The "Dot" Activity

Last Monday night, we did a very interesting exercise. Doug had everyone close their eyes and we got a dot put on our forehead. When we opened our eyes, we had to "find our group," without talking or using any type of sign language. We automatically assumed that the group he was talking about was based on the color of the dots on our heads. But he never specifically said that. We were all tricked by this part of the activity.

Then, the we had to sit down in the lecture hall, based on what color sticker we had. The blues, which was the largest group, sat in the back. The reds, which were the middle-sized group, sat in the middle of the hall. The yellows, which was the smallest group, sat right in the front. Then we each got a plate of oreos, that were completely the wrong size for each group. My group, the blue group, only got 7 oreos for the 20-ish people in the group. The yellow group of three people got a huge plate of oreos.

Throughout the rest of class, our group in the back got ignored, while the groups in the front got their every need tended to. Doug tied this into the classroom, and asked us if we thought their was a correlation between a student's performance, and where they sat in the classroom. We all discussed that we though the students in the back sometimes got ignored, which gave them the idea that they didn't matter as much as the rest of the students. The ones in the back also talk out of turn more than the rest of the class. I kind of agree with this. It has been true in almost every class I have ever been in.

As future educators, we can make sure that the "kids in the back," never get forgotten. We need to make sure all kids get the same amount of attention, regardless of where they are sitting. If kids feel like they aren't getting any attention, or that they don't matter, they wont be as likely to perform to the best of their abilities. We can prevent this by making sure all kids know how special they are.