Reflection #7

            Classroom discussions are important during a project because the questions asked can spark new answers for those participating in the discussion.  There are 3 levels of classroom discussion; teacher to teacher, student to student and teacher to student.  Teacher to teacher discussions consist of teachers who discuss multiple aspects of their project, such as how their procedures work, who leads the assessment and how their planning goes.  From the discussions they can collaborate during project implementation.  Student to student discussions consist of talking about their learning experience, and give them the opportunity to learn form each other.  Lastly, teacher to student discussions are usually in lecture format, this can be whole group or with one or few students. The purpose of this level of discussion is to ask questions to push students toward higher-order thinking.

            In the middle of a project, it would be helpful for the teacher to ask questions for checking in.  Procedural questions would be questions like “are you staying on track?”  Teamwork questions are to make sure the tea is getting along and they are doing their share of the work.  Understanding questions are to ensure the students are learning and to move them in the right direction.  Self-assessment questions are to see what students are thinking about during the project.  These questions will be both helpful to you and your students.  When using technology in a project, you want to make sure they are benefiting and learning form the devices and tools provided.  You want the students to be able to take what they have learned and be able to apply to other parts of their life and to be able to use the technological devices from there on out.  Teamwork is a 21^st century skill that can make or break a project.  If you detect trouble, help your students work it out.  Having team members who slack can really hurt the team, but teachers can give out evaluations to the teams to hill out for each member, which will be useful at the end of the project to ask students if they will make the same choice of teammates for the future. I think what I thought was the most like what we are doing in our groups in class, is the teacher-to-teacher discussions.  We are all future teachers, creating our own lesson plans and them coming together collaborating all of our projects into one unit, and pod casts and websites.