Next Steps
As soon as I was done implementing Phase 1, I quickly realized that there were issues that arose from collaboration and there were issues that arose from trying to create community in the classroom. It would be easy to tackle each issues individually, but to create a collaborative community where students would know how to work with each other is slightly more challenging. Originally the 3 sub questions which I aimed to use to build a collaborative community were (1) creating groups to support each other academically (2) using social media to build community (3) implementing projects that would encourage group work.
There are three major takeaways that I learned from Phase 1 that will largely affect the way I approach Phase 2.
1. I tried to accomplish too much with too little time.
2. I need to establish a protocol (or norms) so that students have direction and purpose.
3. The basics of building community is not through talking but through listening.
In order to better suit my research question, I will need to take out the social media component and change it from
There are three major takeaways that I learned from Phase 1 that will largely affect the way I approach Phase 2.
1. I tried to accomplish too much with too little time.
2. I need to establish a protocol (or norms) so that students have direction and purpose.
3. The basics of building community is not through talking but through listening.
In order to better suit my research question, I will need to take out the social media component and change it from
How can I use technology and social media to build community within the classroom?
to
How do setting norms within the classroom help build community within the classroom?
to
How do setting norms within the classroom help build community within the classroom?
Through the several experiences in the classroom with Twitter, and judging from the students responses in feedback forms, using social media will not be an effective tool to build a collaborative community. Rather than use a digital tool, I believe creating norms will be an effective use of time and students will use the norms to understand the purpose of working in groups. I plan on allowing students to create the norms, but will be including one specific norm that will help them build community, active listening.
The new subquestion creates a potential solution to the problem of students not understanding how to collaborate. At the start of phase 2, I will be asking students what are important aspects of collaboration, things that they have seen that help collaboration and things that they want to see improve in collaboration. These norms will construct a foundation for the final two group projects, and will allow groups to monitor themselves. There has been extensive research on the effective components in collaborative groups, active participation, communication, helping each other, etc. Tagliaferro says that engaging in meaningful discussions is important in collaboration (Tagliaferro, 2012). Being respectful of each others opinions can help encourage engagement with each other (Trees, 2013). Receiving help and giving help is important when working in a group (Hertz-Lazarowitz and Miller, 1995). Each of these elements of collaboration are important, so it gave me the idea of explicitly stating these expectations in the form of norms to guide groups in collaboration.
After rereading my literature, I realized that I had misjudged the importance of one factor that Kathryn Trees mentioned was needed to effectively teach diverse student groups. This skill is known as active listening. Through this peer interacting and learning, the students can have a safe space to speak and listen to others (Trees, 2013). Listening becomes a new key component, and a building block that is necessary for students to effectively work together as well as build community. The way that I will approach the community building exercises and projects in phase 2 will be geared towards promoting active listening in groups. The goal is to focus on relationship building in order to create a willingness for students to listen to each other when they work on their projects.
Phase two will consist of two final group projects, which will include aspects of projects that I found most conducive to collaboration. I will be asking students to fill out a graphic organizer in order to contribute to the project as well as discussions. And I will be having group size limited to two, they will be working with the neighbor who sits next to them. Prior to the projects I will ask students to develop and build upon norms that they will be asked to follow, this will help them.
I will continue to assess the growth through the same assessment tools. I will be primarily using student feedback forms as well as observation notes to determine whether or not the students are practicing the norms as well as interacting with each other throughout the length of the project. One slight change is that instead of listening to whether or not students use each others names as a gauge for interaction, I will be primarily be listening for the fulfillment of their norms as they work on their project.
The new subquestion creates a potential solution to the problem of students not understanding how to collaborate. At the start of phase 2, I will be asking students what are important aspects of collaboration, things that they have seen that help collaboration and things that they want to see improve in collaboration. These norms will construct a foundation for the final two group projects, and will allow groups to monitor themselves. There has been extensive research on the effective components in collaborative groups, active participation, communication, helping each other, etc. Tagliaferro says that engaging in meaningful discussions is important in collaboration (Tagliaferro, 2012). Being respectful of each others opinions can help encourage engagement with each other (Trees, 2013). Receiving help and giving help is important when working in a group (Hertz-Lazarowitz and Miller, 1995). Each of these elements of collaboration are important, so it gave me the idea of explicitly stating these expectations in the form of norms to guide groups in collaboration.
After rereading my literature, I realized that I had misjudged the importance of one factor that Kathryn Trees mentioned was needed to effectively teach diverse student groups. This skill is known as active listening. Through this peer interacting and learning, the students can have a safe space to speak and listen to others (Trees, 2013). Listening becomes a new key component, and a building block that is necessary for students to effectively work together as well as build community. The way that I will approach the community building exercises and projects in phase 2 will be geared towards promoting active listening in groups. The goal is to focus on relationship building in order to create a willingness for students to listen to each other when they work on their projects.
Phase two will consist of two final group projects, which will include aspects of projects that I found most conducive to collaboration. I will be asking students to fill out a graphic organizer in order to contribute to the project as well as discussions. And I will be having group size limited to two, they will be working with the neighbor who sits next to them. Prior to the projects I will ask students to develop and build upon norms that they will be asked to follow, this will help them.
I will continue to assess the growth through the same assessment tools. I will be primarily using student feedback forms as well as observation notes to determine whether or not the students are practicing the norms as well as interacting with each other throughout the length of the project. One slight change is that instead of listening to whether or not students use each others names as a gauge for interaction, I will be primarily be listening for the fulfillment of their norms as they work on their project.