This week we decided to do an unconventional Saturday school lesson. The students learned about and created ecological art works. The students did this by creating the work [RE]VIVING with dirt and grass seed. I would definitely say this lesson went very well and the majority of the students really enjoyed it. Although, it went well it was definitely organized chaos.
There were a few problems I noticed when facilitating the lesson. First, the sound for our projected video was not loud enough for the whole class to hear. I think that this in combination with the length of the video lost the students attention. Another issue I found when the students were creating the letters was a few collaborative problems. I think that this is always going to be a problem when creating group activities. I think that it is important to give the students lessons with collaborative because they need to learn how to work together. My problem was figuring out how to getting everyone involved. Does anyone have ideas on how to get students more interested in working as a group or tips on motivating the ones with issues? The last problem I thought we ran into was the organized chaos. It was definitely organized with the idea that the students who do not have behavioral issues stayed completely on task and cleaned up well but the ones with some problems, would not help clean up and wanted to just kinda fettle around the room would not listen when you asked them to help. What should I do about this problem? I think I have issues with behavior issues. I found Larissa getting the attention of the group for me so that I could tell them something, which is something that I should be able to do myself. Over all though, issues aside the clean ran completely well considering the minor problems we ran into on the way. The kids loved the idea of working with an alternative material and even brought up question about how this is art. Our discussion such as this were really great in reinforcing how art doesn't have to be with traditional materials.
Dana, sometimes collaboration is tough. You may need to experiment with group size, or assign specific tasks so that every student has a specific role to play within their group that contributes to the final product. Sometimes kids who need a fair bit of attention get lost in the shuffle in group work. Assigning specific tasks for clean up may also help to keep everyone engaged (and perhaps you can adjust for those kids who need to feel that they are being trusted with special responsibilities by giving them supervisory tasks). If you are experiencing this as a problem, I would suggest that you try a few variations on grouping and responsibilities while you've got this group to work with!
ReplyDeleteIt takes awhile to develop the kind of authoritative voice that gets the attention of the class when there's lots going on. Some things that could help are locating a spot in the room where you can stand when you want the kids to listen (and let them know that you will go there when you want them to listen so they have a visual cue too). And you probably need to work on the volume!