My purpose the first time meeting with my team at Bancroft was getting to know them and a little why they wanted to be a part of the "No Drugs" group. We could talk about what they hoped we might do or achieve, as a positive end goal. Also, I wanted to initiate a discussion about our group expectations. I also wanted to get a good feel for this group and what their personalities were like.
We had maybe 40 minutes to meet. Two students arrived pretty late to our group because they were mistakenly put on more than one team or weren't there to vote.
Some things I was surprised about was that these 5th graders watched some awfully violent television. Who let's their kids watch "The Walking Dead?" I certainly wouldn't, because I can barely watch it. Some team members are extremely busy with after-school activities, while others have a great deal of free time.
We discussed the issues of drugs, with two main perspective: one of selling them and one of using them. Interestingly, they were split by gender. The boys wanted to end the selling of drugs wanted to discuss police actions and CCTV cameras. The girls were interested in tackling the usage of drugs, and wanted to inform others of how unhealthy they were. This will have to be something we discuss more in depth and reconcile, because there are many different ways of looking at the issue of drug use and abuse in our society.
We spent a bit of time creating frozen statues of things in which students should not be doing in group time. They really didn't get too far out of the box, becoming those fighting, standing on their chairs, sleeping, or yelling at each other. However, it began a conversation about our group norms or expectations when working. We decided being active/awake was important, along with working together well (on our intended goal of tackling this issue), and being respectful.
I also stressed how important it was to be thinking about this project outside of our Wednesday meeting time. The students were surprised that we would be meeting every week for eleven more weeks. They don't seem to see it the big picture quite yet, that we have time to create something big and doable. I will continue to stress the urgency.
Next week, I want to continue our group getting to know each other. I want to circle back to group expectations and add onto what we have with greater discussion. Having each member take a cooperative learning role would add more organization and get them more engaged in the process. I also want to briefly ask their thoughts on the group project, but not spend a great deal of time. I want to stress the amount of time we have yet, but that we need to be thinking about ideas and keeping our eyes open to news relevant to this topic.
I'm still not sure exactly what I will do, but am looking at the Public Achievement site for some. I do think Tay using the life map lesson would be effective.
We had maybe 40 minutes to meet. Two students arrived pretty late to our group because they were mistakenly put on more than one team or weren't there to vote.
Some things I was surprised about was that these 5th graders watched some awfully violent television. Who let's their kids watch "The Walking Dead?" I certainly wouldn't, because I can barely watch it. Some team members are extremely busy with after-school activities, while others have a great deal of free time.
We discussed the issues of drugs, with two main perspective: one of selling them and one of using them. Interestingly, they were split by gender. The boys wanted to end the selling of drugs wanted to discuss police actions and CCTV cameras. The girls were interested in tackling the usage of drugs, and wanted to inform others of how unhealthy they were. This will have to be something we discuss more in depth and reconcile, because there are many different ways of looking at the issue of drug use and abuse in our society.
We spent a bit of time creating frozen statues of things in which students should not be doing in group time. They really didn't get too far out of the box, becoming those fighting, standing on their chairs, sleeping, or yelling at each other. However, it began a conversation about our group norms or expectations when working. We decided being active/awake was important, along with working together well (on our intended goal of tackling this issue), and being respectful.
I also stressed how important it was to be thinking about this project outside of our Wednesday meeting time. The students were surprised that we would be meeting every week for eleven more weeks. They don't seem to see it the big picture quite yet, that we have time to create something big and doable. I will continue to stress the urgency.
Next week, I want to continue our group getting to know each other. I want to circle back to group expectations and add onto what we have with greater discussion. Having each member take a cooperative learning role would add more organization and get them more engaged in the process. I also want to briefly ask their thoughts on the group project, but not spend a great deal of time. I want to stress the amount of time we have yet, but that we need to be thinking about ideas and keeping our eyes open to news relevant to this topic.
I'm still not sure exactly what I will do, but am looking at the Public Achievement site for some. I do think Tay using the life map lesson would be effective.
Interesting to monitor your own response to their favorite tv shows and such. Why do you think you responded in this way? What do you believe about the "nature" of childhood and 5th graders? As much as possible, look inward rather than outward to judge quite yet.
ReplyDeleteIt is super interesting to think about how their approaches might be bound by gender. I wonder if they noticed it? I also wonder if the difference in approach is accounted for by how they understand the target audience for their PA projects. Gender might be an interesting thing to think more about for the action research project....
It is great that you are in a group that knows what they want to do and have already started brainstorming difference actions they could take. I think that having a sense of urgency is a good idea and also helps to make things quicker paced which some kids might really enjoy. We also established roles for the kids to take in their group, one of which being time keeper. When we do our agenda, we intend to include an amount of time for each activity. This helps us to stay on task and also be aware of what we are accomplishing. I think that it is very important to keep time valuable as you mentioned.
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