Ashley Hufnage

Feature: Group Work I will be teaching two different classes of students. My Mentor Teacher teaches Social Studies to two fifth grade classrooms, while another teaches Science to both classes. For my science unit, I will be teaching in place of that other teacher, and teaching both classes, Room 15 and Room 16. Room 16 is my home room, and Room 15 is the other. While assessing Room 16 for their funds of knowledge, I mentioned to them that they will be working in groups. The all instantly looked confused and one spoke up and said, Miss H, why do we need groups? Are we dissecting frogs? I calmed their fears and reassured her that they would not, in fact, be dissecting any frogs. I had to explain to them that I meant they would be working in specially formed groups, with each student having a specific role. They still looked suspicious. When I talked to the other class, they were just as hesitant as the other classroom. I do not visit the science classroom on a regular basis, but from what I hear from the students in my classroom, there is not a lot of group work. I have also heard that most of their instruction is through lectures and readings. When I have been in the science classroom while group work was being done, I saw some students taking over and pulling other students along. I saw student goofing off while others do all the work. There were even some students who opted to work individually. I think that science is the perfect opportunity for students to work together because it reflects the norms of an authentic scientific community (Ready, Set, Science! p135).

Ashley Hufnagel

Intervention: Assigning Group Roles Chapter 7 in Ready, Set, Science! states that one way that teachers can structure and focus students thinking while they engage in scientific investigations is to define and assign particular roles for students to play during portions of the investigation. For my inquiry I would like to implement these roles at the beginning of the Force and Motion unit to help establish successful group work. The authors focused on this strategy because scripting rolessuggest promising results. I think that the structure of the roles will help the students with their task or experiment. Not only do I think this is a good strategy for science, I also think that it is a good strategy for all subjects. The Case Study on pages 137-140 in Ready, Set, Science! showed how, in addition to structuring their group tasks in a productive manner, the procedural roles gave the students some experience in playing assigned roles and engaging in interdependent tasks. I think that even when the students arent in groups, the experiences of working together with scripted roles will help them value their classmates and their contributions to the class community. Because I know my students arent familiar with working in groups with assigned rolls, I am going be implementing group roles to Room 16. I will compare how the students work together at the beginning of the unit with their behavior at the end of the unit. I plan on using the group roles for my home class, and would like to see how the group roles affect them across subjects, specifically math and ELA.

Ashley Hufnagel

The Roles Recorder Time-Keeper Getter Reporter writes and records data in group lab journal keeps track of time and makes sure lab partners are staying on task 5 minutes before class is over, make sure lab materials are being put away gets lab materials and asks the teacher questions reads tasks, makes sure lab partners understand the task, reports findings to class during discussion, assists getter with putting away lab materials

Record Keeping (evidence) Exit Tickets: students will be getting exit tickets to complete after each class that incorporates group work. It will also be used as an assessment throughout the unit of their learning. The questions on the exit ticket are: o Write down one thing you learned today: o What is a question you still have related to force and motion? o What did you like the best about todays activity? o Were the members of your group on task? Observations: I will be looking for the following while students are working in groups: o equal participation during activities o students fulfilling their assigned roles (recorder, getter, speaker, time-keeper) *for the class that does not have assigned roles, I will still makes notes to see which students are doing these tasks informally Discussions: I will talk with both my field instructor and foster MT about my inquiry and have them focus on student group work during their formal and informal observations of the classroom. Some questions that I will ask are: o Were there students that stood out that were always/sometimes/never on task? o What did you notice about my actions that helped or hindered the students participation in group work? o What worked well for the first class of students that didnt work well for the second class? o What were student actions that I didnt notice?

