Reading Project--Day Seven

Its so easy to let this blog slip on a snow day, and we've now had two. Day seven was actually Monday, and I neglected to post at the end of the day.

I think one of the down sides of this project specifically is the deadlines. Because the students can't easily send files home, and we cannot assume that even most students have access to computers or internet at home, we have to allow class time. It really isn't realistic to say, "If you don't finish part one today in class, do it for homework." As a result, we have different kids at different points. I think it gives the students who get ahead more downtime. It also gives this project a sense of dragging. This is a problem in general that needs to be addressed. It is hard to be a CFF school, or to have teachers try to infuse technology, or to try to take school outside of the classroom walls, when students are limited by lack of access. However, that is a battle for another day. For now, part of my job, as I see it, is to help teachers to plan projects in such a way as to work around that barrier instead of giving up and being limited by it.

Another problem is with engagement. We had students pick articles that we hoped would interest them and therefore lend themselves to engagement. However, the skill being addressed by this project is reading out loud. That requires practice. Based on the construct of the class, we are working with students who are not strong in this area. Like all students, when they are not strong at something, they don't want to do it over and over again, even though that is a great way to build up a skill.

As a result, students do not want to practice their readings. We encourage them and provide time. We've provided incentive in the form of having something interesting to read, and having to read it in front of an audience. However, those incentives do not seem to be enough for some of the students.

Something I need to reflect further on is how to engage students and make them want to practice doing something when they know that they are not strong at it. I know that most un-athletic kids won't practice football drills over and over because they feel they won't ever be good at football, and don't see a point. Perhaps this project needed more emphasis on a point--why do these students need to be adept at reading out loud. Also, going back to the idea of assessing them on improvement, I think many of them would benefit from a concrete goal. Its hard to be motivated by just "doing well." I think "doing better than last time in a measurable way" would work better.

I've finally had a chance to read through the reflections that the students wrote. I see what the Reading teacher meant by vague. Many of the comments are along the lines of "my pace was good" or "my pace was medium" or "I messed up a few words" or "I will improve by reading through the report next time."

At first I was inclined, as past posts indicate, to say that students were not taking advantage of this reflection. However, after reading the reflections, I don't really think that is the whole case. Once again, I've fallen into the "well they should know how to do that" mind frame. They are freshmen. They don't really know how to reflect, and they don't know how to self evaluate. In the future, I would like to see this project being with the class doing a group reflection. The teacher could play back an anonymous reading. Then, the whole class could critique it, point out what was done well, what needed work, and how the reader could improve. The teacher could record comments on the board, move them into categories, and then have students discuss if they are specific enough and how to improve the comments for a reflective paper.

Edit: 3:00 pm 1/29
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dcn3kbwp_19dmzfcrcn
I've transferred three student reflections into a google document as an example