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Helping Hands: Sharing Classroom Responsibilities (Virtual Tour)

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Teamwork

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Teamwork

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Responsible Video

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Learning Responsibility with Classroom Jobs

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Call it "active learning," or "classroom participation" -- every teacher wants to know how to motivate students to particpate, and how to nurture more involved students and fewer apathetic ones. With a little extra planning, that is possible.

Below are four common reasons students don't participate and techniques to solve those problems and spice up your lessons.

Maybe it needs to be repetitive because the students don't really "get it," or maybe you're reviewing for a test. In any case, they're tuning out.

Solution #1: Assess their prior knowledge.

This could be as simple as asking students, "What do you know about (topic)?" and writing their responses on the board. You could also try a pre-test or a graphic organizer like a K-W-L chart . The goal is to find out what they already know (or think they know). You create buy-in for the students because they feel smart, and you can tailor your lesson to the information they don't know or don't remember correctly.

Solution #2: Try skills grouping.

Divide the class into groups based on what skills they need to practice - not forever, but for a class period or two, so they can focus on what they really need help with. So have a group that works on multiplying fractions, one on dividing fractions, and one on converting fractions to decimals. Make a group of "already got 100% on the test" kids and give them an extra credit activity or let them preview the next lesson. Then take time to move between the other groups and help them review. You'll have more students engaged in the lesson and they'll get specific, focused practice time.

Solution #3: Let them teach each other.

Especially good when reviewing before a test: divide the class into groups and give each group a topic. Set some guidelines and then let them teach each other. Encourage them to do interesting activities - write tests for each other, design review games, etc. - and evaluate each group on the accuracy of their content, the creativity of their approach, and how well they work together as a team. This is also a great way to discover how to motivate students.

This is really half the problem. The other half - especially with older students - is their fear of "looking stupid" by asking questions.

Solution #1: Allow anonymous questions.

Put out a "question box" where students can submit questions any time. Give each student an index card and ask them to write something about the reading assignment they did for homework. If they don't have a question, instruct them to write a comment on the reading. Collect the cards and use them to lead a class discussion. You'll easily recognize what parts of the reading confused a lot of students and they won't feel embarrassed.

Solution #2: Allow them to work together.

We can't do this all the time; individual students need to be assessed. Ask yourself: is the goal of this activity for them to learn the content, or for them to be assessed? If you want them to learn the content, why not let them work together? When they bring in their homework, do a quick survey for completeness, then put them in pairs and let them review the homework together. Encourage them to make changes if their partner's answer looks right. When they've finished, review as a class. Students may be less embarrassed to share a group's answer than their own and you may be able to complete the review more quickly.

Solution #3: Try a jigsaw approach.

No, we're not talking about puzzles or scary movies. If you're introducing new, difficult content, divide the class into groups and ask each group to master only one portion of it at a time. If, for example, you're teaching the American Revolution, have one group focus on the Continental Congress, one on Washington's Army, one on French support for the war, and so on.

Ask them to do a reading on their topic - to become the class "experts" on that subject. Then split up the class into new groups that include one "expert" on each topic. Ask these new groups to work together to write an essay or complete a worksheet that requires information about all the topics. They will teach each other in the process. Learn more about the Jigsaw Approach.

Problem: There's too much information to present in too short a time.

Sometimes there's no way around it: you simply have to get a lot of information out there in a short amount of time. So you opt for a lecture and just want your students to absorb the content. Instead, they fall asleep or stare out the window. What can you do?

Solution #1: Keep it "bite-sized."

Remember: research shows the average student's attention span is as long as her age. So even high school kids can only handle about 15 minutes. If you have a lot of information to convey, re-arrange your lesson plans so you never lecture for more than 10-15 minutes.

Break up large concepts into smaller sections - give a brief lecture, then do an activity to help it "sink in." Repeat this process over several days. You'll increase participation - and improve comprehension, too.

Solution #2: Keep them busy.

Don't allow students to stare into space while you talk. Give them something to stay connected. Try "fill in the blank" lecture notes. Delete key words and phrases in your lecture notes to create a "fill in the blank" worksheet. Then ask students to fill in the worksheet while you lecture. Another fun variation - lecture bingo .

Solution #3: Look into the future.

