On May 26, I was able to observe Jason’s ESAL 0350/0450 Advanced Oral Communication class. This was a shorter class with the second half being contributed to the CC.
During this lesson, a big part of my focus was to change my approach in the breakout rooms and observe what happened. After the last lesson I saw during this class in which I took a leading role in the breakout rooms, I thought further about my frustrations during this time and wondered if my automatic takeover of the role of leader had anything to do with the students then taking a backseat role during the activities.
I knew the expectation I was going into the breakout rooms with this time, and I think this helped set the tone for myself. During the three breakout room activities, I never went in with the intent to lead, and one student in both of the first two breakout room activities each began leading the group right from the start. Whether or not these leading students were in the 0400 level, had leadership qualities or cultural norms to speak up, I had not confirmed, but it showed me either way that the students can and will participate and ensure the rest of the group is participating as well when given the opportunity.
During the third breakout room activity, I went in with the same plan as the first two to give the students the opportunity to initiate discussion first. I waited a bit of time, but in this case none of the students took a leadership role. I began to read the questions to be answered out loud when I realized that some of the photocopied words were a bit blurry. When I did this then the students were able to provide the answers to the questions.
While I have learned that I do not need to assume a leadership role and that it is important that the students be given the chance to do so, I am still not sure if the students in breakout rooms do not speak because they are unsure of something. In the case with the sentences in the third breakout room activity, none of the students had said they could not read the words in the sentence, and they were all able to provide the answers. This makes it difficult to determine the reasoning for the students to not have engaged in discussion before I initiated them to do so. It also makes me still wonder what would have happened had I not been there and the students were left on their own to answer the questions. Would they have eventually tried or waited for the time to be up?
Not only did this lesson still provide me with insight into the interactions of the ESAL students with each other in group work, but it also allowed me to test my approach about my own interactions with the students and see if the way that I come into the group affects the way that they also come into the group. I still have a lot to learn and, with the ever-changing dynamics of various personalities and cultures involved in the groups, will continue to learn and have to adapt my approach and teaching to understand how I can best work with the students to become a teacher that supports them so they can demonstrate their knowledge and abilities by participating and sharing in group work and discussions. At the very least, I have learned to give the students the chance to show that that they can lead and how to begin to support them to do so.