When ever I take a really effective class, it makes me think about how to be a better teacher and make my kids better learners. So on the way to work the other day, I had a idea I thought I'd try. It was an idea I had tried ineffectively a few years ago. but what the heck, if at first you don't succeed, try try again. So I did, and it worked well for 66% of my students. That was on Thursday. The reactions from my students were interesting. The first two classes, the 66%, kept asking, hopefully, if we could do it again. The last class, the 34% that didn't do well, asked, "Do we have to do that again?" I said yes to both groups and we continued on Friday. The first two groups continued to do well and I loved seeing them work so well together. We had a minor glitch in one class with a student feeling like she had been talked down to by a classmate but it got resolved. The last class finally got it and were much happier. It had taken them 45 minutes to correct their homework the day before and only 30 minutes on Friday. One aspect I really liked was the decision about homework. I generally don't give any on Fridays for two reasons. One, the won't do it and two, weekends should be for relaxation, not work. But we have a test coming up, a writing prompt, and vacation. So in order to get their review corrected, it needed to be done on Monday. They understood the time constraints and opted to have it due on Monday and work on it over the weekend. I was so proud of them!
I am really enjoying seeing all the classes work together and take ownership of their learning. I think it fits in well with what Daniel Pink is writing about in the DRIVE book. I am not offering a carrot or a stick, and they are working harder. When I observe the class, they are all more focused in paying attention to each other and helping. In the class that was having the harder time, I had a student who had missed a few days and wasn't sure of what to do. I asked him part way through the class how he was doing. I had helped him some earlier and was checking back. The student sitting beside him told me he was fine as she was helping him. They will learn so much more with 2o teachers in the room as opposed to just one. This is an idea I am really liking.
Hi Cathy,
ReplyDeleteCan you describe what it was you did with your students?
I told them they were in charge and had to decide what to do when. We always start with the Set game (WWW.setgame.com) and then do computation practice on www.aaamath.com Correcting homework was up to them. They discussed what the correct answers were. they helped each other with the next homework assignment and I left it up to them if they could get a drink or go to the bathroom. I asked them to pretend that I was not there and to run the class on their own.
ReplyDeleteI remember hearing once that the sign of a good classroom manager was that a teacher could show up late (or a sub) and the students would already have known what to do, and gotten started. It sounds like you are trying to build that into your classes, and that's wonderful. I have a difficult time envisioning my students self-starting without me there to go over the day's agenda, review where we were last class, get their interest piqued, and then pick up and start...
ReplyDelete"I asked them to pretend that I was not there and to run the class on their own." What a great experiment to see how the students handle themselves. Like most teachers after a homework assignment I go over the assignment with my students. A few years ago I started giving students a "concept check" (after going over the homework). My definition of a "concept check" is that it is a problem like the homework that I actually collect and grade (I grade homework as completed or not, I don't grade it for accuracy rather I am just checking to see if they have the right type of work for the problem(s), hence the concept checks to see if they really understand the concept). I just might have to try your idea on my students after a homework assignment. I think it would be interesting to see how the "concept check" grades compare in terms of me going over the homework assignment versus the class reviewing it themselves.
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