by Donna Swagerty Shreve
The year was 1987 and I was teaching Gifted And Talented Education for a sixth year in a row. This fifth grade class of ten year olds became quite a challenge unlike my previous classes. The former teachers warned me that I would have my hands full with this class’s lack of social skills.
We were now about half way into the school year. Unfortunately the students had lived down to what I had been warned about. I still did not feel I had achieved the level of social interaction I felt they needed to be successful.
Academic skills were not the issue but self-motivation and interacting with all types of personalities was an ongoing problem. We were beginning a new study of the variety of Native Americans in the United States. I was frustrated and decided to try something quite drastic.
Thirty students were put into five groups with six children in each grouping trying to work together to achieve a common goal. Their mission was to choose a tribe and present the geography of the tribe, religious ceremonies, food source, climate and other attributes to distinguish the tribe from others. All of this was not the challenge. I threw in modern technology. The presentation had to be filmed and presented on television. I had a bulky early camcorder that miraculously filmed on a VCR tape that was then inserted into a VCR player and would show instantly on television. The last part of the challenge was all filming could not include their cute faces. All illustrations needed to be made to be filmed as a documentary with their own illustrations.
So far, over the school year, certain students were known as slackers. Individually they were a challenge to any group they were put in. They just happened to be all boys. Another group was put together with all of the “bossy pants” that usually over-did any assignment they had. They just happened to be all girls. The remaining three groups were the usual mix. Let the games begin!
The slackers spent the first two class sessions staring at each other and some limited sharing of information about their Southwest Indians. I rotated around the room and was there to observe, answer questions and provide guidance. In the same time period the “bossy pants” started bringing in library books and written reports on their Northwest Indians. The other three groups had dioramas and various other constructed artifacts in full production.
By the fourth day, I expected each group to report their progress and estimated time for filming so I could schedule the use of the camera. The slacker group had come alive after a slow start. What they presented to me was quite a surprise and so impressive. One student, John, had made several tepees out of thin leather chamois . John had carefully boiled the thin leather in onion-skins to obtain just the right color of animal hides. He also constructed a gruesome sun ceremony with the hanging apparatus ready for the next warrior. Another student had tiny beef jerky hanging out on racks to dry. There were other displays equally impressive all laid out in a small village.
I praised them and then asked them a few questions. “Why do you think I put all of you six into this group.
Silence. I waited.
“Look around the room and tell me what you see.”
Finally one of the boys opened up the discussion.
“I looked around at the group members and decided I better do something because if I didn’t I was not sure anyone else would.”
It turns out each of the other five had thought and done the same thing. Their presentation ended up outdoing every other group, if there had been a contest.
I went over to the bossy pants group. The piles of books were stacked even higher and there were more written reports. They were quite smug when I wanted their report. After they bragged about all of their research, I asked, “How are you going to film this?” I then heard a repeat of their research. I asked again how they would film it.
Silence
I then asked them to follow me across the room t o observe what the all boys’ group had produced already. I even interrupted the boys and asked them to tell the girls about their displays the boys were presenting. The girls admitted they were very impressed and surprised. After their presentations, we went back to their table.
I asked them to give me their impression of the projects they had just seen. Next I asked each member to guess why I had put those boys together. They knew immediately.
I replied that they were very observant about people. The next logical question was, “Now, why did I put you six ladies together?” There was silence for a bit. Finally one of the girls volunteered her insight.
“I think you put all of the bossy girls together and we did not do well together. We all wanted to be the one in charge and no one else wanted to follow. “I may not have learned what I should have about Northwest Indians but I learned something about myself. Their failure was a new experience for them as they still had not been able to break through their self imposed barriers.
What started out as frustration with the students’ lack of positive social interactions, ended up with a break-through beyond what I had imagined. I shared my ultimate goal with the class on the first day of school. I stated that I wanted to be able to be able to draw out four name sticks and put the random students into a group where they would be able to work together successfully. The class laughed on the first day but by the end of the school year we were able to celebrate the social progress made as the class was able to acknowledge their accomplishment. I would like to think that my experiment done in desperation helped to achieve the class’s social success.
1012 words
11/01/16
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