WEEK 5 (Feb. 15): Groupwork, Problem Solving, & More School Reform

The first portion of class today involved reviewing the content of Chapters 1-3 of Cohen’s Designing Groupwork for Heterogeneous Classrooms, especially the arguments for why use groups as a teaching strategy.

The remainder of the morning was for ethnography groups to work on their project.

After lunch, we viewed a video describing reform efforts at several schools and districts circa 2005. The first two schools I asked you to consider what you learned and what you wonder about the experience of each constituent group, students, teachers, community. The last episode was about a school district, which we viewed through the 6 lenses proposed by the CA reform document Second to None.

We concluded the day with a problem-solving task—build the tallest, stable structure with toothpicks and marshmallows. The two important learnings are (1) that problem solving can be taught (Jerome Bruner), and (2) that content can be taught through problem solving activity. In today’s example, the physics principles of structure and stability were explored.

Homework – for Feb 22.
1. Read Cohen, Ch. 4-5
2. Ethnography
3. Reading Response – write on your own blog
4. Tweet – Special instruction: share the particular reform and the website for the
    school you posted to your blog (or another one) in a tweet. I want you to use the
    tinyurl tool to share the website address.

5. Answer question below

This week’s question: Consider something you learned outside of school with little or no help from a teacher (programming your DVR, gaming, sports, knitting, etc.). What was it? What distinguished this learning from your learning inside school? What might school teachers learn from this?

Reading Reflection 3 - Instructions

A simple request for your third reading reflection:

For each of the 3 chapters of the Cohen text book Designing Groupwork for Heterogeneous Classrooms:
• summarize the content in 2-4 sentences
• connect the content to another reading, experience, or curiosity in 1-2 sentences

And close with the next thing you would like to know or are wondering about, related to designing groupwork for heterogeneous classrooms.

Blog post instructions / reminders
• Respond in your own course blog page.
• Title your response: Reading Reflection 3 - Groupwork ch. 1-3
• Due: February 15, before class.

WEEK 4 (Feb. 8): Digital Na(t)ïves & Studying Schools

Today I hoped we would focus primarily on 3 items,
• introducing strategies to support groupwork
• debriefing our efforts to modernize our technological lives
• transitioning from secondary school reform visions of the 1990's to practices of today, via thinking about the study of schooling via ethnography

We began with the Broken Circle activity which is meant to bring out two key behaviors that make a group successful: Pay attention to what other group members need, and No one is done until everyone is done.

Next we reviewed the key online structures for our class--listed below--and discussed pros cons of technology, asked questions about getting some things done, shared online possibilities and resources, and generally debriefed our technology experiences the past week.
• WebCT - course base station, assignments, grades
• Class Blog - weekly review, reading reflection assignments, and "other"
• Own blog (for the class) - where you will keep Reading Reflections, your class journal
• Twitter #ed530 - the backstory discussion forum for our course
• Class Ning page - not really sure yet what this is, other than a place to share and discuss

Before lunch, you began considering the course assignment to complete an ethnographic analysis of your CP II placement. You posted the web address of an interesting school and a brief comment stating what element of reform this school had undertaken on your class blog, as well has reviewed some of the Second to None attributes evident at your CP II school. The afternoon was dedicated to beginning and planning for your ethnography work.

Homework for next week, Feb. 15 follows:
1. Read chapters 1-3 in the Cohen book.
2. Complete Reading Response 3
3. Remember to respond to the question below using the comment feature
4. Reminder, last week I asked that you add a photo to your class blog and your Twitter account.
5. Tweet: send out a random thought or experience that connects with our class; use #ed530

Week 4 Question: What was the best book you had to read in high school? Mine was Brave New World, in 9th grade. The classism of this utopia resonated for me then in ways that modern versions of power and privilege continue to trouble my soul.

Reading Reflection 2 - Instructions

The response for your second reading reflection will be of the 3-2-1 type.

Recall, the 6 Components for Comprehensive Reform posed by the CA Department of Education in the 1992 vision for a new California high school in the document Second to None:

1. Creating Curricular Paths to Success;

2. Developing Powerful Teaching and Learning;

3. Establishing a Comprehensive Accountability and Assessment System;

4. Providing Comprehensive Support for All Students;

5. Restructuring the School; and

6. Creating New Professional Roles.

As you respond to the prompts below, please connect each practice with one (or more) of these 6 Components.