Before a lecture, give students a prediction activity. For example, tell them you will be lecturing on Shakespeare and ask them to predict what you will say, or give them a set of true/false statements and ask them to take their best guess.

As you lecture, instruct students to compare their guesses with what you actually say.

When the lecture is over, have a class discussion and evaluate how accurate student predictions were.

Problem: The lesson emphasizes the teacher, not the students.

Solution #1: Keep them busier than you are.

The traditional classroom of yesteryear had the teacher at the front of the room, droning on while students doze. Re-imagine your classroom as a place where students are busier than you are.

Keep the "sit still and let me talk to you" moments as brief as possible; get those kids working! Give them worksheets, activities, discussions, and projects. That doesn't mean you get to sit around -- you will still be busy, moving from student to student or group to group, correcting, evaluating, or providing feedback. But now everyone is busy and involved.

Homogeneous grouping? Heterogeneous grouping? Tracking? Forget the buzz words: having students work in groups is one of the best ways to increase student participation. Don't keep them in the same groups all the time -give them a chance to be the "smart kid" who can help someone one day and the kid who needs help the next.

Take a traditional worksheet or activity and give it to students in groups. Offer a reward to the group who finishes first with the most answers correct and watch them go! Note: it helps to have additional prizes available to keep groups motivated after the first group "wins." Even high school students enjoy these competitions.

Solution #3: Give them a voice and a choice.

Do students ever get a "say" in your classroom? Of course you need to make most decisions, but there must be some things you could leave up to them - whether it's what color chalk you use today or how long they practice a specific activity.

Kids tune out because they feel like their ideas don't matter. Show them their opinions are important and they'll pay better attention and speak up more in class.

There will always be some unreachable student who won't respond, even with these efforts. But if you give these a try, you may be presently surprised at the previously unreachable students who just might join in!

How do you encourage participation in your class? In what ways did you discover how to motivate students? Share in the comments section!

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top 12 ways to increase student participation

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Top 12 Ways to Increase Student Participation

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Call it "active learning," or "classroom participation" -- every teacher wants to know how to motivate students to particpate, and how to nurture more involved students and fewer apathetic ones. With a little extra planning, that is possible. Below are four common reasons students don't participate and techniques to solve those problems and spice up your lessons.

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Implementing Group Work in the Classroom | Centre for Teaching Excellence

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Group work can be an effective method to motivate students, encourage active learning, and develop key critical-thinking, communication, and decision-making sk

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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Methods for Teaching in Small and Large Groups

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Methods for Teaching in Small and Large Groups

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Lev Vygotsky and Social Learning Theories

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Social learning theories help us to understand how people learn in social contexts (learn from each other) and informs us on how we, as teachers, construct active learning communities. Lev Vygotsky (1962), a Russian teacher and psychologist, first stated that we learn through our interactions and communications with others.

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This will be my first year to assign roles during group work. Maybe this is where I've gone wrong with group work over the past two years.

I decided to design a set of posters that could be hung on the wall to remind everybody (including myself) what the responsibilities are of each group member.

These roles and descriptions are stolen from Ilana Horn's Strength in Numbers: Collaborative Learning in Secondary Mathematics

. I know I've talked about this book a lot on this blog. But, it's for a good reason. This book has radically changed how I view group work.

At OCTM earlier this summer, one of the presenters talked about how she implemented group work in her own classroom. She took these roles and printed them on small cards. These cards were laminated and stored in a library pocket. Whenever group work took place in her classroom, she would pass out a pocket of group role cards to each group. Each member would take the card that corresponded to their job. I'm definitely stealing this idea! I need to put making sets of these cards on my to do list!

I also need to get busy making cards for a pocket chart. I am going to randomly assign students to groups. This is a scary thought. But, I know that it will be for the better. If I have the expectation that all students can learn, that group work benefits all students, then I must randomize my groups.
Here are the individual image files for the four group roles. I've uploaded the poster files here.

Disclosure: This post contains Amazon Affiliate links.

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This will be my first year to assign roles during group work. Maybe this is where I've gone wrong with group work over the past two years. I decided to design a set of posters that could be hung on the wall to remind everybody (including myself) what the responsibilities are of each group member.

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Teaching Excellence & Educational Innovation

"More hands make for lighter work." "Two heads are better than one." "The more the merrier."

