Sandbox

For the past three semesters, I have been teaching CURR 308 (Social Studies in the Elementary Classroom). The central assignment of the class is to create a unit of study in a small group. This work is challenging intellectually, but heavily scaffolding and largely takes place in class. The final products have mostly been excellent and I have received good feedback about the process and the learning. I also understand that group work can be challenging for a number of reasons: personalities, working styles, and group dynamics. Specifically, if a group member is not showing up (physically or mentally) for whatever reason, it negatively impacts the group. I am interested in having a conversation about managing and grading group work. I believe deeply in the value of this project, but would like to talk through some of the pitfalls.

One of the recurring points of discussion of the past two years has been the challenge of teaching modality. Will my class be Face-to-face, hybrid or online, and if online will it be synchronous or asynchronous? We are asked to be more flexible and at the same time, we are required to keep our class the modality designated by the university. What happens when students register for a modality because it’s the only option but they really cannot attend the class in that modality?