Field Blog Post 6

Beachwood Middle School


        For my third visit to Beachwood Middle School, I wanted to focus on both class sizes and how the teams help or hurt the way that the students learn. Because I am on my way to be a teacher, I like to see how different strategies work in the classroom. I will strive to not ever teach in a banking way, but in order to accomplish that, I am always looking for different ways to teach and styles that best suit teaching math in a problem-posing approach. The textbook and program that Mrs. Karim uses in her class has helped lay out the format for teaching, but I spent this observation time truly evaluating its effectiveness. The eighth grade accelerated algebra class had group tests, so it provided the perfect opportunity to examine the team-based strategy. 
       Students take both team and individual tests. Mrs. Karim talked about how she was worried at first that in having team tests, some students would simply copy off of other students and not actually comprehend the information. She said that to combat this, she grades the tests in different ways. There are times when she will grade the tests by using the tests of each of the students in the group and grading one question from each member and giving an overall score from the combined questions. When I was there, she told the students that she was going to grade the tests individually so every student must have the answers and work on their own tests. This made the students aware that they needed to contribute enough to be able to write down the correct work and answers. Mrs. Karim told me that she did not count the test grades for as much as the individual tests, so no student would be able to cheat their way into a good grade with the group tests. She also said that while it would not be ideal, even if some students simply copied the answers, she noticed that the teams all discuss how they thought through the problem so every member is involved or is able to hear how to get to the solution. Beyond that, each member should always have all of the needed work and answers so even if students were copying answers, she hopes that it is able to help them learn it by acting as another set of notes on that type of problem.
       During the group tests, Mrs. Karim walks around the room, checking up on each group and seeing how each member is doing. She told me that she can get a pretty good sense of how the students are doing while she talks to the groups about how they went through the problems and seeing the work of each member. As I observed, I wanted to see if I could also see the progress of students and get a better look at how well the team format worked. I was honestly surprised at how well the groups worked together, thinking through the question and how to get to the solution. While there were groups that had students that seemed to lead the thinking process, I was able to witness some of the more quiet students being very talkative and contributing in order to get the answer. 
        As I walked around, I was able to hear some of the things that the kids were talking about. While some did not feel like they could get the answers, they were actively working with the other members so get the right answer. One group in particular was working very hard to try to see the answer and after they finally figured it out, one student excitedly stated, "That was one to be thankful for on Thanksgiving!" (It was a week before Thanksgiving break). I felt that the teamwork of the teams helped them to think about the problems creatively and end the test having learned something new. Overall, I felt that the team structure was very effective in the classroom.
        The only negative side to having the team format is that it does not work as well with the smaller classes. Mrs. Karim has one class that has six students. This is not the class that uses the team format and has another textbook, but with this class, the team strategy has a higher possibility to fail. Her larger class of about fifteen students is the perfect size to use the team format. Class sizes are important when looking at the format that you use in your classroom and I was able to see that very clearly during my observation.