As my inquiry progresses, I want to make sure my students have insight in my exploration. I think student voice is such a critical part of learning, so I want to make sure my students are having a positive experience in all of the arrangements I test out; otherwise, I want to make changes that will help my students enhance their learning. After a week of trying out the U-Shape seating arrangement with the Algebra I class, I wanted to check in with the students to see how they felt in their new seats. In order to get a sense of how my students were feeling, I asked the students two additional questions to submit with their warm up. They were as follows: 1. How do you like the U-Shape arrangement? 2. With 1 being “very difficult” and 5 being “very easy,” how easy does this arrangement allow you to a. collaborate with your classmates? b. participate in classwork and discussions? I had the students submit their responses electronically so I could compile them together in a spreadsheet; I also informed them that they should try to be as honest as possible and that it was OK to express any negative feelings for the arrangement. This way, the students could provide me with their true feelings in a very low stakes manner. Before receiving any responses, I decided that if more than half of the class was unhappy with the new arrangement, I would change the seating to groups of three, which was a higher ranked arrangement. I was pleasantly surprised to see just how many students felt that this seating change was very positive for them and their learning; only a few students said that they had neutral or negative feelings sitting in this arrangement. I thought some of the more detailed feedback from the students was also very helpful to see. Several students commented that they found this arrangement to give them more space and allow them to see more of their classmates; however, a downside is that this arrangement limited collaboration to those mostly on their side of the classroom. I found these specific comments would be helpful in guiding my teaching strategies for the remaining time the students are seated this way. If I hope to have students engage with me as the teacher but even more so with each other, I need to provide them with avenues to do so. Several activities the students were tasked with this week prompted the students to brainstorm and work with those seated around them in either collaborative pairs or small groups. I noticed a trend of students working with those immediately next to them, with a few students occasionally turning to include those seated behind them. So far, I feel that collaboration has not decreased in this new arrangement, but it has slightly altered in which students collaborate together. I am very interested to survey the students at the end of the upcoming week to find out more in terms of participation. I plan to keep close track of how each student participates collaboratively and in whole group discussions, and I hope to have each student reflect on their own participation in this seating arrangement. Participation to me will include things like volunteering to explain their problem-solving process or work for a warm-up, participating in class discussions, offering new insights or asking deeper questions, and working closely with classmates to further understanding. I look forward to examining my observations alongside of my students’ reflections. Student Responses to Reflection Questions
1 Comment
Sarah Poncz
2/21/2016 03:26:40 pm
It was great to see the classroom rearranged to reflect your investigation. A few questions came to mind when reading your submission:
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Author20 something year old. Pittsburgh native. Pennsylvania explorer. Graduate student. Aspiring teacher. Archives
March 2016
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