FITB- Chapter 5: Teaching to the Individual, Working with the Group

Students have already established that they need teachers to really know them well enough to be able to “accommodate, value, and respect their differences. This chapter was interesting because I got to see the different types of students that I will find within my classroom: eye-roller, the wallflower, the hand-waver, the dreamer, the con artist, the goof-off, and the workhorse. This mix of children will occur in many different types of schools and classrooms due to the variety of academic backgrounds and ambitions. There will also be those children who participate, those who don’t, and those who just don’t show up to class. Students can feel embarrassed or insecure about public speaking that could open them up to ridicule. However it is good to make the students a little uncomfortable in order for some learning to take place.

It is important that when any question is asked, if asked appropriately, it is answered and treated as fairly as all others. Ensuring that all students have their questions answered can help them to feel like their ideas truly matter. With different students there will be different levels in one class. Adapting to the way that students learn and modifying the way you ask and respond to questions can help further learning and even avoid problematic situations. Students can learn more if a teacher is open-minded and flexible to their needs. Learning together in different ways can help each learner and enable all students to contribute at different levels. Working in groups is important to learning with and from their peers. With groups there needs to be specific roles for each group and/or person to fulfill. Each student needs to pull their weight but teacher monitoring needs to ensure that no one person or people are dominating the group, this means keeping an eye on every group. Letting students pick their groups can be fun, but sometimes assigning groups can be more helpful.

Identifying and assessing progress, even within groups, is important to do individually. Progress happens at different places and at different times with each student, being able to identify the progress and struggles with each student can only come from knowing each student very well. It is important to understand that each student will be producing different levels of quality work, meaning what is “the best” for one student at one level but not be the case for another. It is important as stated by a student, “to be fair to all”. This does not mean changing grades or lowering an expectation but instead being realistic about each situation and student. When dealing with these kind of issues, being able to tell each student exactly what you are looking for, give them examples of what is right/wrong or acceptable and not acceptable, as well as what rubric will be used for grading is crucial to their understanding of the task at hand. The most important tool I learned from this chapter is the tool of chance. Allowing each student the opportunity to re-do, re-work, re-talk, and re-think is important to their understanding.