Week 14 Readings

Holy Cow Batman! I wish I had read Chapter 14 in the H.D.B. book before I gave my two presentations. I noticed a whole slew of mistakes that I could have avoided with this chapter on group work.

Oh well. No harm, no foul. ( I do not have a clue what that means) Anyway, the chapter pointed out the advantages of group work in a language classroom as well as some myths that were dismissed. As a student I think that group work is wonderful. I enjoy working with my fellow students and many times (especially in graduate school) I find that I learn as profound amount of information from them.

When I was studying Spanish, I often breathed a huge sigh of relief when we were able to cluster into groups. I did not feel as threatened as I did when we would have whole class discussions. Also, I was not afraid to ask questions of my group because I knew they were all learning the same things that I was.

I found the myth section quite interesting because I did not realize that adult learners may dislike working in groups. I am glad that point was brought up in the book because I have interest in teaching adult learners.

The part in the book that was most beneficial and informative was the small section that differentiated between pair and group work. I know the literal difference between the two but I did not realize that there are some activities that suit pair work as opposed to group work and vice versa. It makes sense to me now that short and simple activities are work best with pairs.

The other reading assignment was slightly harder to get through, but, nevertheless interesting. (I think I just comma spliced) Anyway, I thought the idea of biorhythms is something that I had implicit knowledge of but I did not know there was a term to describe such a thing.

I also learned what kind of personality type I have and how that affects my learning. I think I am an extroverted, intuitive-random, feeling, and perceiving learner. Wow, say that 5 times fast.

I think this Chapter brought to my attention many factors in learning that I had not thought about. I never thought that a student's biorhythms could affect their learning experience. Also, the chapter stated that there are some students that learn well with coffee or water in hand and some get distracted. I had never thought of these factors when considering students' learning styles.