A class to remember

The last class was very interesting. The teacher opened the class proposing two questions that we had to think about it: what does attention to diversity means? And why it’s important in our degree?

 In my opinion the attention to diversity is it very important in order to offer  an equal and inclusive  education for all,  as  our current the law establish . It consists in providing different measures to adapt the children with special needs to the ordinary education.

 Regarding to the second questions,  I think it is importantdue ti the fact taht we will have to deal with diversity. I think every subject should include different measures and methodologies  to know how to work with diversity, not just in this subject. Even though this subject is specialized in School Counseling and Tutorial action attention to diversity is a very complex and wide topic as to see it just in one subject of the degree.

 Then he asked us to  make reflection and give our opinion about: what we had done until now, if we had learn, which was the best activity in our opinion , and how much did we learn.

 In the second part of the class,  we were divided in two groups , one group was going to think advantages  of collaborative learning while the other groups has  to propose several disadvantages of  the collaborative learning. The key point was to find arguments to defend the idea that you  was assigned by the teacher, in my case it was easy as I was in the  “ pro “ group and  I  have to defend the collaborative learning so it wasn’t too difficult.

 Some of the argument that we had were:

-          - The teacher can focus more in individuals students

-          -  In collaborative activities the people are more involve in the activity, so they are more motivate and consequently they learn more.

-          - This kind of learning promotes collaborative thinking.

-          -  It help you to learn how to deal with others, I mean to respect other opinions, and to try to find the common point between the groups.

-         - Working in collaborative activities implies that every children works in his own rhythmic.

-       -    Develop  autonomy

-       -   As they work in groups with their peers they usually have more fun, so they learn more. Also,  in general terms, it is easier to learn through a classmate explanation that to the teacher explanations

These were some of the argument that us as a groups use in order to defend our position in the debate.After the debate the teacher distributed few pages with 44 Benefits of Collaborative learning. For me one of the most important is “Encourages diversity understanding”

More creative activities

Today’s class we had another two presentations: “support   measurements for students in early childhood and childhood” and “ Separate Special  Education need School”

 The first group divided each of us into three groups randomly.  As a starting point,  they exposed the content  through a presentation. After the explanation we were aked to write in a posit an individual measure to apply to itinerant students (in my case).   
Then, as a way of assessment,  they announced that we had to sing our posit . The next step was to change our mural with others mural. What we have to do then, was  to evaluate our classmates’ measures and propose a new group measure.

Finally, we finished with a debate about the different measures, putting in common our ideas and criticisms.

 In my opinion, the activity was well organized, calm and with clear objectives. I really like it, because it made me think about different situations that are far away from my reality.

 The following group focused more on special education needs. The procedure was different from the previous one.  I could divide the activity in two parts . In  the first one we were assigned  a chuck of the text and our work was to read it and do a mind map. When the time was over, we presented our content while our classmates were taking notes.  These notes were used later to answer the “quiz”. As children we were motivated with sweets, the more right answers you get, the more sweets you win. The questions were relatively  accessible, and the quiz were very funny. What’s more I've  learn so much from it.

To finishing, they asked to make a self-evaluation about our work during the activity.

 I JUST LOVE THIS KIND OF PRACTICES, AS THEY INVOLVES YOU, IT ‘S EASIER TO REMEMBER THEM.

Evaluation of our activity

To complete the activity we had realized an evaluation of the activity. In one hand, a evaluation of the groups participants and also  a self evaluation.  As a more personal opinion, I can say that the activity was  well organized  but it was quite complex and long for the time we had.

Our group evaluation.

We will first show an evaluation of the participants’ attitudes towards the topic and by activity; then we will try to provide a self evaluation for the activities proposed.

Participants’ Assessment:

There were 5 groups structured as follows:

Group A: Chusa, Ariadna and Leticia

Group B: Belén, Ana, Daniel Muñoz and Andrea González

Group C: Pablo, Daniel Jarque, Raúl and Ruth

Group D: Gemma, Almudena Bellot, Azahara and Athina

Group E: Blanca and Raquel

GROUPS	ACTIVITY 1	ACTIVITY 2	ACTIVITY 3	COMMENTS
A	Very positive attitude Well performance in their work (7 out of 8 questions   answered)	Very positive attitude They worked on their texts properly	Question: not very clearly expressed Answer: correctly answered although it took time to understand the question	Much interest was shown
B	Negative attitude. Passivity while accomplishing tasks (3 out of 8 questions answered)	They did not work on their texts the way it was proposed, they cheated one another, maybe collaborative work (?)	Question: The person making the question did not even know what was asking for. Answer: The answer was correct.	Tasks were not divided in a balanced way, it is a very heterogenous group.
C	Didn´t follow the instructions given. Fair performance in their results for this activity (5 out of 8 questions answered)	Negative attitude Although they worked a bit on their texts.	Question: Well formulated and interesting. Answer: Did not give the correct answer (the question was not well done, could this be the reason?)	Quite of interest was shown despite their behavior since they made suggestions for improvement.
D	Very positive attitude Well performance in their work (6 out of 8 questions   answered)	Very positive attitude They worked on their texts in a fair way.	Question: Well formulated and interesting. Answer: Did not give the correct answer (the question was not clearly expressed, could this be the reason?)	A very balanced group.
E	Didn´t follow the instructions given. Fair performance in their results for this activity (5 out of 8 questions answered)	Very positive attitude They worked on their texts properly	Question: It was too wide at the beginning, it needed to be narrowed. Answer: The answer was correct.	They were only two participants in this group to do the same work as groups composed of 4 persons.

