School Visit, Essay Example

According to Kathy Livingston (2009), group work is the most engaging method of ensuring participation by all students as well as their teacher. This was the lesson on colonies which were first demonstrated in the social inclusion class studied in the computer lab. There were two teachers present, an aide and a computer lab technician. We were categorized into groups which each teacher worked with while the lab technician inspected the activities of every group. The class was active for most part of the demonstration as teachers collaborated in teaching while facilitating activities in the individual groups assigned to them

It is amazing how students were focused despite the multiple levels of learning though at times it was infuriating to one of the teachers due to some students who could not be instructed but there was general excitement in teaching. The teachers would go over details of the homework, help organize the class and offered group and moral support (Sapon-Shevin, 2007). They did this by use of handouts for interaction which helped the students to feel comfortable with the lesson. With the use of the smart board, the students read a story and played games. The lab technician was of great assistance since he helped the students make a PowerPoint presentation which was very exiting. The students and the teachers were able to effectively take and pray roles assigned to them (pp 10).

According to Sapon-Shevin, (2007), group discussions are vital in allowing participation by all students. Thus the group discussion became more engaging and easy to participate in since students wrote journal entries as they played games with computers which boosted the lessons moral. The practical part of the project on colonial regions was done in the English class where students first identified and named their colonial regions. They would then list members of their group in which my group consisted of Cindi, Martt, Galvin, Ivory, Kam and Sam. The goal of the groups’ lesson activity was to have every colonial region group to present a lesson to the class in order to teach them about their region. This they did by means of a PowerPoint presentation and gave a class assignment to test their thinking. Groups would be graded according to the quality of work, their good or bad conduct in the computer lab and in their group activities. They also were rated according to the level of professionalism and presentation done in the lesson (Sapon-Shevin, 2007 pp 34).

Each group gave a slide show with the title of the region they studied, the list of questions given to students in order to think in line with the lessons topic. They had also to give logical reasons behind colonialism, the original homeland of colonialists, the climate of colonies and that of their homeland, the length of the growing seasons of crops, the form of trade in exchange of crops and national resources, how slavery emerged, the type of colonial government, the native religion and that introduced by the colonialist, a general conclusion on colonies and colonialist and the outline of the class assignment. (Sapon-Shevin, 2007 pp 64)

The slide expectations required the students to give the title of the chart section i.e. climate or length of the growing season. They also had to show a clear picture of the colonial events to support the notes information. In addition, were at least three bullets of information which were short pieces of information with no paragraphs. The students would present neat and easy to read text information that could be read from afar. They would also look out for spelling mistakes and correct them. Each person was required to make a print out worked on for the lesson in black and white and slides would be saved in the students folder in the students drives with a title colonies lesson (Sapon-Shevin, 2007 pp 84).

The class assignment required at least five questions that would keep the students thinking on the lesson topic (Sapon-Shevin, 2007 pp 135). It also included the student name, the title of the lesson, directions, reading charts, pictures and documents. There was a further review of the student’s knowledge of his region. This copy of assignments had to have a font size of 12, clear double spaced text and had to be typed and printed a day before the presentation.

References:

Kathy Livingston (2009), Basic guide to essay writing, retrieved 14 may 2009 from http://lklivingston.tripod.com/essay/.

Sapon-Shevin, M. (2007) Widening the circle: The power of inclusive classrooms Boston, MA: Beacon Press 250 pages