# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Organized Structure of Lesson Facilitation for New CTE Teachers

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
You Can Design Great Lessons - How to Tackle Planning (Chapt 4. of You Can Do This - Hope and Help for New Teachers - 2014)

# data[].attributes.headline
A Complete Guide to Using Community Circles

# data[].attributes.subject
A Complete Guide to Using Community Circles

# data[].attributes.body
Restorative Practices: Circles and Cooperative Activities

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
18 Warm-Up Activities to Engage Students Before They Read Nonfiction Texts (Published 2021)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Here is a collection of our favorite “bell ringers,” “do nows” and “hooks” to grab students’ attention, along with examples from dozens of our daily lessons.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
responsiveclassroom.org-The First Six Weeks of School

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
I read a great quote from Abraham Lincoln recently: "If you give me 6 hours to chop down a tree, I will spend the first 4 hours sharpening the ax." From this, we are reminded of the importance of preparation before rushing into tasks. Likewise, for teachers, time spent in developing a strong lesson structure pays off in strong overall results.

One key element of such a structure is the warm up.

Since my first day of teaching, I have always had my students at work at a warm-up task when they enter the room. The tasks have evolved over the years, and they are now at a point where I am not too embarrassed about sharing them! Here's how my system works:

1. Students enter the room and I greet them at the door, reminding them that class is beginning as they enter.

2. The room is dark and there are a number of questions projected up on the screen. The questions are from the previous day's lessons. Or, to set the stage for what we are going to do, the questions might ask the students to think/speculate about a situation yet to explore.

If we have a test approaching, I include questions from prior classes as a form of review. This is especially useful for ideas/topics we covered weeks ago. I change the font to blue for these questions - students know it as a Blue Review (rhyming - it works!).

On each desk is a sheet of paper. The paper is divided into sections - one section for each class I will see them in that particular cycle. My school currently has a seven-day cycle and I see each of my blocks five times in those seven.

Why a paper? Why not save paper and use something electronic? I tried using shared files on Google Docs in the past. However, students were always sneaking in to revise their answers after we took them up. If you can come up with something more environmentally friendly, please send you ideas my way! mrdeehanclass@gmail.com

1. The students are trained to write down the questions and then answer them completely. These questions and answers will be returned to the students later and form part of their study guide for summative assessments. So, being lazy and writing incomplete answers ("Yes", "No", etc.) or skipping the questions, will only hurt them later.

2. I patrol the room and ensure students are on task and have all the tools they need for that class. I am also looking at the work, gauging who is where in the answering process. I deliberately tighten up the time to keep things a little more rigorous.

For students who are absent, I write an A in the blank section. For students who are late, I write a T.

1. At the allotted time, I have the students stop writing and pass their work to the front of the room where I collect it.

2. We take up the answers together. This is super valuable as I can direct the answers forward to what we are learning that day, making a strong connection to our daily goal. It also gives me valuable information about student understanding - if a question is universally answered incompletely or incorrectly, I know we need to revisit that topic!

Source of Anecdotal Data
Later, when the five sections on the quiz sheet are complete, I will grade all of the sheets. This helps provide data in terms of what areas students struggled with/what might need to be reviewed or strengthened.
As Exit Passes
One variation I have used in the past is to put five blank sections on the reverse side of the page. This section I have used as an exit pass for the class. Students review their daily notes and see if they can come up with questions I might ask them at the beginning of the next class. If they guess correctly, they earn bonus marks. Another variation is that if a student guesses one of my questions in advance, then they don't have to answer my question the next day.
Study Guides
As mentioned above, the sheets are graded and later returned to the students. They keep them as part of a developing study guide for future tests. I pull questions for the test directly from the quizzes. So, students have a collection of both potential questions and answers.

If students have incorrect answers (or blanks from days when absent or tardy) I give them time to share answers among themselves.
Tardy to Class
Students who are late to class do not get to participate in the quiz. They must wait outside of the room until we are done taking up the correct answers. This means missing items for their study guides and missing grades when I correct them. This provides a strong incentive to come to class on time.
Overall
This warm up structure provides incentive for coming to class on time and a sense of probability and routine in terms of how every class will begin. Most importantly, this warm up - like most start up activities - sets the tone that my classroom is for learning, not socializing. We enter the room, we get focused and we get down to business.

