EDF4403 Session4

Firstly to answer a question.
Yes the holes are getting bigger. When I first opened up the textbook in the first week of the semester, I realised how much extra content there now is in the course. I was cool with that realising I'd have to do a bit of reading get to grips with the new stuff and fill in the holes in my content knowledge. What I was not prepared for was the realisation that I have completely forgotten most of the content that I did study and which is still in the course. Therefore there is a definite feeling of the 'holes getting bigger'. I just keep reminding myself that if I learned it once, it should be easier a second time :-)

Now to session 4...

I am finding Venn diagrams more and more interesting for picking out students understanding (or misunderstanding) of a topic. I don't remember coming into contact with them until year 7 or 8, and then only in a mathematical setting. However I know my sons were using them as early as grade 1 to categorise everything from bodies in space to different habitats and carnivores and herbivores. I am only now realising how useful they can be in all sorts of situations.

But the main 'gem' I got from week 4 is the value of homework. How it is valued by both students and teachers. I think it may have been Keasty who said something along the lines that 'if a teachers makes it clear that something is valued then it is likely that students will come to value it'. I think this was in relation to what is/is not included on marking rubrics.

As a teacher if you want students to value the homework they do (so they continue to do it) and see the usefulness of it, then the teacher must show that it is of value. It happens all the time in tutorials for all subjects that homework is set and never revisited. Of course most people probably don't do it, but some do. The fact that invariably the tutor never asks for comments or discussion of the set task indicates the value placed on that task (to me). If there was truly value on the task, then surely it is worth 15 minutes of time in the next session? If time is too precious then what was the point of the task in the first place?
Week4 was to be the week when all groups were to present their unit of work to the class. I was quite disappointed that we did not get through all the groups as I would have like to have seen how each group went about the task. Yes I can look at it on Blackboard, but its not quite the same as it being shown in person.
I think the stated purpose of the task, the stressed deadline for the task and the amount of work that was required meant that more time should have been allowed for the presentations.
Please do not misunderstand my intentions here.
This is not a case of me bitching because now some groups have extra time to get their presentation together and are therefore at an advantage, and I do understand there are other things that we have to get through in a limited time. I am simply trying to understand how I can use the concept but avoid the pitfalls.
This is just an observation of a number of things:
- I like this sort of task, and am therefore likely to use it in my classrooms
- it is VERY easy to underestimate the amount of time required to present them
- it seems only fair to me that if a lesson is set aside to present the material, I make damn sure everyone presents.
- the value that I have placed on the importance of the task is not diminished by spending time on other things
- I can imagine a certain type of student who would get rather annoyed if they presented but others had to present in another lesson (perhaps the following week) as this in effect gives them an extension, and for an assessed task this could be seen as unfair.

This session made me think about how I would implement these sort of 'jigsaw' tasks within my own classroom, but it also got me to thinking about how many different interpretations there can be of a task.
Eventhough we only got through 4 they were quite different (to me they were anyway), in layout, structure, emphasis and interpretation of the reason for the task. Some gave the impression of working together, others the impression of working separately and then bringing the pieces together. I did think that it was important that class time was set aside to do some of this task. To me this did demonstrate that the task was valuable and I certainly appreciated that.
It made me think again about the value of the task, and how to ensure that students do not put a huge amount of effort into a task only to completely miss the main reason for doing the task in the first place. A task like this that may run for a few weeks is great, but for me if it was youger students in particular I would like to ensure I was monitoring their progress (perhaps submit a draft) to ensure they were actually covering what was important - again this isn't a bitch about how our task was carried out, just a comment on what problems I can see arising.