Group Teach Self Evaluation

Planning and Organization:
My group did a very good job planning and organizing our group teach. We met several times to discuss the material in Christensen's book and each of us had an idea of what we wanted to discuss at the points when we would each be the respective "spotlight" presenter. We decided to organize our unit based on the essential questions; our first question was more open-ended and broad, dealing with the process of building classroom community. This was where we decided that Maureen and Bracey would introduce discussions and lead activities in line with this question while Marla and I would contribute to the discussions and help with activities. Our essential question for day two dealt more with the deeper implications of Christensen's book; about the difference between teaching-tolerance and implementing and anti-racist curriculum. Marla and I, then, would present information we found that coincided with this question and with specific complex themes Christensen's text while Maureen and Bracey contributed to discussions and helped lead activities. I think our unit turned out really well overall. Things seemed to go smoothly (despite some technical difficulties on day two) and the class seemed to learn a lot despite the seeming lack of discussion participation on day two. The most difficult part of planning this unit was getting all of our information to coincide seamlessly in the coursepack and in our actual presentation. It was also difficult to decide how to present this topic in a way that would provoke a response from our peers and not indimidate them into silence. We also wanted to conduct the charting stereotypes activitiy in a manner that would not reinforce racial stereotypes, which took some brainstorming on ways that we could avoid that reinforcement and critical analysis of the activity all together.

Team Investment and Participation:
My personal investment to this group was to discuss and analyze all of the material that would be presented, help construct the essential questions, prepare my own discussion and activity as well as include an article into the coursepack, help my group members with their concerns, create the lesson plan for day two, and take an active roll in the planning and execution of our group teach in general. Our group met i think four or five times, not including the times that we met before class on the days of our group teach. I did attend all of the meetings. I contributed the essential question for day two, the idea for the Crash video clips and it's respective writing assignment, the Immigration article in the coursepack, the lesson plan for day 2 (although Maureen reconstructed this from memory for the actual coursepack), some ideas regarding the disney clips activity/discussion, some ideas regarding the brainstorming of multicultural experience activity/discussion, the idea of the orders of day one and day two, and my general time and availability to meet and plan this group teach. There werent really any major conflicts during the planning but anything minor that did arise was simply worked out with some dialogue. Myself and my group members all participated and contributed equally with this huge project and I was glad to have all of their input and help.

Teaching Presense and Authority:
I think that I maintained a good presense conducting the classroom, both on day one when I was mostly helping contribute to discussion, as well as on day 2 when I lead a discussion and activity. I'm proud that I was able to maintain my presense during my "spotlight" time because I faced the most techincal difficulties of anyone in my group and also had a difficult topic to discuss and faced a lot of silence from the class. A challenge I faced was sticking to a topic of discussion when no one in the class wanted to participate or contribute to the discussion. This was really difficult to do because I didn't want to move on so quickly from the discussion of the crash clips and the sharing of the class' writing, but I felt like I had to because no one was really contributing to the discussion at all and I wasn't sure where to go with it from there. As with my Individual teach, I think these are the kinds of things that teachers learn how to handle more with more experience and practice, so I don't feel too bad about it, but I do wish that people would have been willing to talk more during that part.

Incorporation of Writing:
We did a lot of different kinds of writing in our group teach including poetry, brainstorm lists, letters, and freewrites. We incorporated these writing assingments by aligning each one with one of the activities we constructed to elaborate on Christensen's themes. I do think that these assignments benefitted my classmates as future teachers because all of them could be applicable to their own writing classrooms. Even if they chose not to utilize these writing assignments with the activities that we chose to present them with, they now at least know of these assignments and could tweak them to be used with other future activities and units of their choice. Our writing activities were conducive to our classmates as both teacher-writers and teachers of writing. They were first able to be writers themselves and use the writing prompts to think critically about the topics we were presenting. Then, after doing the actual writing, they were able to engage with one another by sharing their pieces of writing and deciding for themselves if they would use these writing activities in a classroom when dealing with social justice and other issues.

Meaningful Connection with Students:
The topic of Social Justice in the classroom is one that has the potential for two opposite outcomes-- one being lots of participation and discussion, and the other being silence and stand-offish students. To ensure the comfort and success of my classmates, I always contributed my own ideas and opinions to the discussions. I also joined in the activities and shared my own pieces of writing with them. I thought that Marla made a great strive in connecting with the class and putting them at ease by reminding them that this is indeed a sensitive subject, their participation and honesty is valued, and they don't have to be fearful of seeming racist during the charting stereotypes activity. I listened to the opinions of my classmates and let them speak their minds even when it didn't coincide with the message that I was trying to get across primarily that of the Crash clips and potentially using that activity in the classroom, which was the activity that I personally created for the class. I innitiated that discussion about the stereotypes playing out in society and getting our students to write from the "other" voices in our society that are often typecasted or misheard/misunderstood. I also contributed heavily to all of the discussions that were innitated by my group members and tried to verbalize Christensen's (and my owon) ideas in a way that would provoke others in the class to respond and contribute as well.

