It's interesting how all four groups made really creative strategies... but were not able to go really deep in the content of facilitation. Big thanks to Zoe, our TA, for pointing this out... our content seemed to not go so deep.
We did models or posters... but the content seemed to stay upon circling a certain quote in the text or on our own abstract definition of a concept... and was not able to connect with our lives, or experiences nor of how this can help us in the future.
My group for example... we thought about linking the article with daily life... so in our model activity, we specifically asked each team to base their model upon a quote or theory in the article, and we designed three different questions for them to model upon. They were:
"How will the NNS label affect teachers in the classroom?"
"How will the NNS label affect teachers in job interviews?"
"How will the NNS label affect teachers in professional settings (ex: research field/ international conferences/ academic journals or press/ colloquia...)?"
It was intended for them to think of a scenario of themselves in the future.
But somehow... each group ended up just explaining how NNS is viewed by others... very third person like illustration and focused too much upon what the details of the models represent.
I also felt the result was not what we expected...so TA suggested what we can do next time is to rephrase the question so it will cohere more with the article.
For example, Pavlenko emphasized upon imagined identity and pre-service or in-service teachers,
so we can rephrase the question into: "If a pre-service identified herself as an NNS, what will she face when teaching/ in job interviews/ in professional settings?"
Also suggested that this is what facilitators are supposed to do when sitting down with the groups and facilitating... facilitators should be able to guide them into the right track.
We did try to push the teams into that deeper discussion when they were presenting by asking questions... but it was a little too late because they already finished discussion time and were on the last few minutes of presenting.
Anyway... we were a little confused about how facilitation can be done better today... realizing that we didn't go deep.
But I think we're good... because we discussed it in the end... and now we know where we are heading next time.
Good facilitation doesn't come overnight... we will get there soon... by trying, making errors, reflecting, learning, and doing better.
With practice and professional suggestions from our instructors as well as TAs and CAs... I think everyone who is willing in our class will understand what effective facilitation would be soon and thus gain a lot of useful deep thoughts and ideas in the process... such process and the precious ideas along the way will in turn enable us to become good teachers for others.
We will swing high... with the help of others... and with smiles on our faces.
