METHOD: Workshop participants (between 50 and 100, anticipated) will
form into a
"class" taught by the Workshop staff. Teachers will thus experience being
pupils. They will be
instructed in the new method of community-classroom and given assignments,
collective field
projects, and grades. Through this process, teachers experience 'what it feels like' to be a pupil in
community-classroom. As well, they learn the very techniques which they themselves
might wish
to use in their own classroom, with any subject matter and at any level. Finally,
participants can
judge for themselves regarding the usefulness or lasting value of community-classroom,
by
discovering whether it produces valuable peer relationships among the participants as a result of
the two-week intensive.
HISTORY AND FACILITIES: COMMUNITY-CLASSROOM was invented and developed at the University of Hawaii by Dr. Leon James and Dr. Diane Nahl, the Instructors for the Workshop. They have co-authored several sets of bound Lecture which will be made available to Workshop participants.
= =Workshop participants learn about the variety of uses of sentences in daily life: e.g., reading, writing, speaking, note-taking, thinking, and reporting. (Note: these are the academic issues now in the "language sciences", i.e., applied psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, language teaching, discourse analysis, higher cognitive processes, etc.).
II. ANONYMITY IS ANTI-SOCIAL AND INTERFERES WITH COMMUNITY-BUILDING
= =Workshop participants learn the techniques currently used in community-classroom at the University of Hawaii to counteract anti-social competitiveness common among pupils. Participants will practice collective exercises and field projects in which they read each other's work and make "annotations" (written comments), which are then read and commented on by the original writers. These techniques build literacy skills, and neutralize the negative effects of secretiveness, shyness, and timidity which are anti-social forces common in classrooms.
III. SIZE AND HETEROGENEITY ARE COMMUNITY RESOURCES
Workshop participants learn about the techniques used in community-classroom to treat size and heterogeneous composition (=different abilities) as advantages: how functional teams of pupils can be organized that are small in size yet co-ordinate to add up organically. In this way, everyone in the class profits from the overall human resources available (e.g., special skills or talents or knowledge possessed by various individuals are "made to count" for the benefit of the class). A system of "collective points" earned by the Workshop participants for their activities, will be used throughout the two-week intensive. In this manner, teachers will experience 'first-hand,' what it feels like, and what effects it may have on their pupils, should they decide to use these techniques in their own classroom.
IV. THE CLASSROOM'S "TERRITORY" EXTENDS INTO THE PUPIL'S 'DAILY ROUND' LIFE
WORKSHOP participants learn about instructional procedures that get pupils to partially manage their course-assigned activities, while making them responsible for deadlines, quality control (neatness, relevance, length, etc.),progress, and study aids (pupil feedback reports, class News Bulletin, shared assignments through the telephone (including telephone quizzes"), class committee activities, "Poster" convention, typists' pool, and many others that will be practiced by Workshop participants).
DR. TED ROGERS, Education and Sociolinguistics
INSTRUCTORS & DEVELOPERS
DR. LEON JAMES, Social Psychology and Psycholinguistics
DR. BARBARA GORDON, Educational Psycholinguistics
COMMUNITY-CLASSROOM SECRETARY AND EDITOR
MS. CATHARINE GRAHAM, Ph.D. Candidate m Anthropology
COMMUNITY-CLASSROOM CLASS MANAGERS (CM's)
MS. DIANE NAHL, M.L.S. Candidate
MS. SANDRA NAKAZAKI, M.A. In ESL
MR. MIKE MESCO, Ph.D. Candidate in social Psychology
MR. KURT FUKUDA, M.S. W. Candidate
WHAT SPRING 1980 COMMUNITY-CLASSROOM STUDENTS SAY
After seeing some of my old DFFs (Delayed Feedback Forms filled out by students after each class), I saw a lot of negative points which I brought about in my forms. By witnessing them I suddenly grew up as I saw myself better and actually learning from them...
This comment was written by the student on his feedback report for lecture 14 (mid-term). It
illustrates the beneficial effects students experience when able to review their own work
regularly
and cumulatively, and thereby to see change in the self.
Your project is good because you were more conscious than me though some of the thoughts did pop up in my head but never ended up on paper because l didn't consider it a "money thought". Maybe you could comment more to complete your entries a bit more...
This comment was written by a fellow pupil. Illustrates how guided peer processing
of one
another's work, when guided away from evaluation, results in mutually and reciprocally
induced
insights.
After reading all the feedback (on a field project called my "Money thoughts")from three of my fellow "cell" members (learning cell or team), I realize that money has a very dynamic effect on people. Different people are affected differently by money. This is evident in the type of reasoning they use when dealing with money.
Illustrates how guided peer processing can reinforce concepts and understandings
from the
lecture.
PART A: Intimidation Project: When asked to play the piano, I became intimidated because I do not play the piano as well as I should...
