Reflective Experience

If I could go back and redo the project that I worked on with my students, I would have given jobs to each of the students to complete. By doing this I would have been holding them accountable for a piece of work, which I don't think was something that was often done in the classroom on a regular basis. When I teach this in my own classroom, I will have each group of students comprise a list of what they want the project to include, and I will have a copy made for each of the members of the group, as well as a copy for myself. If any conflict should arise between the students about the direction of the project, we can simply just pull out the list and go over what isn't working from their initial jumping off point. Also, on this list the students will list what jobs are whose after the students themselves have decided this. When I do a project like this I will make it clear to students that in addition to me grading the over all project, I will also grade how each person worked. In addition to me grading each individual, I will have their peers grade how they worked within the group. This will factor into their final grade for the project. I think that by holding students accountable it ensures that each student will take part in the class and projects.
The lesson I worked on with students was a life size mural of a woman and child. It ended up being one panel because of time constraints and lack of manual labor, but was supposed to be one of three panels. During this project there was arguments over the racial portrayals of persons in the painting, who should be included and why, etc. I think that next time I will make sure that we pick subjects that represent an idea of the type of person we are trying to portray, instead of a specific individual.