Self Assessment:

For our self evaluation we are going to highlight the things we belief we have done better and things that we need to improve:

WELL DONE	IMPROVEMENT IS NEEDED
We adapted very well and fast to new necessities that have arise during the activity: -          Timing adaptation -          Development of the activity **	Better timing planning
Natural role distribution within our group: -          Anna: Explaining Activities and giving instructions -          Elisa: Organizing the work -          Myriam: Observing within the groups -          Almudena: Assessment	More simple and clearer explanations
	Make activities less complex
	Look for new techniques for motivating demotivated participants

** For instance, during the last activity we planned to chose by chance the person who was going to answer before asking the question, but then on the go we realized it was a better proposal to ask the question first, leave some minutes for the group to find the answer and then choose the person. The learning and motivation gets better.

Suggestions:

A suggestion was made by a participant (Raúl) in order to improve our activities; this was to repeat the first activity at the end of the rest of the activities in order for them to make sure that they have understood properly the topic.

From the activities a debate about motivation has arisen among us. What are the key points to motivate our students? Why do students get motivated and other students don’t? What should be done?

We must conclude that from the participants’ point of view the topic was well understood and learned, their self-assessment shows that almost all of them acquired some knowledge about what ‘Special Education Needs provision within Mainstream Education’ is.

Web Quest ?

We use a Web Quest as an instrument to organize the subject. Here I attach our teacher Web Quest.

  What is a Web Quest?

WebQuests are activities, using Internet resources, wich encourage students to usehigher order thinking skills to solve a real messy problema. WebQuests are a sub-set of Problem-Based Learning (PBL).
There are six essential components in a WebQuest that are used to structure the activity and organize the students. They are:

1. Introduction .

2. Task 

3. Resources 

4. Process

5. Evaluation.

6. Conclusion 

 The activity

The WebQuest is a collaborative proposal of team work for students who will become teachers of Elementary and Primary Schools. It is a first approach to the School Guidance Counselling concept. The objectives to be achieved are:

1. Understand the concept of school guidance counselling.

2. Know the main functions of the school guidance counselling services and the areas in which they are developed.

3. Identify the people who receive school guidance counselling services.

4. Know what  the main responsibilities and roles of the school guidance counsellor are

COLLABORATIVE ACTIVITY

Attention to diversity: designing a collaborative activity (1h. long)

Special Education Needs provision within Mainstream Education

        1.     Timing: 20 minutes.

            -       2 minutes for the first approach.

                -     15 minutes for looking for answers.

                 -        3 minutes for agreement within each group.

       2.     Material needed:

          -          Information structured in four parts.

        -         Sellotape to paste the information in the walls.

          -          6 papers with the 8 questions written.

3.     Initial organization:

-          We have divided the whole information into 4 parts and paste them in the walls.

-          The class is organized in groups (the fixed ones for this subject).

-          We allow two minutes for one member of each group to have a glance at the 4 parts.

-          There will be one member of the group in charge of writing.

-          We provide each group a paper with 8 questions (2 for each part of the text).  Each group will have them ordered in a different way so there won’t be many people looking for the same information at the same time.

4.     Rules of the activity:

-          The time starts and one member (the runner) has to run and look for the answers of the given questions.  Go back to the group and tell the writer.  The rest of members have to listen carefully.

5.     Evaluation:

-          All answers will be gathered and evaluated later.

-          Also rapidity will be taken into account.

2^nd Activity: ‘Group of Experts’ – (modified ‘Pictured Card Album’)

 

1.     Timing: 25 minutes.

-          5 minutes for first reading.

-          15 minutes for explanations.

-          5 minutes for making the questions.

2.     Material needed:

-          Information structured in four parts five times (to provide with one copy to each member of each group).

-          Information structured in five parts (to provide information to the one 5 member group).

3.     Initial organization:

-          The class is organized in groups (the fixed ones for this subject).

-          We divided the information into 4 parts (and 5 parts for one group).

-          Provide each member of each group with one part.

4.     Rules of the activity:

-          Each member has to read its part.

-          Once the information is understood, each member has to explain it to the rest of the members of the group.

-          The group has to elaborate 4 (5) questions regarding the whole text.

§  Each member has to think a question from other’s texts.

5.     Evaluation:

-          Assessment on quality of the questions will be done.

3 rd Activity: ‘The Number’

1.     Timing: 15 minutes.

-          5 minutes for answering

-          10 minutes to comment and improve answers.

2.     Material needed:

-          Questions from the previous activity.

3.     Initial organization:

-          Every student will be associated with a number.

-          Questions from the previous activity will be exchanged between groups.

4.     Rules of the Activity:

-          Once the questions are exchanged between groups, a number will be chosen randomly.

-          The student with that number will be the one that would have to answer to the questions of its group.

-          Once questions are answered the rest of the class will assess the answers and provide ideas for improving the answer (if improvement is needed).

5.     Evaluation:

-          Individual knowledge will be assessed as well as mates’ contributions

GROUP OF EXPERTS

 The aim of this activity is to focus in the Spanish context what we have learned in general about School Guidance and Counselling

  

 Steps to follow:

1. The group of the class is divided in the ordinary groups: 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.

2. In each group it’s going to be an Expert of one specific topic related to Guidance and Counseling. In our group I was in charge of: Guidance an Counselling in Higher Education

4. Each of the experts will receive a document. individually, they have to read them with the other experts of the other groups. Therefore, all experts number 1 will work together, all number 2 together and so on. Besides learning and understanding the document, they will have to decide the best way of explaining their topic to the members of their group. (45 minutes)

5. Once the experts go back to their groups, they will have to explain their topic as it’s been agreed. During the the explanations the participants can take notes, ask questions, etc., in order to get as much information as possible. (45 minutes)

6. By the end of the process,  the teacher  evaluate the pupils. (30 minutes)