Grouping Directions in Blackboard: A Place for the

Instructor’s Voice

Arlene Pincus, Ph.D.The Richard W. Riley College of Education and Leadership

Master of Science in Elementary Reading and Literacy

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Arlene Pincus, Ph.D.Arlene Pincus, Ph.D.

The Richard W. Riley College of Education and Leadership

Master of Science in Elementary Reading and Literacy

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Are You On the Right Plane?

1. Write, teach, or have an interest in courses that have threaded discussions.

2. Lead (or design) discussion board (DB) experiences.

3. These DBs have embedded prompts.4. DBs consider personal experience as one

component of professional practice.

Let’s Get Organized and Starting Thinking about:

1. A common misconception in a course or in your program.

2. A course theme or a big idea in a course.

3. A relevant idea that is not completely fleshed out. (This could be something you would have included had you been a course author.)

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A Literacy Example

This probably happened to you…

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Remember this?

Raise your hand if, when you were in grade school, your teachers had everyone open to the same page of the book and went around the class having students read one at a time.

Round Robin Reading: Roundly Discredited

Literacy researchers have identified this as poor practice—for many of the reasons you named.

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My Goal: Teach candidates what is wrong with this idea by crafting Discussion Board groups.

Everyone sees this description:

When I was a child, for reading instruction, we all opened to the same page, and everyone was quiet while one person (whom I never seemed to hear) read aloud at a time.

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Grouping Option: Choose the group that best describes your memory of Round Robin Reading.

Group 1:

There was always at least one kid in my class who seemed to cringe and hide from the teacher during this time. (It could have been me.)

Group 2:There was always at least one kid in my class who thought she was such a good reader that she deserved the whole period to read to the rest of us.

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Conclusion:

Today we have strategies that are much more productive. We teachers are so lucky that Opitz and Rasinski (2008) have described so many effective alternatives.

Discussion Board Opportunities

We can address misconceptions, emphasize a course theme, highlight a big idea, or present contrasting but equally creditable views.

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My Examples -- from MSERL Courses

• EDUC 6708: Literacy Development in a Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Classroom

• EDUC 6707: The Developing Reader, Grades 4-6

• EDUC 6657: Creating an Effective Classroom Learning Environment

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Addressing an Important Misconception (6708: Literacy Development in a Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Classroom)

In many classes, not just this course, many candidates write something like this:

“I will invite a diverse parent to share a cultural tradition with my class.”

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Grouping Prompt

Diversity is an interesting word. I realize that an individual cannot be diverse, as diverse is a comparative word. People are diverse from each other. My school, for example, has some teachers who are at the beginning of their careers and some who are veteran teachers. We are diverse with respect to age and experience.

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Diversity Grouping Prompt (continued)

Similarly, a class of children might all be of one ethnic group or there might be diversity in the class with respect to ethnicity. If the students are all from one ethnic group, the teacher might or might not be diverse from the children with respect to ethnicity. The same is true with respect to socioeconomic status or any other characteristic that a group of humans might share.

In terms of language and culture, I might be more like some of my students than others, and I am clearly diverse from them with respect to educational experiences, since I am an adult in a graduate program and they are children who are much younger than I.16

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Candidates’ Choices

Group 1:

I am posting in this group because the children I teach represent a good deal of diversity as a classroom community. There is a mix of children whose ethnic origins and first languages differ from those of other children in the class. My students are markedly diverse from each other in this respect.

Group 2:

I am posting in this group because the children I teach are not very diverse from each other. This classroom community has children who have very similar cultural and linguistic backgrounds. My students are not markedly diverse from each other in this respect.

Emphasizing a Course Theme (6707, The Developing Reader)

A big idea in this course is that “connectedness” to reading is an idea to honor.

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Week 1: Candidates choose the description that mirrors their own childhood experiences.

Group 1:

When I was a developing reader, the most memorable and productive years were those in which the teacher understood my “lived life” and connected the learning to what I most cared about.

Group 2:

When I was a developing reader, none of my teachers understood how a child’s “lived life” could have something to do with learning in general or literacy in particular.

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Another week, the DB topic is diversity.

Group 1:

When I was a developing reader, my teachers never even thought about differences. We were supposed to check our identity at the door and pretend we were of one group, without ethnicity, religion, race, or gender. These days, it’s a whole, new, multi-faceted world!

Group 2:

When I was a developing reader, my teachers seemed to consider differences among us, including ethnicity, religion, race, and gender. Of course, some or our teachers probably considered these factors more sensitively than others.

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In another course (6657, about effective learning environments), one DB asks candidates to consider research about the efficacy of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation.Group 1:

I have always used extrinsic rewards to encourage my students to learn. I wonder how hard it will be to teach children to appreciate the real reasons that learning is wonderful and important.

Group 2:

I have been hungry for ways to teach children to appreciate learning for the sake of learning. I can’t wait to get started.

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During a different week of this same course, candidates consider the role of intentionality:

Group 1:

Given a discipline problem, I often find myself responding before thinking about what will work.

Group 2:

Given a discipline problem, I mostly decide on my goal and the way I can achieve it before I engage with my student.

The possible categories so far…

– a common misconception– a relevant idea to consider further– a big idea or a program or course theme.

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Practice

• Develop one DB possibility.• Raise your hand when you have one to share.

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Questions and Comments

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Theoretical Foundations

• How do we know that having choices such as these on the DB are sound practice?

Discussion Boards are a form of Professional Practice

• The DB is a social space that may be crafted so as to discuss theory as it applies to candidates’ professional situations, affording them the opportunity to bring both their own personal backgrounds and their own professional (e.g., practicum, internship, employment) experiences to bear.

• Instructors have a number of options in creating groupings; these afford us the opportunity to raise questions in addition to the main weekly DB prompts.

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We know that conversation informs practice…

Who says so?

In particular, these theoretical ideas inform our confidence in the efficacy of conversation:

1. Situated learningand

2. Professional practice

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1. Scholarship about Situated Learning

• The DB is a form of Situated Learning (Lave & Wegner, 2003; Smith, (2009) where apprentices, led by expert practitioners, participate in one form of professional practice—conversation.

• Practitioners and apprentices use the DB spaces by collaborating to apply theory to real world circumstances.

• The DB invites candidates to consider practical application of theory and to rehearse for real world professional practice. (continued)

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2. Scholarship about Professional Practice

• Professional practice is characterized by the exercise of professional judgment in a socially constructed space.

• Professional judgment is informed by:

– propositional, theoretical, or scientific knowledge– professional craft knowledge– personal knowledge about oneself as a person and in

relationship with others (Kemmis, 2009, p. 3)

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References

Kemmis, S. (2009). What is professional practice? Recognizing and respecting diversity in understandings of practice:

http://ebookbrowse.com/kemmis-prof-practice-chapter-02-pdf-d206180905

Lave, J., & Wenger, T. (2003). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation (Learning in doing: Social, cognitive and computational perspectives.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Opitz, M. & Rasinski, T. (2008). Good-bye round robin, (Updated edition): 25 effective oral reading strategies. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Smith, M. K. (2009). Communities of practice. The encyclopedia of informal education, Retrieved from www.infed.org/biblio/communities_of_practice.htm

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