Teacher reflection- Phase Two

Initially I felt the students were too dependent on the questions from our in progress survey as they conversed with community speakers. But, now I realize that those questions served different functions. First, it helped them to see if the question would elicit the type of response that they were expecting (this helped to eliminate the question “If you were the DOT park, what would you be?”). But, more importantly, asking these questions also helped to spur side conversations that helped the students to learn more about the speaker, thus develop a greater respect for them and their position in the community. In the process my students learned the importance of developing a greater understanding of the importance of making this a park the community wants.