Reading Reflection 7

1.All three of the levels of discussion are very important to the learning process. During teacher to teacher you may gain new ideas and get an outside perspective on the project/class/ideas. This can lead to altering the project and making it a more beneficial time for the students. With student to student discussion students gain information from their peers. They have the same sort of experience that the teacher to teacher would give, but on the student level. It may give a student a different perspective from their peers, also helping lead students in directions that they might not have thought of themselves. For teacher to student discussions majority of the discussion should be conducted with small groups of students in order to connect with the students and see how much they are understanding. Alternatively this discussion method may be used for the whole class in order to model a new skill or introduce the next level of the project.

2. There are four different types of questions to ask when checking in with students. The first level is the basic level of making sure students are procedurally doing okay. This includes asking to make sure that students are following the timeline properly or have the correct material. This can be checked by monitoring students checklists and calendars. Next is making sure that work is being properly distributed among students. This includes asking if everyone is getting along in a team, or if the students are able to handle any conflict that may arise amongst themselves. This could be checked in by administering a poll everyday asking if everyone is doing their fair share of the work. Most importantly a safe place should be created for students with issues to voice their concerns. The next questions used for checking in are the understanding questions. These questions are designed to be probing questions after observing and listening to the groups at work. Including Have you thought about...? or pushing students to think a bit further than they already have. Lastly one must check in with self assessment in order to see what exactly the students are thinking about. These should be questions the student asks themselves to reflect on the experience, this could be done through a journal or blog.

3. When students optimize the use of technology they gain skills such as how to use the technology and be comfortable with it when it may come to presenting. Also it teaches students how to find usable up to date information, stay organized in many different ways, and reach out to others maybe even across the globe to encourage learning.

4. Twenty-first century skill that could make or break a project would be the collaboration between students and student and teacher. If the students aren't working well together the project will never be as good as it may be because every student has something special to bring to the project. Also if students and teachers don't communicate and collaborate correctly teachers won't be able to help students in the way that they need help therefore making it difficult for students to succeed.

5. This relates to our project because in order to be successful we must be able to check in with our students at every stage of the game. This is important because we'll know how to move on in the project in a way that will work best for our students and what they understand/don't understand. We also must be able to lead those discussions and know how to facilitate discussions between students in order to keep everyone on the same page. This will make it easier to set up those checking in questions because we will be able to navigate conversation between and with students.