Hope this helps! If you have any questions, contact me at www.highfivehistory.com or by email at mrdeehanclass@gmail.com

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
An Easy Warm Up Routine to Set the Tone for Class | Edutopia

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
I read a great quote from Abraham Lincoln recently: "If you give me 6 hours to chop down a tree, I will spend the first 4 hours sharpening the ax." From this, we are reminded of the importance of preparation before rushing into tasks.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Sponsored by Hapara and Kiddom

Most teachers can relate to that sinking feeling you get when you forge ahead to a new lesson even though many of your students aren't "getting it." The pacing guide says it's time to move forward, there is a planned assessment just a week away, and you feel compelled to keep pushing through. But you know that isn't what's best for kids. Skills build on each other. Kids can't sprint before they walk. They can't write a paragraph before they write a sentence.

Ultimately, every educator wants to create a classroom that honors the fact that students must first master foundational skills to access more complex content. But we don't provide them with a blueprint for how to do it. We expect mastery from students, but don't create the conditions that give them the time and support to achieve it.

The good news is, the final frontier of the blended, self-paced, mastery-based model we have created at the Modern Classrooms Project addresses this very challenge. In this piece, I'll lay out the structures and systems you need to cultivate a mastery-based classroom of your own. With the growing diversity of academic and social-emotional needs as a consequence of the COVID pandemic, a mastery-based approach is not just valuable, it is necessary.

The Value of Mastery-Based Grading

Before you make the leap into transforming your classroom around mastery-based grading, it's critical to understand why it is so valuable. At its core, mastery-based learning refers to the notion that students must meet a certain level of competence for a task or skill before moving on to the next. Aside from it sounding quite sensible, there are some core reasons why mastery-based grading is truly valuable for students:

Prevents lingering skill gaps: Every teacher knows what it is like to start a lesson, only to realize a few minutes in that a number of students aren't ready for it. This is the consequence of sustained skill gaps. Kids have been pushed through class after class and lesson after lesson without achieving actual mastery. We collectively sweep foundational skill gaps under the rug, knowing that eventually it is going to create challenges for students when presented with more complex skills. It also leads to enormous variability in learning levels within the same classroom, school, or district. It is no surprise that when mastery-based grading is implemented effectively it is associated with a decrease in the amount of variability in aptitude between students (Anderson, 1994; Kulik, Kulik, & Bangert-Drowns, 1990). Moreover, it leads to a substantial increase in students' ability to retain their learning long-term, thus ensuring they are set up for success when they leave your classroom (Kulik, Kulik, & Bangert-Drowns, 1990).

Builds student confidence: Mastery-based grading is integral to building students' sense of self-worth in the classroom. Kids are not oblivious to the fact that they are being moved on from one lesson to the next without actually fully grasping the skill. In fact, every time they do get pushed forward without achieving mastery, they question whether or not they are holistically "good" at a particular subject. When this happens over and over, they question whether they are even capable of academic success. In a mastery-based setting, where students are given a true opportunity to succeed, they develop more positive attitudes toward the content being taught. (Anderson, 1994; Kulik, Kulik, & Bangert-Drowns, 1990). More importantly, they start to believe in themselves as young scholars and ultimately improve their academic self-concept (Anderson, 1994; Guskey & Pigot, 1988).

Prepares students for the real world: In my first few years as a classroom teacher, I thought the best way to support my students was to just give them everything they needed. I shielded them from productive struggle, I didn't require mastery, and I conditioned them to believe completion and effort were sufficient. At the time, I thought I was doing what was best for kids, only to realize later I had let them down. I misrepresented how they would be treated when they left my classroom and traveled on to college or the workplace. In these settings, they felt blindsided when suddenly they were held to mastery. They needed to show competence and were expected to be self-aware enough to identify when they needed to engage in further learning or seek out additional support. When we don't hold our students accountable to mastery, we fail to prepare them for what's next in life. We sell them a false reality that will only hurt them in the long run and sometimes when it is too late.

Setting the Conditions Needed for Mastery-Based Grading

It can be hard to imagine how to implement mastery-based grading when you have never done it before. The core limitation is the attachment most educators have to fixed-pace learning. To implement mastery-based grading you have to challenge the status quo of traditional systems where all students have the same amount of time to achieve competence. Instead, in mastery-based learning each student continues to spend time on a skill until they achieve proficiency (Dick & Reiser, 1989).