These adages speak to the potential groups have to be more productive, creative, and motivated than individuals on their own.

Benefits for students

Group projects can help students develop a host of skills that are increasingly important in the professional world (Caruso & Woolley, 2008; Mannix & Neale, 2005). Positive group experiences, moreover, have been shown to contribute to student learning, retention and overall college success (Astin, 1997; Tinto, 1998; National Survey of Student Engagement, 2006).

Properly structured, group projects can reinforce skills that are relevant to both group and individual work, including the ability to:

Break complex tasks into parts and steps

Plan and manage time

Refine understanding through discussion and explanation

Give and receive feedback on performance

Challenge assumptions

Develop stronger communication skills.

Group projects can also help students develop skills specific to collaborative efforts, allowing students to...

Tackle more complex problems than they could on their own.

Delegate roles and responsibilities.

Share diverse perspectives.

Pool knowledge and skills.

Hold one another (and be held) accountable.

Receive social support and encouragement to take risks.

Develop new approaches to resolving differences.

Establish a shared identity with other group members.

Find effective peers to emulate.

Develop their own voice and perspectives in relation to peers.

While the potential learning benefits of group work are significant, simply assigning group work is no guarantee that these goals will be achieved. In fact, group projects can - and often do - backfire badly when they are not designed, supervised, and assessed in a way that promotes meaningful teamwork and deep collaboration.

Benefits for instructors

Faculty can often assign more complex, authentic problems to groups of students than they could to individuals. Group work also introduces more unpredictability in teaching, since groups may approach tasks and solve problems in novel, interesting ways. This can be refreshing for instructors. Additionally, group assignments can be useful when there are a limited number of viable project topics to distribute among students. And they can reduce the number of final products instructors have to grade.

Whatever the benefits in terms of teaching, instructors should take care only to assign as group work tasks that truly fulfill the learning objectives of the course and lend themselves to collaboration. Instructors should also be aware that group projects can add work for faculty at different points in the semester and introduce its own grading complexities.

References

Astin, A. (1993). What matters in college? Four critical years revisited. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Caruso, H.M., & Wooley, A.W. (2008). Harnessing the power of emergent interdependence to promote diverse team collaboration. Diversity and Groups. 11, 245-266.

Mannix, E., & Neale, M.A. (2005). What differences make a difference? The promise and reality of diverse teams in organizations. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 6(2), 31-55.

National Survey of Student Engagement Report. (2006). http://nsse.iub.edu/NSSE_2006_Annual_Report/docs/NSSE_2006_Annual_Report.pdf.

Tinto, V. (1987). Leaving college: Rethinking the causes and cures of student attrition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

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What are the benefits of group work? - Eberly Center - Carnegie Mellon University

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Not Just Group Work -- Productive Group Work!

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To ensure productive group work, teachers must communicate expectations, strategically build groups, structure activities, scaffold work with a supportive classroom culture, and stress individual accountability.

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The Critical Role of Classroom Management

Teachers play various roles in a typical classroom, but surely one of the most important is that of classroom manager. Effective teaching and learning cannot take place in a poorly managed classroom. Effective teachers appear to be effective with students of all achievement levels regardless of the levels of heterogeneity in their classes. If the teacher is ineffective, students under that teacher's tutelage, will achieve inadequate progress academically, regardless of how similar or different they are regarding their academic achievement. Current research indicates that students in classes of teachers classified as most effective can be expected to gain about 52 percentile points in their achievement over a year's time. Students in classes of teachers classified as least effective can be expected to gain only about 14 percentile points over a year's time. This comparison is even more dramatic when one realizes that some researchers have estimated that students will exhibit a gain in learning of about 6 percentile points simply from maturation-from growing one year older and gleaning new knowledge and information through everyday life (see Hattie, 1992; Cahen & Davis, 1987).

The effective teacher performs many functions that can be organized into three major roles: (1) making wise choices about the most effective instruction strategies to employ, (2) designing classroom curriculum to facilitate student learning, and (3) making effective use of classroom management techniques (Marzano, Pickering, & Pollock, 2001). Therefore, effective teachers have a wide array of instructional strategies at their disposal, are skilled at identifying and articulating the proper sequence and pacing of their content, are skilled in classroom management techniques.

