Chapter 7 Reading Reflection

Classroom discussions are extremely important when a teacher is trying to keep their students projects moving along. There are three different levels of classroom discussions: Teacher to teacher, student to student, teacher to student. Teacher to teacher discussion is all of the collegial effort that has gone into project planning and continues throught the implementation phase. Student to student is when the students are talking about their learning experiences as they unfold. This discussion can occur within their teams as well as across different teams. Teacher to student discussion occurs mostly on a class website with the occasional whole class lecture when there is a new topic introduced.
Higher order questions need to be a priority in a project based classroom. They should be regulary asked regardless of whether the teacher is speaking to an individual student, to a small group or to an entire classroom. Teachers should be asking students to analyze, compare, evaluate and elaborate. These good questions will naturally lead to follow ups that probe for an even deeper understanding on the students part.
While the students are working on a project, many groups may be in different spots of the project based on how fast or slow they are able to accomplish their work. This means the teacher must keep track of many different things at once and they need to focus on what questions to be asking the groups in order to make sure they are keeping their projects moving along. Teachers should be asking questions about their procedure, teamwork, understanding and self assessment.
Teachers should optimize the technolgy that the children already know how to use in their classrooms. The students will learn new ways to use their technology for more informative and learning purposes. This will allow the students the chance to use the technology in the classroom that Sometimes there are conflicts that occur in groups and this is a great time to teach the students how to manage those conflicts within their group instead of breaking the group apart. This will help build the students social skills for later on in life when it isn't so easy to just switch groups or partners.
Chapter 7 will help the students while working on their food preservation project because they will have a better understanding of where they are at with their project and learn time management as well as conflict management. These are skills they can carry with them for the rest of their lives.