For that to become a reality, educators need to infuse elements of self-pacing in their classroom so they can let some students work on one lesson while others move on to the next because they have achieved mastery. Instead of looking at a unit and saying students NEED to learn lesson #1 on Monday and lesson #2 on Tuesday, we need to honor the fact that learning just isn't that rigid.

Now I could write a whole piece discussing how to build a self-paced classroom, and the good news is I have! To learn how, explore our free online course* or read my previous piece here on How to Create a Self-Paced Classroom.

The Two Stages of a Student's Journey Towards Mastery

Once you have established the conditions necessary to grade students on mastery, then it's time to design the systems necessary to make it happen. Reaching mastery is a journey and typically involves two stages:

Stage 1: Developing Mastery Through Practice

As soon as a student is exposed to a new skill, they need to practice that skill. The practice stage should be where they spend the majority of their class time. It is when students are truly developing their understanding of the material. Designing effective opportunities for practice should include:

Application of the Material: For practice to be productive, it must include applied learning. This can be done through discussions, labs, readings, worksheets, and other activities. Some of the best forms of practice are driven by inquiry and constant questioning. The experience should be scaffolded so students are systematically engaging in more challenging work as the lesson builds, bringing the student closer and closer to mastery.

Opportunities for Collaboration: Ideally, practice time is collaborative. Students should be able work together to understand new content and ask questions to peers who may have already mastered the skill. In an effective mastery-based environment, educators are also working to build students' ability to be self-regulated learners. Instead of running a teacher-centered classroom, students should be at the center and teachers should serve as a guide as students lean on each other through the journey to mastery.

Constant Revision: One of the most important elements of building an effective mastery-based grading classroom is cultivating a culture of revision. Students need to internalize that to achieve mastery you should EXPECT to revise your work. This is a novel concept to many students and will result in some pushback, which is a good thing. During this practice time, students should be submitting assignments and receiving feedback from their teacher on areas that need improvement. Unlike a traditional setting, where students turn in assignments and never see them again until they are "graded," in a mastery-based classroom, students are constantly revisiting their assignment until they understand the material enough to demonstrate their mastery. To revise effectively, students should receive clear feedback on what they do and do not yet understand. They should also receive actionable suggestions for what they should do to progress to the next phase of the learning process where they will demonstrate mastery.

Stage 2: Demonstrating Mastery Through Mastery Checks

Once a student has practiced sufficiently, it's time for them to demonstrate that they truly are a master of the skill! To provide students with this opportunity, educators need to design effective assessments that allow students to prove their understanding of a given skill or concept.

We call these assessments "mastery checks," and students take them at the end of each lesson prior to moving on to the next one. They emulate the function of an exit ticket but aren't administered at the end of a class period. Instead, mastery checks are administered when a student has practiced the content adequately and feels ready to show their understanding of the content in a controlled setting. Designing effective mastery checks is integral to running a mastery-based classroom. Here are some important characteristics to consider:

Administered Individually: Unlike the collaborative practice stage, students take mastery checks independently. It is students' opportunity to show that they can execute the skill without the support of their peers. Mastery checks are taken whenever students are ready for them, so you will often have a number of students demonstrating their mastery on different lessons at the same time. To manage the workflow and reduce the chances of cheating, many educators create a "Mastery Check Zone" in their classroom. That area of the classroom is completely silent and reserved for students who are demonstrating mastery.

Easily Assessed: At this point, you can probably tell that a mastery-based learning environment requires a fair amount of grading. The key is the grading is purposeful and leads to real data-driven instruction. To help manage the flow of work, it is important to build mastery checks that are easy to assess. These are ideally bite-sized and do a nice job of balancing depth of understanding with efficient assessment. We encourage educators to use a mastery check template to keep a consistent structure. Keep in mind that mastery checks do not all need to be the same format or be delivered in the same medium. They can look like a mini-quiz, a sorting activity, or verbal assessments. As a teacher, you will know best what a student needs to do to demonstrate their understanding of a skill.