In summary, the research over the past 30 years indicates that classroom management is one of the critical ingredients of effective teaching. The research resulted in two books on classroom management; one elementary level and one for the secondary level. The books, Classroom Management for the Elementary Teachers and Classroom Management for the Secondary Teacher by Carolyn Evertson, Edmund Emmer and Murray Worsham are considered the primary resources for the application of the research on classroom management to K-12 education (Marzano, Pickering, & Pollock).

The following information was taken directly from the book, Classroom Management for Elementary Teachers by Carolyn Evertson, Edmund Emmer and Murray Worsham (2006), considered by many as the to be the primary resource for the application of the research on classroom management.

Taken from Classroom Management for Elementary Teachers, Seventh Edition, Carolyn M. Evertson, Edmund T. Emmer, and Murray E. Worsham, Pearson Education, Boston, 2006.

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Teachers play various roles in a typical classroom, but surely one of the most important is that of classroom manager. Effective teaching and learning cannot take place in a poorly managed classroom. Effective teachers appear to be effective with students of all achievement levels regardless of the levels of heterogeneity in their classes.

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I've been a fan of cooperative learning since I first stepped into a classroom, and I'm convinced that teaching kids how to work with others is one of the best gifts we can give them. Research consistently shows that in order to be successful in any career, we have to know how to get along with others and to work together as a part of a team.

These social skills are important in everyday life, too. People who embrace diversity and who treat others with kindness are far more likely to be happy than those who are rude and who have no tolerance for different perspectives.

Now more than ever, we need to take a stand against bullying and intolerance. We must proactively teach kids how to treat each other with kindness and respect. But we need to do more than teach kids to tolerate diversity, we should teach our students to appreciate each other's differences and celebrate their uniqueness!

I'll be the first to admit that it's not always easy to foster these character traits in the classroom. Cooperative learning provides a framework for promoting kindness, but teaching kids how to get along with others requires more than just seating them together in teams and telling them to work together. We need to teach specific social skills and do everything in our power to foster a caring classroom community, right from the first day of school. I believe in this point so strongly that I've created a whole page on Teaching Resources called How to Create a Caring Classroom. Visit that page to check out the freebies and other resources there which include a free replay of my webinar, How to Launch a Super School Year. I also created an entire page on my site with strategies for teaching social skills in the classroom.

The best place to start promoting kindness is within cooperative learning teams. When students take part in teambuilding activities, they develop stronger bonds with their teammates. As they work with different teams throughout the year, they will eventually connect with all of their classmates and will learn to appreciate everyone's unique qualities.

Teaching Students How to Give Genuine Compliments
One powerful strategy for fostering appreciation for others is to teach students how to give and receive genuine compliments. Some children might not have any experience at all with praising and complimenting others, so begin the lesson by having your class brainstorm a list of positive statements and words of appreciation.

Remind your students that no one wants to hear empty praise because we know when others are not being sincere. Sometimes it takes a little work to find meaningful ways to praise and compliment each other, but it's worth the effort. If you've introduced growth mindset to your students, remind them that praising someone for being persistent or open to new ideas is more meaningful than telling someone that they are smart or pretty. Here are some sentence starters you might want to introduce:

I like the way you....

I appreciate it when you....

Thanks for...

I enjoy working with you because...

I admire the way you...

What's special about you is...

I'm glad you're on my team because...

Teambuilding to Promote Classroom Kindness
After you discuss what it means to give a genuine compliment, you'll need to provide opportunities for your students to practice this skill. Cooperative learning teams are the perfect place for students to test out these strategies in a safe environment. Furthermore, the process of actively looking for positive traits and complimenting others is a powerful teambuilding tool.
One way to do this this is to assign a team task that's somewhat challenging, such as a STEM activity, and ask your students to practice complimenting each other as they work together. After you introduce the activity, remind your students to look for opportunities to give specific and genuine compliments. Walk around the room as they work, and point out any nice compliments that you hear. For example, stop next to a team and say something like, "I just heard a really nice compliment in this team. Sally complimented Linda for coming up with a creative way to holding the straws together on their puff mobile."

