I see students as important members of the larger co-operative group.  Each individual is responsible for knowing and raising their personal goals to stretch themselves past where they are to where they want to be.  This in turn reflects in the group raising its' goals and stretching itself past where it is.  I see students seeing themselves as more able and more capable, which makes the group more able and more capable. Sacha'a Perspectives

How does this happen?

This happens when students work together building knowledge and understanding.  When they see themselves as a contributing member of a group, or of the class, that they WANT to belong to because it helps them and it helps others.  When they see these groups as learning communities, places to build common understandings, they bring their best self forward and feel rewarded when the group shows growth.  This is what I build, this is what I see in my accounts.

How is it built? 

It is built through students learning how to learn and work together so everyone benefits.

In this video clip Blair talks about how he answers other student's questions when they are working together.  He says that he discusses how the 'concept works', giving the example of Algebra and using 'expressions'. 

Blair said he explains 'how' to write expressions.  This shows how the vocabulary of math is part of his vocabulary of his explanation.  He has taken on the role of 'able other'.

He says he gives 'little hints' that the other student can use to 'get' to the answer, but he does not give the answer. 

Blair said he 'directs them in the direction of the answer.'   He is clear that the person asking must find the answer themselves to have it in their understanding.  He knows this from personal experience.

Blair's ability to 'help' instead of 'give' has changed the manner in which others see him.  Blair said students no longer ask him, 'What is the answer?'  They form more meaningful questions, they have already thought about the question before approaching Blair.  They want information 'to organize' their thinking and to be 'used to figure out the answer' on their own. 

Blair recognized that he is 'helping somebody a lot' by using this technique.  He recognizes that others help him a lot when they use the method too.  This is Blair's second year in my class, he has been well mentored and has taken on the role of mentor with aplomb.

Blair is not alone in this method.  This is how I model working together.  This is how I instruct students in the class to work together.  It is how I structure the learning environment in all of the classes across the curricula.  This is how everyone working together gets us to places beyond our current place.  Passing and Carrying Knowledge On

Jason has his own way of explaining how this works.  He refers to specifically working with Kristine.

He begins by saying how he recognizes that people have different ways of understanding and if he were just to 'explain his understanding' to Kristine wanting an answer it might 'confuse her even more'.

Jason says he finds 'different ways' to explain answers to Kristine which helps her and gives Jason 'more ways to understand it as well.'

Finally, Jason recognizes that Kristine changed her approach in questioning, he feels because it makes her 'think herself'.  Jason says Kristine now looks for ways to figure things out herself. 

From watching Jason and Kristine work through this questioning and mentoring learning I see how their relationship has grown.  They work together and independently, seeking help and adding ideas to each others answers.  They don't always agree on how things work but they understand how each other comes to their understanding. 

How does this translate into group work?

In this video clip Andrew talks about how in our class he works with his 'table group' to do math, and that is 'different' than waiting in line to 'ask' the the teacher, (how things worked in other classes for him).  

Andrew says this is 'better' because he gets 'feedback' from students when they 'work together'.  This 'feedback' is their negotiation towards their common understanding, it is the types of answers and questions Blair and Jason were talking about.

Also, for Andrew these working table groups lead to 'both' students gaining 'more understanding', and being able to see 'different perspectives' from 'thinking together' which in turn 'expands' their learning.  This is similar to Jason's 'more ways of understanding' 

For Andrew when he asks Blair a question it helps Andrew and also helps Blair.  He sees that they build the answer together.  Again, this echoes Jason's discussion of working with Kristine, and my observations of how both Kristine and Jason's relationship and Andrew and Blair's relationships have developed over time using this strategy.

Andrew moves on to talk about what happens when students aren't able to help each other, when they aren't able to complete their work this is when he mentions MJ, me - the teacher.  He points out that I am around to wait and give help when the student is not able to work out the learning on their own. It was interesting for me to hear the words he used - wait and help, not lead and give. 

Andrew closes with my favourite line, '...in this class we learn lots of cool stuff!'  Bottom line, we work together, the teacher helps when we need help but the reason Andrew wants to do the work in the first place it because it is 'cool'.  We had been discussing math, Andrew felt that what we learn in math is cool.  It is cool because he understands it, he is learning it with his peers and he feels it 'expands' his 'thinking'.

That is also what I see in my accounts, learning is 'cool' - even learning math for struggling math students.  I see in my accounts that students enjoy learning across the curricula.  There is always something in some subject area that is keeping each of them going.  Usually, as long as I keep my eyes and ears open I can keep them interested.  Interested is good, interested and learning is better.

In my accounts I see students as valuable members of collaborative learning situations, and I see that they are able to articulate this as being 'good' learning.  I see that I set up this as a goal, I work towards it everyday and that writing these accounts has given me, and the students, a better way to represent the valuable learning situations we build together.