Potholes in the Path of Pedagogy

I’ve never been a teacher’s lounge kind of person.  The gossip about staff, students, the profession in general shared among so many people that I don’t necessarily want to share information with has always made me uncomfortable.  So, I have taken to eating my lunch with those people who have become my friends in my classroom.  Some years, if the schedules play out right, there are quite a number of us, others just me and another teacher.  This year I have lunch with one of my team teachers and good friend.  We sometimes enjoy talking about things outside of school; sometimes we hash out things going on in the classrooms we teach and other times we work hard to make each other laugh just to get through the day. 

Today the topic at lunch was our new classroom wikis.  Over the last few weeks have been trying out a classroom literature wiki with out 6^th grade classes.  For the most part we have both been really impressed with the interest and excitement that has been added to our classroom through the development of the wiki.  The kids have been writing most of the wiki.  Each of us have put the shell of the wiki together and assigned the reading while the kids responded to each element and recorded their thoughts thus building the wiki. 

The response, for the most part, has been fantastic.  The kids love the idea that they are doing their “homework” but that they are not responsible for actually turning it in.  They love the fact that it is digital because, “We can type a ton faster than we an write on pencil and paper.”  I love the paperless part of it all, as our new administrator seems to have nothing better to do than to count the number of copies we make on the copy machine.  Kids have been posting very high-level connections to the text, catching each other’s spelling and grammatical errors, and creating very complete questions for each wiki discussion meeting we have had.

 However, we have this one strange phenomenon occurring that we simply cannot figure out.  Both of us have one group that is not the “low group” but is a group of kids that has a need for an easier text to read while they complete the type of tasks we are asking the kids to do.  In both of our classes, we are having difficulty getting this group to complete the wiki assignments.  They love to be on the computers and enjoy the wiki, but they unlike the other groups, are not motivated by the wiki like the other groups.  Interestingly enough, these kids are also the kids who have less access to computers at home.  Now, I do need to explain that these kids are able to do most if not all of the work at school so access to the wiki is rarely necessary at home.  We both mused about this a bit today.  Is there a correlation here?  Is there some correlation between being a good reader and use of computers in the home?  Or is there no correlation and these kids are just unmotivated to any type of learning regardless of what the draw might be?  This really makes no difference.  In the end we as teachers still have the task of finding a way to meet the needs of each student.  These groups just seem to have different ways of getting those needs met and we have yet to find out what it is.   Just another pothole in the path of learning. 

Stay out of the potholes, drive on the sidewalk!