Ashley Hufnagel

The Results This Force and Motion unit relied heavily on working together and collaborating. There were only 12 days allotted to enact the plan, but the science learning community did show some minor signs of change. In Room 16, I was able to continue group work through math and ELA lessons. However, the collaboration didnt transfer well to those subjects. I only provided scripted roles for the students of Room 16, but students from Room 15 also showed a positive disposition towards collaboration. I surveyed both groups after the conclusion of our first activity and asked, How did your group work during this activity? The students were measuring the speed of a cart as it was released down a hill. There were positive comments from both groups of students. Room 15, without scripted roles: We worked great, We discussed how things worked, Working and thinking together, We worked nicely and took turns, and We each had something we had to do. Room 16, with scripted roles: Good. The keeper helped us stay on task. We all worked really well, We cooperated, Each of us had a job, Ok, but I did not like my job, We took turns using the timer and letting go of the cart. Even though roles were not scripted for Room 15, this group knew how to work together. It looks like Room 15 didnt have the same collaboration problem that Room 16 had. On the first day of the first activity, many problems arose from the students of Room 16. Students were fighting over their group roles, and one student was even asked the leave the classroom by the

Ashley Hufnagel

Science Teacher. However, after that first day, there were no more major problems from the students. At the end of the unit, the students were surveyed again on their group work. This time they were asked to Grade Your Group. Each member was rated in three categories, On Task, Positive, and Helpful. We went over different examples of what those would look like. I then tallied their ratings and broke them down into percentages. These percentages, which were verified or modified by their Science Teachers and my observations, were used as a participation grade. The students also had a final chance to share their comments on working in groups. Something that I noticed was a change from the types of comments that the students gave from their first surveys to the final surveys. The second round of comments was more personal and focused on individual effort. However, I did not see as many positive comments from Room 16, which was the community that I was hoping to improve. From Room 15: Sometimes Violeta talked and starts conversations, but she stops and gets back to work. Teresa works extra hard. Maya did everything I asked. Billy needs help focusing. Samantha is obedient and gets the work done. Ray sometimes takes control over the activity. Reggie was disrespectful. Grade Your Group Results Room 15 Room 16 (# of students) (# of students) 60-69% 1 3 70-79% 6 8 80-89% 6 5 90-100% 11 7

Ashley Hufnagel

From Room 16: Nick and Joseph do nothing. Lucas needs to stop making fun of everyone in the group. Paris tries to take others tasks and is bossy. Orlando needs to improve on participation. Timmery can keep trying. Wynter is helpful to her partners. Tara has a control problem. Grace talked too much, but toned it down a little bit. Good job! Even though many comments about group work were negative, by the end of the first week, the students were self-regulating their groups and finding ways to get the task done. From informal assessments through class discussions and formal written assessments, I observed that the students were learning the content. This Force and Motion unit was taught in a completely different way than their science is usually taught. The students had access to materials and worked heavily with them every day. It is hard to say that their engagement and quality of their work was a result of working in groups or the content of the lessons. One student in particular showed a completely different side by sharing his personal experiences with inertia, I was in my car with my dad and we were late for school so he was driving really fast. Then the light turned red and he had to slam on the breaks. It was like what we were doing in science! I think that the strongest part of my plan was my expected results. I believe that working together reflects the realities of a professional science community. However, the execution of the

Ashley Hufnagel

plan wasnt as strong. As a teacher, It is my responsibility to teach students to work together. (Weinstein, Romano, Mignano) That was my biggest weakness in my plan. I expected the students of Room 16 to know how to cooperate with one another. However, we never set those expectations at the beginning of the year, and by the time I was to begin the science unit, there was no time. It was apparent through my observations, and the students surveys and comments that the students of Room 15 were well-versed in collaborative groups because of instruction from their homeroom teacher. I think this experience is a perfect example of what else a teacher is responsible for in addition to academic content and how that unpreparedness affects the students. This experience was valuable to me because it really showed how much time and effort is needed to effectively teach the students how to work with one another. Only till the very end of my unit did I see students behaving in ways that showed teamwork, like offering positive feedback, sharing unscripted tasks, and group accountability. However, these traits did not transfer over to the other subjects. In a particular ELA lesson, two students left the room in tears because of constructive criticism from their group members. In science, the students always seemed so engaged, that the constructive criticism was just part of answering their big question, What happens when we sled? In my future classrooms, I would like teamwork to be integrated into all of the subjects. It doesnt necessarily always have to be group projects or assignments. I would like to create a classroom where there is such a strong sense of community, that students want their peers to succeed even on their individual work. I think that starts off by establishing norms for classroom behavior. According to Weinstein, Romano, and Mignano (2011), it is just as important to teach

Ashley Hufnagel

these norms as it is to teach academic content. It is just as important to review the rules intensively throughout the first three weeks of school.