Another effective strategy is creating Team Compliment Cards. In this activity, students show appreciation for their teammates by writing compliments on homemade cards. Each person writes his or her name on one card, and all cards are passed around the team. As the cards are passed from student to student, they write compliments about the person who is the "star" of each card. Finally, the cards are returned to their creators, and everyone can read the compliments their teammates have written about them.

To find the full directions, download the Team Compliments Cards Freebie from my TpT store. Several templates are included, or you can have students create their own cards from blank paper. This activity works really well after students have been working with the same team for several weeks, and it's a great closure activity to do right before you move students to new teams. In fact, this activity is so powerful that after students read their compliment cards, it's not unusual for some of them to beg me to keep their team together for a few more weeks!
Promoting Kindness in the Classroom
I hope these teambuilding strategies will make it a little easier for you to promote kindness in your classroom. To find additional resources, search TpT using the hashtag #kindnessnation to discover dozens of freebies from TpT sellers who believe that promoting kindness and acceptance of others should be a priority in every classroom. To make this task a little easier, we've joined together to provide teachers with ready-to-use resources for fostering a caring classroom community. Enjoy!

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Promoting Kindness in the Classroom through Teambuilding

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I've been a fan of cooperative learning since I first stepped into a classroom, and I'm convinced that teaching kids how to work with others is one of the best gifts we can give them.

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This week our comprehension skill is finding the main idea and details. I've said this several times, but I really like to start main idea using biographies. It helps us dive into a new type of text and the main idea is normally fairly simple to identify. We have been starting our lesson with a short biography that I read aloud, and we identify the main idea/details together. Then, my students break out into their reading groups. Each group has a biography (at their level) and a Main Idea Mini-Book.

My school has a wonderful literacy library with leveled readers, and thankfully there are tons of biographies! Having a resource like this helps out a TON!

My students are working in groups to read their books while also filling out their mini-booklet. I find that having something for them to complete while in reading groups helps them to stay on task a little better. We stay in groups for about 20 minutes a day... any longer and I have students crawling all over my room 😉 I mainly work with my struggling readers, but I also facilitate the rest of the groups.

In response to a biography we read as a class, my students made these main idea trees with their partners. I do this every year because it's a simple way to display what they are learning.

Do you have any fun ideas for teaching main idea? I'd love to hear below!

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Main Idea and Reading Groups - Step into 2nd Grade

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This week our comprehension skill is finding the main idea and details. I've said this several times, but I really like to start main idea using biographies. It helps us dive into a new type of text and the main idea is normally fairly simple to identify.

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Often, students do not have the skills or expertise needed to work effectively in small groups (Shimazoe and Aldrich 2010). By applying facilitation strategies such as those described below, instructors can help students learn to work collaboratively and ensure that group work improves learning for all.

Establish classroom ground-rules or expectations that can promote respectful, inclusive interactions in the classroom. These ground-rules or expectations should be determined at the start of the semester and guide students' interactions in groups. Groups that develop shared expectations on how to approach and accomplish a task tend to have higher levels of helping behaviors (Gonzalez-Mulé et al., 2014).

Define group member roles and rotate these frequently. Groups often function most effectively when members have designated roles (such as recorder, manager, or reporter) which can promote positive interdependence among group members, as well as maintain individual accountability. Roles are also critical in minimizing the possibility that students will take on, or assign one to another, roles that adhere to gender and racial stereotypes. For example, Hirshfield and Chachra (2015) found that in first-year engineering courses, females tended to undertake less technical roles and more communication roles than males. By having students' alternate through different roles, you can help students learn the value of each role.

Develop and communicate a set of clear instructions. Explain why and how students are completing the activity.

What are the content knowledge and skills that this assignment is designed to help students learn and practice?

Explain how to accomplish the activity in a PowerPoint slide or handout. Set time limits, e.g., 5-7 minutes for shorter activities, or 10-12 minutes for longer, multi-step activities. Breaking up a complex task into smaller pieces with timed checkpoints helps groups better understand how to work on complex problems and make sure they are on track to finish during the allotted time.

Indicate group size and composition. Should students work with two or three neighbors? These instructions help students better understand how they will work in groups (Barkley et al. 2014).

Provide careful discussion prompts. Ask students to answer specific questions but also to focus on the rationale behind their answers and be prepared to share the rationale. This prompt influences the quality of student discussions by creating a "reasoning-centered class" where students employ more reasoning rather than just trying to achieve the correct answer (Knight et al. 2013).