3 – Of the variety of practices you learned about at BPHS, identify 3 that you think had the most impact on the school. Of course, please say a little bit why you think this may be true.

2 – Identify 2 practices at your CP 1 high school that match the vision in the Second to None document. Describe the affordances and constraints each of these practices seem to have had on the school environment.

1 – Identify 1 practice suggested in the Rethinking High School text that you predict will no longer be in practice at the school. Why?

Blog post instructions / reminders
• Respond in your own course blog page.
• Title your response: Reading Reflection 2 - BPHS
• Body of post: answer the questions above in approximately 300 words.
• Due: February 8, before class.

How to Post your Chapter to our Class Ning Page

OK - here are some instructions. Better late than never. Thank you to those groups who have been exploring the class Ning home page - I see your first efforts to post. Now, you've got to go back and do some refining. ;)

1. Go to the our class Ning.
2. Click on the Groups tab. (that link is a shortcut)
3. Take a moment to notice the formatting, naming protocols, and structure of the example "Rethinking High Schools Ch1 Heil". Be sure to click on the link and explore this "presentation". You will find many directions in there, including naming conventions. In essence, the remainder of my instructions guide you through duplicating this example.
4. Go back to the Groups page an "+ Add a Group". Name it "Rethinking High School ChX Lawler". Use my name, not yours. In the Description box, put the names of the 4 group members. You may "skip" the Invite page that comes next.
5. Click "Edit" to edit the first "Text Box". Rename this with the number and brief title of your chapter. Embed or provide the link to your chapter presentations. Also embed or provide the link to your assessment--that each student must complete for each chapter. You are invited to add any text that will help the user, or clarify how you intend for them to check out your work. Please organize this thoughtfully.
6. That should be it! Notice the Discussion Forum needs no set up. Here is where each student will provide authentic feedback on 2 chapters.

I predict I may update this post in about one day, trying to clarify the instructions in response to questions that arise.

School & Tech Survey

After completing the survey, be sure to click the submit bottom at the end of the post.

WEEK 3 (Feb. 1): Online digestion of text Rethinking Schools

Today is primarily about taking in all there is to know about Best Practices High School. As you go about this work, you will find yourself learning as much new about the Web 2.0 technologies I have pressed us into checking out.

Our second class meeting is taking place entirely beyond the walls of UNIV 443 (although that is where I am parked). Your group should accomplish by noon the posting of your chapter presentations by noon. At this moment, I don't know how this will take place - yet! Thank you for your patience with this.

Let me remind yo that each of your chapters should have an online assessment. The purposes are to press your audience to thoughtfully engage in your presentation, for you to get feedback ("formative assessment data") as to the effectiveness of your presentation, AND to explore options to do this assessment online.

To restate the week's online classwork: Complete Part II of Assignment #2: Web-Based Jigsaw on Text Rethinking High Schools. Go to the "Assignments" section of WebCT and report that you completed the 2 parts of this assignment with a simple note, like "done with Chapters 8 & 9!".

I made an error in the assignment instructions posted to WebCT. I asked you to provide authentic feedback to 2 groups in one bullet, and then 3 peers in the next. My correction: Please provide this feedback to at least 2 distinct chapters (that is, at least 2 distinct groups).

Homework for next week, Feb. 8 follows:

1. Read the paper about Ethnography, found in the WebCT "Required Readings" folder.
2. Find another interesting school, online, written about in another book, or ? (maybe begin here). Learn enough about it to share & answer questions about its interesting features.
3. One & two will be followed by this week's Reading Reflection, for which more careful instructions will be posted in this blog.
4. Complete the survey in the Feb 1. post titled "School & Tech Survey".
5. Add a photo to your class blog and your Twitter account. 
6. Reminder, send out one tweet this week, the next random thought or experience that connects with our class.

REMINDER: I will leave you with a question at the end of each weekly blog post to build community and to ensure you have read the blog. Answer by leaving a brief "comment" just below (not on your own blog).

This week's question: What impact do you think networked and inexpensive "laptops", like Apple's iPad, will have on the classroom experience--teachers and/or students--in the next 5 years?