Interaction
Ask yourself; Have I provided:
• Frequent opportunities for interaction
• Grouping configurations support objectives
• Sufficient wait time for student responses consistently provided
• Ample opportunities for students to clarify key concepts in L1
I could definitely provide more opportunities for students to collaborate with others and work together to solve tasks. I am constantly trying to determine comprehension for individual students and sometimes get caught up in data collection. Learning occurs best when we work together and I could improve that facilitation. I also see myself calling on my eager beavers and need to incorporate more ways to encourage my shy students to speak out and contribute to the class. Thankfully, I do not have that many shy students anymore!
ReplyDeleteMy class is all about interaction. Students work together often. This interaction among students allows them to ask questions from one another to become more comfortable with course content. One downside is that many students become TOO comfortable relying on their classmates, so much so that it is often difficult for me to know which students really understand the material.
ReplyDeleteI have observed effective collaboration in an EL English 2 class. Grouping stronger English students with those less skilled helps bridge obvious gaps.
ReplyDeleteI use Kagan Cooperative Learning Strategies that provide a variety of ways for students to discuss and work together. Within using these strategies, students have sentence starters to guide their discussion. The groups are strategically organized to encourage support for students. Students are speaking more deliberately with more focus using the language objectives. Students are more willing to participate in the class discussion because their answers have already been validated by their partner or group.
ReplyDeleteAs an ESL teacher, it is a bit easier to allow for some of these in my class than it is in a mixed classroom. Wait time is so important. The biggest challenge, even in my classroom, is to keep the students with higher proficiency to not "help" the lower ones too soon.
ReplyDeleteI am better at letting my students discuss and collaborate in certain subjects more than others. I let my students turn and share but not enough. I get caught up in worrying about trying to fit the lesson in the amount of time I have, but I need to do a better job at this.
ReplyDeleteI like to let my kids collaborate, and I do it often, but then I have trouble monitoring that they truly are on task! At first my kids hated being paired to share with someone I CHOSE, especially boys being paired with girls.... but now it's kind of expected. They don't moan and groan as much. I think they honestly like it but are too cool to admit it!
ReplyDeleteInteraction Ask yourself; Have I provided: • Frequent opportunities for interaction • Grouping configurations support objectives • Sufficient wait time for student responses consistently provided • Ample opportunities for students to clarify key concepts in L1
ReplyDeleteI have implemented a grouping configurations that allows students to partner talk to allow them discuss, recount, argue, and explain throughout my instruction. This allows them to have multiple opportunities to use content vocabulary.
I feel i provide many opportunities for interaction between students. I group my students heterogeneously, which sometimes frustrates my higher students. I often have them working with partners or with a group to discuss their work. I have worked diligently this year to allow time for students to answer questions presented to them. But even with that I have discovered that some still clam up and won't answer aloud, but can and will answer one on one with me.
ReplyDeleteUsing the Whole Brain teaching method and making sure students are paired/tripled effectively has helped increase overall participation and taken some of the pressure off of me as the leader of the class and enabled students to be the one's controlling their learning.
ReplyDeleteSince this is my first year in ESL, I think I started out with an obsession to hear each individual voice. I am using partners to discuss, collaborate, and work together. I usually use a kiddo to be a partner and I refer to myself as "Angie" and I model what interacting with a partner should look like.
ReplyDelete