Activity One for: Experiential Learning

Guided Practice for Middle School/High School Students in [Experiential Learning] Scaffolding for Improved Electronic Collaborations

Goals:

• To introduce students to the common progression of skill attainment that leads to effective group collaborations.
• To encourage students, in electronic group activities, to actively engage in scaffolding strategies that will enhance the quality of the group product(s) and that reinforces the possibility of positive process gains with group collaborations.

Objectives:

• Students will be introduced to a process by which, individuals can learn to function as an effective group. The process necessary for group mastery requires skills that are similar to those necessary for individual mastery: motivation, guided practice, authentic assessment and opportunity for improvement.
• Student groups will be familiarized with the levels of guided practice: scaffolding, articulation to an expert, independent practice, decontextualization.
• Students will learn that scaffolding represents support in the form of prompts, suggestions and reminders between group members in order to achieve group solidarity.

Description:

· Have each student in the class make a written list of three upcoming events/assignments that will occur during the next two weeks.

· Randomly assign students to groups. Each group should have four members.

· Have student pairs within the group exchange email addresses and their lists of upcoming events/activities/assignments.

· Have student pairs send each other a personal email reminder for ONE of the upcoming events on their list at least 24 hours prior to the occurrence date.

· Have each recipient send a personal response email that updates the sender on the progress/anticipation/anxiety regarding the approaching deadline/date.

· Have the original sender return an email response with one suggestion, words of encouragement, etc.

· At the end of the first week, have students within the same group reform new pairings and repeat the “reminder” exercise for the second week of the activity.

· At the end of the second week have each student write and post to the instructor/teacher (articulation to an expert) a reflection paragraph that addresses any changes in:

o acceptance for group responsibility

o motivation for future group projects

o personal achievement with group support

Assessment:

• Have each student repeat this “reminder”/scaffolding activity with a family member. (Decontextualization)
• At the end of the second week have each student write and post to the instructor/teacher (articulation to an expert) a reflection paragraph that compares any changes in:
• acceptance for family responsibility
• motivation for future family projects
• personal achievement with family support

...with the changes experienced with school classmates.