Cooperative Learning

Many teachers try to pass off group work as cooperative learning, but they are two different things. Group work usually ends up being a group of people each doing their own thing next to someone else how is doing the same thing. In cooperative learning, everyone learns and works together.

When students work in cooperative groups, they strive to reach a certain task or goal together. The whole group is needed to reach that goal – everyone has a role. Roles are just one part of cooperative learning groups. It allows each person in the group to have something to contribute, whether they are gathering materials, monitoring time, or writing down notes. But the weight of those roles may vary, creating the illusion that everyone is participating, but some people are still contributing more than others. One way to combat this is to rotate roles, which we experienced in groups. We had a stack of questions in which one person’s role was to fan the questions, one person picked and read the question, another answered the question, and the last person cheered them on and praised their answer. Some roles required more effort than others, but we rotated so that everyone had a chance at every role and to participate.

We also got to experience cooperative learning in which our group had to reach a common goal together. We did an activity called “Let’s Make Squares” where each of the four people in our group was given 3 strips of colored paper, each of us having a different color. We had to make a certain number of squares using all of the strips, but we could only touch our own color. This required us to communicate with our group members and relied on each other’s participation in order to reach our goal.

This experience made it very clear to me the difference between cooperative learning and group work. Sure, students might like the idea of working together on an assignment, but really, they are each doing their own work and aren’t getting the full experience of learning from each other. Cooperative learning takes a lot of planning and preparation, but it’s worth it to get students to work together and learn from each other.

Rubrics and Cookies

What better way to learn about rubrics than by using chocolate chip cookies. We practiced writing rubrics by creating one of our own that was to be used to judge the BEST chocolate chip cookie. We had to create categories, scores, and descriptions for each of the expectations we had of our cookie contestants. By the time we got to judge the cookies, we realized there were flaws in our rubrics, but the best way to learn is by making mistakes.

While creating rubrics, there are many things to consider. First of all, what happens when what is being graded isn’t of the correct format, such as an Oreo being judged like a chocolate chip cookie? There may be times when students submit work that is not what was assigned, but you still need to be able to grade it accordingly. You also have to realize that what you might think of as acceptable work might be different than someone else’s. Some people might prefer warm cookies, but that may not be how someone else likes it or be a reasonable expectation.

Rubrics will never be perfect. A lot of students look towards rubrics as a guideline to write a paper or do a project, but the terminology used to grade different expectations can be confusing and subjective. It’s hard to judge what work is “good” or “precise” because the way it is interpreted depends on the reader. And more than likely, you will put too much into the rubric and forget other parts that are important, and you won’t realize it until you are actually grading. The biggest thing to remember whenever this happens is to accept defeat – let your students know that you made a mistake and provide everyone with a fair chance.

Back in March, I actually went to the Rhode Island Writing Project conference and saw a presentation by Keith Sanzen regarding the use of rubrics in his English/Language Arts class. Instead of creating a 0-4 rubric scale with a list of expectations, he provides the students with a list of things to work on, like spelling and run on sentences, asks the students to choose 5 things from the list that they are going to focus on as they write their papers. He uses the categories and keeps track of areas that students are excelling in and need more improvement in and will use that to have discussions with his students to help them improve their writing. This provides students with the opportunity to focus on a few aspects of writing as opposed to worrying about everything, which would detract from the content when writing and while grading. It’s hard for the teacher to grade content when they can’t get past the grammar.

Personally, I don’t like the use of rubrics for anything besides being a checklist to help me make sure that I am covering everything that I need to. Rubrics can be criticizing when taken too seriously and most people don’t know how to write a good rubric.

Classroom Management: Keeping the Peace

If you can’t manage your classroom, how can you manage student learning? Classroom management is only one of many components in a successful classroom, but it is one of the most important. It creates structure and routine in your classroom, but it also eliminates or confronts conflict. Classroom management has many aspects and changes as your students change.

How you enforce classroom management relies a lot on your relationship with your students. It is important to know who your students are so that you can create expectations that are unique because each of your students is. Some students bring a lot of weight on their shoulders into the classroom and it is important to know their situation, especially if they begin to act out in class. Some students will act out in class because they are comfortable with you and feel that it is a safe environment. When that occurs, you need to assess the situation while remaining fair. Students can tell if you are letting someone get away with something, and they will test you for it.

 

It is also important to separate a student’s behavior from the student themselves. You may not like a student’s behavior, but don’t let that fog your judgment of the student. Let the student seek confidence in you; talk to them one-on-one and figure out what is going on that might be affecting the student. Teachers are like a second parent to students, so it is important to build a trusting relationship with them so that we can help them succeed and work through hardship.

Classroom management also involves setting up a routine and classroom expectations. If you want students to exhibit “good behavior,” you have to show them and tell them what behavior you think is acceptable. If you want students to raise their hands when answering a question as opposed to just calling it out, tell them and make sure that they follow that expectation. Creating a routine at the start of class helps, too, especially to get the students settled in and focused. If you want them to do a Do-Now right when they sit down, make that a part of the routine. Structure will help you manage your classroom without a lot of effort.