PART B: Huddle Buddy strategy: I feel this intimidation assignment would be of great value to me if I am able to overcome this specific feeling of intimidation. Being able to "objectify" and "Overcome intimidation" with a Huddle buddy (a peer pupil) may enable me to overcome other intimidations
PART C: Huddle Buddy for ID #209: I can relate to your intimidation situation because I also get intimidated when asked to play a piece on the piano... In most cases, when a person asks you to play the piano it's because he wants to hear music, not because he wants to be a judge...
Illustrates step-wise process used in guided peer processing. Shows that benefits to
students
accrue through being given the chance to use oral and written speech exchanges with each
other
through class work. Note how first student's because (in Part A) is modified and
reclassified by
the second student.
My name is S.T., but everyone either calls me Susie or Suzy. I'm 21, female and a '78 graduate
Punahou... Presently l'm working part-time at Long's as a cashier-sales person... I have a known reputation for being indecisive and have a habit of ... I enjoy meeting... I would call myself 'shy' but those who know me never agree.
Passages from a student's Self-introduction Letter for her community-classroom Class
Registry
project. Illustrates how students typically like to have an "identity" and a "reputation" with each
other when anonymity, secretiveness, competition, and solitary work are counter-acted through
community-classroom management techniques. Students report that there is less fear of
each
other, and individual progress is more evident, both to the teacher and to the student.
From today's lecture, I became cognitive (sic) of our "cross-cultural differences" and how they affect our community relations. Our reputations which include our "roles" in society, our work and school "status", our "lifestyle" and our customs all affect the way people interrelate with each other. Of course, I was aware of this before, but I never related it to my life in my daily round" "
Illustrates how the Delayed Feedback report helps the student make use of lecture
concepts and
apply them to one's own life. The Delayed Feedback report is written by the student at
home and
handed in at the next lecture. Students have access to each other's feedback reports and are
encouraged to read them. The instructor reads all feedback reports as information on how lecture
concepts are assimilated by students. Regular feedback comments are given in class by the
teacher
regarding the quality and helpfulness of the reports. Visible improvement is evident in the reports
as the semester goes on: in neatness, in length, in relevance, in ability to use concepts, in
attentiveness, -and others. Students tend at first to give evaluations and criticisms of the teacher
or lecture, but with guided steps, they abandon evaluation and learn descriptive and more
objective "data" and " "demonstration" feedback.
I totally agree that everyone should be mindful of another. I feel that students should be ready on time for class and with the same token, professors should be prepared to let the class go on time. Both should be aware of each other's responsibilities.
Illustrates the involvement students in community-classroom experience with
self-management
responsibilities. This issue is explicitly dealt with in community-classroom under
the rubric of
"Professionalizing Yourself as a Student."
Our ethnicity does not determine what intimidating forces are around us. As a result of our family community connections, we crate biculturalism and cross-cultural differences which create competitive forces in our lives and creates intimidating influences. So, intimidation is stimulated by external forces rather than internal forces. The role you assume has intimidation inherent in it. these roles are taught through typology of ethnicity. This can be exemplified by the different responses to the intimidating stimuli of biculturalism. Community connections ties this all together.
The preceding are two different students' answers to a take home quiz written on their Delayed Feedback report. The quiz requires the student to make up a paragraph in which are used the newly introduced lecture concepts (underlined words in their answers). A variation of the technique is to have students discuss the quiz answer by two's (dyadic exchanges), in class or on the telephone, then have the students write their own answers on the Delayed Feedback report.
A collective point-system is used in community-classroom which is in accordance with community-building principles (such as "the essentialism of the individual"), and Workshop participants will be operating under such a grading system for the summer intensive course. In this manner, teachers can gain a first hand experience with these new psycho-economic values used as classroom management techniques.
LECTURE MEETINGS: STRUCTURE
Tasty Vegetarian snacks served every two hours throughout the day!
DAY 1
8:00 - 8:45 AM Learning Cells meet with their Class Managers for class preparation
8:45 - 9:00 AM Practicing "Force song" (an aid in memorizing new terminology)
9:00 - 10:30 AM Lecture 1, plus dyadic or team exercises
10:30 - 11:00 AM Socializing Break
11:00 - 12:30 Individual work period (reports, library, etc.)
12:30 - 1:00 PM Learning Cells meet with their Class managers for class preparation
1:00 - 2:30 PM Lecture 2, plus dyadic or team exercises
2:30 - 3:00 PM Socializing Break
3:00 - 4:00 PM Individual work period (reports, library, etc.)
DAYS 2 THROUGH 10
A repetition of the above for Lectures 3 through 20
ESSENTIAL FACILITIES PROVIDED FOR THE WORKSHOP
A) Comfortable Lecture Room (air conditioned and quiet) with blackboard, overhead projector, recording facilities.
B) Floor space for team meetings, needed for informal groups.
C) Electric typewriters and tape recorders: minimum one each for every 5 participants.
D) Duplicate tapes of the recorded lectures made available to take home.
E) Xeroxing facilities available twice a day (for each lecture) for distributing copies to staff and peers.
F) Vegetarian snacks every two hours to maintain high mental energy output.
G) Poster convention supplies: Photography and Art supplies: typing supplies: staplers: name tags: ribbons. prizes. certificates.