Maintain your role as a facilitator and be an active listener during the activity. Move throughout the room to monitor group conversations without interfering or participating in the groups' conversations. Watch for uneven participation in a group. What common mistakes are you observing in groups? Silently note these, but do not interfere or interject. Groups need time to develop group norms (i.e., their group work behavioral style) and allowing them to work this out is an important learning step. Therefore, let groups negotiate their own group dynamics.

Be flexible. You don't need to wait until everyone has finished the assignment before asking groups to report out. If necessary you can ask managers how much additional time is needed for their group. If students are struggling with the assignment, stop and provide assistance or direction to help them get back on track with the assignment.

Provide closure. Bring the groups back together as a whole class to report out and discuss the results of the activity. Use your previous observations of groups to determine which groups you might ask to report out. Ask a group's spokesperson to report on one piece of information or an idea generated during the group work.

Follow up by asking the spokesperson to explain their reasoning behind the group's response.

Promote participation by asking other groups to respond as well. Ask questions to help the students connect and understand the ideas brought out during the discussion.

Write the ideas generated by group work on the chalkboard so that all students can learn from the contributions of each group. Doing so underscores the importance of the knowledge generated by group work and encourages everyone to pay attention and record this knowledge in their notes.

You may not have time to hear from all groups but can then call on those groups who did not have the opportunity to report that day during the next class period.

Include time for reflection and feedback. Acknowledge the progress made and good group behaviors observed. Discuss opportunities for improving group dynamics. During the semester, occasionally ask students to reflect on their learning experience in groups. You can use these responses as feedback to assess and revise group work as needed. For example, you can ask students to answer the following (Ash and Clayton 2014):

I learned....,

I learned this because (what aspect of this experience helped them learn this)

This learning matters because (how might knowledge or skill help them in the course or in a larger context?)....

Issues that might arise during group work. Working in groups can be a particularly challenging experience for students who are introverts or dominating types (Taylor 2011). Having clear ground rules to explain the process of group work and instructions on how to accomplish the assignment can help alleviate angst in both groups. It can also be useful to remind students of their roles to help ensure that all group members are fully engaged.

Questions to help facilitate groups:

Does your recorder have questions from the group that you need to address?

Does the manager have ideas that were suggested but not yet discussed?

What will the spokesperson report for their group progress at this point?

Ask the reflector for each person's contribution or what the consensus is on their progress so far.

Creating successful group work activities in your class requires some preparation, but the benefits to you and your students can be gratifying. Check out our workshop schedule for more information on teaching with group work.
References
Ash, S. L., & Clayton, P. H. (2004). The articulated learning: An approach to guided reflection and assessment. Innovative Higher Education, 29(2), 137-154.

Barkley, E. F., Cross, K. P., & Major, C. H. (2014). Collaborative learning techniques: A handbook for college faculty. John Wiley & Sons.

Gonzalez-Mulé, E., DeGeest, D. S., McCormick, B. W., Seong, J. Y., & Brown, K. G. (2014). Can we get some cooperation around here? The mediating role of group norms on the relationship between team personality and individual helping behaviors. Journal of Applied Psychology, 99(5), 988.

Hirshfield, L., & Chachra, D. (2015, October). Task choice, group dynamics and learning goals: Understanding student activities in teams. In Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), 2015. 32614 2015. IEEE (pp. 1-5). IEEE.

Rienties, B., Alcott, P., & Jindal-Snape, D. (2014). To Let Students Self-Select or Not That Is the Question for Teachers of Culturally Diverse Groups. Journal of Studies in International Education, 18(1), 64-83.

Shimazoe, J., & Aldrich, H. (2010). Group work can be gratifying: Understanding & overcoming resistance to cooperative learning. College Teaching, 58(2), 52-57.

Sweet, M., & Michaelsen, L. K. (2012). Team-based learning in the social sciences and humanities. Sterling, VA: Stylus.

Taylor, A. (2011). Top 10 reasons students dislike working in small groups... and why I do it anyway. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education, 39(3), 219-220.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. © 2016, Washington University.