The biggest thing about classroom management is trying not to get frustrated. There can be a lot of things that can go wrong, but you can’t keep it all in. If you are struggling, then talk to people. You can talk to your colleagues because they might have some advice for you, maybe a trick you haven’t tried. Having a bag of tricks will help if you feel that one strategy isn’t working well in your classroom, or if you decide that you have to switch it up a bit. You can seek help and advice; you can even count on your students, sometimes, to keep each other in line. Things might get tough, but it is important to focus on the small wins and remember that tomorrow will be better. Everyone gets a clean slate and can try again.

What's With all the Lecture???

As a student, I never liked being lectured, so why would I like it any better as a teacher? I think most teachers are used to the idea of a lecture-based classroom, but that may not be the best way for students to learn. In fact, it’s not. The best way students learn is by doing and experiencing learning first-hand.

For me, I want to be a teacher who can get students to enjoy math and actually participate in it. Lecture is probably the first thing teachers go to when educating their students, but it is not the only way. I’m not saying that you can never use lecture. It is good to use every once in a while, for short amounts of time, like 15 minutes, but then move on and don’t use it every day. Students lose focus easily when all the teacher is doing is talking. By keeping activities in short time frames, students are more likely to stay focused on the task at hand.

There are a few things that lectures are good for. They communicate pertinent information to the students and can summarize important topics that have been covered in class. They can be used to demonstrate certain skills, such as problem solving or reading skills, which students can develop from teacher-led example. Lectures can be useful if they have a reasonable purpose and outcome.

If you are going to lecture in your classroom, make sure it is:

·         Organized

·         Well-delivered

·         Short

·         Truthful (don’t lie to your students)

and make sure that you have practiced and prepared it multiple times and that you know the material inside and out. The better prepared you are, the more your students will learn. 

For more information, check out  http://teachingcommons.depaul.edu/Classroom_Activities/lecture.html and click on the links to discover how to make your lecture effective and memorable.

Bad Blood

There has been a lot of “bad blood” circulating through the CF school district ever since 2010. Due to the low academic performance of the school district, the high school in particular, they were required to make some drastic changes. CFHS has consistently been one of the lowest achieving schools in RI, leading them to a required school-wide intervention. There are four intervention models that can be chosen from, in which the TurnAround Model was found most suitable for CF.

This transformation required a lot of big decisions, including giving the whole staff at CFHS layoff notices indicating that they may not be rehired for the following school year. Having read the conditions of the TurnAround Model, in which all current teachers will undergo screening and only 50% can stay on staff, I know why certain actions were made. I get that, if I were a teacher at this school, I would be mad to be notified that I might get fired, but part of me thinks that a lot of these teachers didn’t understand what was happening and why it had to happen.

After the implementation of the TurnAround Model, most of the teachers were kept on staff, yet “bad blood” persisted. This has caused tension between staff members and is creating a hurtful atmosphere. Most teachers have stayed because of their students. As a teacher, your first priority should be your students’ needs. However, some teachers may still have clouded judgment, even after four years, which has kept this tension between coworkers.

Now, some actions are being reviewed regarding restructuring the school district. There has been discussion about moving grade levels around so that the schools will be grades K-3,4-6, and 7-12 (these details are a little fuzzy to me still regarding which grades will be in which schools). A lot of people have been misinformed about this plan and has created a lot of negative attitude, especially in the high school. This rearrangement is meant to create smaller, more inclusive classroom at the primary school level. However, I think a lot of people at the middle and high schools don’t understand what is being done and why (once again).

Personally, I think that the school board should make a clear announcement to all school members, including students, teachers, and parents, informing them of the changes that are being planned. Stating that there are forum hearings that people can attend is different than taking the extra effort to create, let’s say, a school-wide assembly that clearly explains to everyone what these changes are and what effect they will have. This will lead to a better understanding for everyone.

As a secondary/middle level educator, I do have one concern: How are these “improvements” to the elementary school impacting the middle and high schools? I have been learning the importance and characteristics of a middle school, and the plans to be put in place will be ripping away that whole concept of middle school that I have been learning and that most districts should be striving for. Also, seventh and eighth grade are being squished into the high school, which leaves little room for so many people. This change will, I assume, create a Junior/Senior High School, in which middle-grade students will most likely end up following the structure of high school, eliminating structures such as teams and community that provides students with developmental support, which makes a middle school so unique. This also means that a lot of teachers will be moved to a different school and may need to change their teaching approaches based on the new environment. High school seems to be the place where a lot of students in urban school lose their way and can’t get the assistance and support that they need. I feel like moving up seventh and eighth grade to the high school will create this lack of academic support at an earlier age, causing an increase in student decline.

It could just be my biases, but I think that this redesign should be used in the high school setting - this idea of smaller, more inclusive classrooms that can focus more on students’ individual learning needs. I understand how it can be helpful in elementary school, providing students with extra support at a younger age, but I think it would be more helpful for high school students. Maybe this will help the blame-game, where everyone is blaming someone else for the students’ lack of “basic, lower-level” skills, such as literacy and arithmetic. There may be good intentions, but I think that the people who are creating this design are too pulled back from the individual schools that they might be losing out on other opportunities and creating more issues than they realize.