Opportunity for Reassessment: The heartbeat of an effective mastery-based grading environment is reassessments. Students and teachers should all come to the collective understanding that part of the journey to mastery is frequently falling short on assessments, reflecting on why, and then re-demonstrating mastery. To do this effectively, teachers develop a clear understanding of what constitutes mastery and then hold students to it. To support this process, a number of educators build rubrics for their mastery checks to ensure the grading process is as efficient as possible and the evidence is clear when a student needs to be reassessed.

Many educators build multiple forms of each mastery-check to allow for easy reassessment. This is highly contingent on the content area. For example, in math classes where students are learning about factors, it is quite straightforward to build multiple forms of the same mastery check. Alternatively, in an English class where students are learning about character and theme, it may make more sense to simply have students revisit the same mastery check if they did not achieve mastery.

Bear in mind that there is no one universally accepted method to executing a mastery-based grading system. You are the expert in the room and understand best what will work for you and your students. Once you have a plan, make sure to articulate it clearly to your students. Nothing should feel like a surprise.

Preparing for Pushback and Challenges

As with any important and innovative shift you make in the classroom, you should expect pushback and setbacks. Traditional practices in teaching and learning have remained in place because they are comfortable and often convenient. Don't be surprised if students, parents, colleagues, and admin express hesitation about your vision. More importantly, expect to have your own doubts throughout the process. Prepare yourself for these common transition challenges:

1. Student Frustration

Most students have spent their educational career in environments that did not expect mastery; they are used to moving on to the next lesson regardless of competency. So when they enter a mastery-based environment, they will inevitably be surprised and quite frustrated. The first time they are asked to revise or be reassessed, they might ask why and in some cases express anger that you aren't simply just moving them on. This type of reaction is all the more reason we need to move forward with mastery-based grading. This is good pushback, an indication we are truly changing students' perception of learning in a way that has long-term positive impacts. The key is not to be surprised by it and to be prepared to articulate the rationale for the shift. The more frustrated your students get, the more they likely need to learn this shift before it is too late.

2. Working with Traditional Gradebooks

Often at the Modern Classrooms Project we field questions regarding whether a mastery-based grading approach can work with a traditional gradebook. I can assure you the thousands of educators who have implemented our blended, self-paced, mastery-based approach do so in traditional schools and districts that require A-F grades quarterly. The shift you are making is largely centered around how you actually treat grading each individual assignment and mastery check.

Take the example of a unit with 5 lessons and a summative assessment. Let's assume each lesson has an associated assignment (scored out of 10 points) and mastery check (2 points) and the summative assessment is a test (50 points). In a traditional fixed-paced classroom where students aren't graded based on mastery, a student might get the following grades:

The problem with a structure like this is students and teachers alike don't actually know what lessons have been mastered. The partial credit grades tell us very little about a student's competence of skills. It ultimately leads to a letter grade that is hard to explain.

Alternatively, in a mastery-based grading system, you can use the exact same grading structure, but simply only award students with credit if they have achieved mastery. Therefore, a student might get the following grades:

The beauty of this approach is both students and teachers know exactly what skills kids do and do not understand. In this example, the student mastered Lessons #1-4 but not #5. Naturally it will also be reflected in the summative assessment where the student scored an 82%, which is expected given they mastered 80% of the lesson.

One thing to note is that most educators we support through our model only self-pace within each unit of study and still give summative assessments at a scheduled time. They usually grade those "traditionally" and use them as an opportunity to reflect with their students and craft a plan for addressing students' gaps in understanding.

3. Keeping Up with Grading

As an educator who spent my first 3 years in the classroom teaching traditionally, I HATED grading. It was certainly mundane, but worse, it didn't feel purposeful. I wasn't using the information to drive my instruction. By the time I passed back work, my students had already forgotten about what they did. It felt like busy work that took up way too much time.

In a mastery-based grading environment, there is a fair amount of grading. Teachers often express that keeping up can be challenging. But the grading actually matters. It drives the discussions you have with students in small groups and individually. It triggers revisions and reassessments where students use your feedback to revisit skills to build competence. There isn't a silver bullet to reduce the grading load. Some teachers leverage tech-based assessment to accelerate the grading. Others spot check assignments and focus their energy on mastery checks for efficiency. Ultimately, you will strike the right balance, and will derive relief and excitement from the fact that grading actually feels purposeful! ( Listen to our podcast on managing grading here.)

