work by Stephanie Harvey: asking questions, visualizing, determining Importance, synthesizing, inferring, and making connections. They learned these strategies on a level that I truly feel they are likely to consciously or unconsciously use them in the future. They also learned about the genre of historical fiction by listening to and discussing the book Encounter. They also learned about some historical content of Christopher Columbus and the Taino Indian people. Finally, they learned how to be respectful audience members, team members, and practiced their oral speaking skills by working in groups and sharing their answers through a version of a fishbowl.
The students that struggled were the ones that have difficulty working with their classmates and in groups on a regular basis. I have three Asbergers students so this impacts their teamwork skills greatly. Yet, despite these issues I still feel that they had a meaningful experience and learned the content while engaging in the lesson. During day four I learned that my students are actually quite thoughtful even while working with their peers and engaging in a student led discussion as opposed to a teacher led discussion. They seemed to really love the fishbowl!
If we were to re-teach this lesson we would have the students who are in the center of the fishbowl call on students in the outside of the fishbowl when they are ready forthem to add their ideas. This time we added some of our thoughts and expanded on what the students in the center said before calling on those in the outside of the circle but we think it may be more beneficial for the students in the center to call on those in the outside and then once all students have given their thoughts we could expand on their ideas and add any needed details. We think this would help the students to learn how to have a discussion as a class without us having to lead it all the time. We also think it would help them to take ownership of their thoughts and ideas and to realize that everyone in the class can help each other learn about each strategy and idea. It also helps students to understand how to be a respectful audience member and participant. If others are talking while they are talking they will understand what it feels like to be the teacher when they are talking.Collecting the notes from each group helped us to assess the groups beyond what they said in the fishbowl. It helped us to remember what they said and see where they are at in terms of the different strategies.
I agree that this was a great lesson for our students. As you know, I have a class full of behavior issues and I was very nervous for this lesson but really wanted to push my students because I know if they try they can do it. I was shocked at how well it went. My students did such a fantastic job working with their groups and taking notes to share with the class. Even the student who never wants to participate and would rather distract the class all day, was fully invested in this lesson and even contributed a lot when it was his groups turn to be in the middle of the fishbowl. The students outside of the fishbowl also maintained control and were fully engaged in what their peers were sharing. They also wanted to share more thoughts with their peers and did a great job adding on to what the groups in the middle shared. I was very proud of my students. It was also nice to see that they truly did learn these strategies from each other because just the other day I asked them to review their strategies and use them while they listened to me read Brother Eagle, Sister Sky. After reading the story I asked them to give me examples of when they used these strategies and almost every student was eager to share something with me and they all were making great connections. Synthesizing was difficult for them last time but one of my students was even able to use what he learned in Social Students to synthesize what they were learning in this book. It was great to know that the students understood all or most of the strategies and not just the one they really studied and shared with the class. This means they were engaged during the past lesson and were listening as their friends shared their information in the fishbowl.
ReplyDeleteI also think it’s important for students to work on their oral skills as you said. My students tend to struggle with speaking especially in front of others so this was a great way for them to practice in a relaxed setting. I also reminded them to use complete sentences when sharing their information and this in turn caused students on the outside of the fishbowl who were responding to thoughts of those in the fishbowl to also use complete sentences. The more we can have our students use their oral skills the better. I believe that it improves their writing skills as well because many of my students struggle with using complete sentences in their writing because they’re not used to speaking or thinking in complete sentences.
I think it’s important to allow students to take control of their learning whenever possible and allow them to realize that everything they learn does not need to come from their teacher; their peers have a lot of knowledge to share too. We are also working on teaching our students to be responsible for their work and by knowing that they had to share their information with the class and that the class was depending on them to teach, they were more focused and took responsibility for what they were working on and learning. I think the more we can give students the responsibility for their work and their peers learning the more they will always take responsibility for their actions and their learning.
Overall I think this was a great way to engage our students and I’m glad that it went well in both of our classrooms and that our students really took responsibility for themselves, behaved, listened to their peers, worked on their note taking skills, worked on their oral skills, etc. I do agree however that the next time we do this activity since the students are familiar with it that the students in the fishbowl should call on the students on the outside of the fishbowl to give the class more responsibility and total control of their learning. I of course will be there to help them understand the material and elaborate on comments when needed, but they would have more control over their learning. The students seemed to enjoy this activity and learned a lot while doing it as well!