Boys vs Girls

Being a female, it is difficult for me to say whether or not boys are more reluctant readers than girls. I only have my own experience as a reader to go on. When I think back to my school days and envision my various classrooms where reading took place, I can't recall an instance that would lead me to believe that boys are more reluctant readers. Perhaps the content and subject matter that boys chose to read about often differs from what girls chose, but I'm not sure that they are more reluctant to read anything than girls are. I think reluctance comes mostly from a lack of confidence in ones skills or a fear of adhering to something that is socially passe for one's gender roles. I know an argument exists that females do worse at math because it has been engrained in them that math is something for boys to succeed at and that girls who are good at math are just brainy and nerdy. I think that that stereotype is going away now that females are no longer strictly encouraged to simply stay home and look pretty and raise babies and males are no longer strictly encouraged to make lots of money and crunch numbers as the family provider.
Despite my own personal observational experience with boys and reading, however, I can see why highschool aged boys wouldn't want to be caught reading a more reflective, intellectual piece of literature. Take, for example, Shakespeare. Any literature that invovles love and poetry may not seem masculine enough for the types of reading that boys are "supposed" to do when adhering to their prescribed gender roles. They may be fearful of seeming weak or feminine to their peers if what they read does not, on the surface, embody such themes as war, sex, violence, or other themes that are outwardly "boyish." Even though Shakespeare certainly does include these themes, most of what highschoolers think of when they think of Shakespeare is Romeo and Juliette, which may seem feminine on the surface. Even more contemporary pieces of writing like The Catcher in the Rye or the Pigman, which deals less with gore and blood and more with personal reflection and interpersonal relationships, thing that on the surface seem to concern teenaged girls more than teenaged boys, may seem too "girly" for boys to be seen reading. Because of this, I can see why boys, when they enter high school and are required to read heavier, more difficult intellectual pieces of literature, may be reluctant to step away from their prescribed gender roles by reading and actually enjoying these pieces.

Sharon's Essential Questions

How can we develop a community of writers in our classrooms?
I think that developin a true community of writers in the classroom depends on being comfortable enough with ourselves and with each other to really get to know eachother through our writing. It may be difficult for some students to share their writing at first, but engaging in friendly prompts and activities that build a sense of trust within the classroom may slowly help students break out of their shells and feel at ease with one another. Workshopping eachother's writing is a good way of doing this, as long as the criticism is constructive and the students are also receiving positive feedback.

What characteristics exist in a classroom that has created a community of writers?
I imagine a writin classroom that embodies true community NOT having the traditional desk arrangement of rows facing the front. I think a circular desk arrangement or finding a way to arrange the desks to face one another is a better way of embodying community. I also picture there being lots of interaction between the students and teacher and between the students themselves- i picture seeing students helping each other in groups and pairs and I also picture lots of downtime for students to spend on their writing. I think that this classroom would also include more than a blackboard or an overhead for instruction; there would be a DVD player and a projector for digital storytelling and other more progressive forms of multimedia that can help students strengthen their writing skills.

What are some specific ideas or techniques we can employ to create a community of writers in our classrooms?
I definately think that workshopping is a very important one. I also feel that giving students an interesting and creative prompt in the beginning of class is a great way to begin. This seems to lighten the mood and get students thinking in writing-mode...often times these prompts are personal reflections of some sort; this is good for building classroom community because it unifies students through their experiences and their writing. I would try to get students to share as much as possible so that they would get to know one another as more than just another random student in their classroom, but as a fellow writer and fellow human being with experiences worth writing about and with things to much about writing, just like everyone else. I would also probably enact some kind of pair and share every day, and make students pair with a different classmate every day, so that everyone has some one-on-one time with everyone else. I think that this would make the relationships between students become more interpersonal and interactive, which is important in building community in a writing classroom. I would also look into taking my class on numerous field trips to places that would inspire both creative and academic writing. I think that leaving the actual classroom setting and venturing out into the world together is a great way to build community amongst students because it gives them a shared experience beyond that of their actual classroom.