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Often, students do not have the skills or expertise needed to work effectively in small groups (Shimazoe and Aldrich 2010). By applying facilitation strategies such as those described below, instructors can help students learn to work collaboratively and ensure that group work improves learning for

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Mesquite Elementary School, in Tucson, Arizona, attributes much of its turnaround in student performance -- and their ongoing success -- to their Reteach and Enrich program. Within the first year of implementation, even before teachers had worked out all the kinks, Mesquite went from a "performing" school (as labeled by the state of Arizona) in 2002 to an "excelling" school, the highest ranking, in 2003. The school has maintained an "excelling" status ever since.

The goal of the program is to give students the opportunity to master essential skills and knowledge before they move on to the next level. Here's the approach:

1. Each week has defined curricular objectives.

2. Teachers assess students on those objectives at the end of the week.

3. Based on assessment results, teachers assign students to either reteach or enrich sessions for the following week.

4. Beginning the following Monday, students attend either a 30-minute reteach or enrich session every day.

Reteach: Teachers reteach objectives using different lessons for students who need additional time for mastery. The teacher whose students performed best on the previous week's assessment teaches that week's reteach students. Students stay with that teacher for the daily half-hour sessions the whole week to minimize transition.

Enrich: Teachers expand on objectives for students who have mastered the basics. Students in the enrich class rotate to a different teacher each day so they can experience varying teaching styles as well as learn with different peers.

Reteach and Enrich (R&E) is highly replicable; every school in the Vail School District has implemented the program, and it continues to lead to improved student performance. However, there are some essential elements that are key to making it work.

1. A Common Curriculum Calendar

R&E depends on a shared set of clearly defined curricular objectives that are scheduled out for the entire year. This means that for any given week within each grade, all the teachers are teaching the same objectives. However, they are not necessarily teaching the same way; the instructional approach is left up to each individual teacher. The calendar keeps them on track by setting the pace so that teachers know that by year's end they will have taught -- and students will have learned -- all the essential standards. Says Vail superintendent Calvin Baker, "When we hold students accountable for very specific standards, and we expect all of them to know that standard, then we hold ourselves accountable for getting that job done."

2. Dedicated Time

Everyday at Mesquite, from 12:30 p.m. to 1 p.m., the whole school is involved in R&E. In addition to this daily half hour, R&E requires time for teachers to review and assess student data as well as plan instruction to meet each child's needs, both generally and within the program. At Mesquite, each grade has dedicated common planning time for teachers while their students are in "specials" (e.g., P.E., computer lab, library time, and so on).

To fit all that in, time management is also of the essence, right down to classroom transition time. For R&E, all the students transfer from their regular classroom to their assigned reteach or enrich room in under a minute, thanks in part to the convenient setup of their classrooms around a common area (see video below).

3. Collaboration

Collaboration is a key part of Mesquite's culture and is essential to R&E. Students rotate to different teachers during R&E, so every teacher must know every student in his or her grade level. Teachers share information about their students' progress so that all the teachers in a grade level share ownership of every child's education. They plan together and share resources and lesson plans that have been successful, and they seek insight from one another on lesson plans that were less effective.

4. Formative Assessments and Data Analysis

Early on, the teachers at Mesquite created their own weekly assessments; now there is a team of teachers at the district level that writes them. The assessments are short -- usually just five questions on one objective -- but they provide consistent insight into students' progress so that teachers can address any needs promptly. Diane Samorano, Mesquite's student achievement teacher, tracks the assessment data and the data from schoolwide screenings and quarterly benchmarks. She meets with the teachers every two weeks to review the latest results, to identify students who are struggling, and to help teachers plan instruction accordingly.

5. Involved and Informed Leadership

In order to address a variety of student needs, teachers must have access to resources, and principals must know what's going on in the classroom. Katie Dabney, principal at Mesquite, routinely visits classes, converses with students, and attends every data meeting for all grades. "As instructional leader, I have to stay on top of the data and be actively involved in searching for students who are at risk or need an extra challenge."

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Mesquite Elementary School, in Tucson, Arizona, attributes much of its turnaround in student performance -- and their ongoing success -- to their Reteach and Enrich program. Within the first year of implementation, even before teachers had worked out all the kinks, Mesquite went from a "performing" school (as labeled by the state of Arizona) in 2002 to an "excelling" school, the highest ranking, in 2003.