Where to go to learn more

Creating a classroom built around mastery-based grading is challenging! It requires thoughtful planning, detailed grading and a commitment to doing what's best for kids even when there is pushback. I can assure you the benefits outweigh the challenges. Both I and the teachers we have trained at the Modern Classrooms Project can attest that the transformation to a mastery-based grading approach has lasting impacts on students' perceptions of learning and their sense of self-worth. For students to believe in themselves, they need to be given the time and space to truly demonstrate their excellence.

If you're interested in launching a mastery-based classroom of your own, a great place to start is our free online course. The course provides an in-depth overview of our blended, self-paced, mastery-based instructional model packed with templates, tutorials, exemplar units and other useful resources. Additionally, you can hear from real Modern Classroom teachers and mentors as they share about their experience by listening to our Modern Classrooms Project Podcast.

Finally, if you'd like more structured support as you make the leap into mastery-based grading, consider enrolling in our Modern Classroom Mentorship Program. As part of the program, you'll be paired with a mentor and receive 1-on-1 coaching, feedback on instructional materials and plans you create, and ongoing support from the broader Modern Classrooms community. Most importantly, you'll leave the program ready to launch a mastery-based learning environment of your own.

Regardless of your next step in your professional learning journey, challenge yourself and the many assumptions we have made about grading practices in education that don't contribute to learner understanding. More importantly, work to hold your students to mastery because they deserve nothing less. When we hold students to high expectations, they rise to the occasion.

References

Anderson, S.A. (1994). Synthesis of research on mastery learning. Information Analyses (ERIC Reproduction ED 382 567).

Dick, W., & Reiser, R.A. (1989). Planning effective instruction. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Guskey, T., & Pigott, T. (1988). Research on group-based mastery learning programs: A meta-analysis. Journal of Educational Research, 81(4), 197-216.

Kulik, C., Kulik, J., & Bangert-Drowns, R. (1990). Effectiveness of mastery learning programs: A meta-analysis. Review of Educational Research, 60(2), 265-299.

* Cult of Pedagogy has an affiliate relationship with the Modern Classrooms Project. Although the Modern Classroom Essentials course is free, if you purchase one of their paid offerings through the links on this post, Cult of Pedagogy will receive a percentage of the sale at no extra cost to you.

Come back for more.
Join our mailing list and get weekly tips, tools, and inspiration that will make your teaching more effective and fun. You'll get access to our members-only library of free downloads, including 20 Ways to Cut Your Grading Time in Half, the e-booklet that has helped thousands of teachers save time on grading. Over 50,000 teachers have already joined-come on in.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How to Set Up Mastery-Based Grading in Your Classroom

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Sponsored by Hapara and Kiddom Most teachers can relate to that sinking feeling you get when you forge ahead to a new lesson even though many of your students aren't "getting it." The pacing guide says it's time to move forward, there is a planned assessment just a week away, and you feel compelled to keep pushing through.

# data[].attributes.headline
Motivating Students Who Don't Care (Intro)

# data[].attributes.subject
Motivating Students Who Don't Care (Intro)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Motivating Students Who Don't Care (Intro)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Listen to this post as a podcast:
Sponsored by Raymond Geddes and Kids Discover

This is an excerpt from a letter written to a Charlotte, North Carolina newspaper in 2002 by a first-year math teacher, a man who was vehemently opposed to block scheduling.

"I am...a first year high school math teacher. (My school) operates on a block schedule - a concept I had never even heard of until I accepted (this) teaching position. My observations of block scheduling have been a shocking education for me. Block scheduling has resulted in less emphasis on core content and more on gimmickry. Classes used to be places where serious learning took place. No more. Under block scheduling, they have become little more than glorified playtime periods. Classes used to consist of core subject material being communicated to students by individuals rich in knowledge and experience. Now teachers are no longer teachers, but merely guides - glorified baby-sitters, if you will. Under block scheduling, the students are now in groups trying to "discover" facts that used to be communicated instantly when teachers actually taught. It's obvious that this format wastes valuable class time - and that doesn't include the time students waste by talking, singing, and becoming restless all-around as a result of the lengthened class periods."

This letter articulates the concerns some teachers, parents, and even students have about block scheduling, where class periods last 80 to 100 minutes and only four classes are held each day. This type of schedule became popular in middle and high schools in the 1990s as an alternative to the traditional schedule, where students attend the same six to eight classes, 45 to 50 minutes each, every day. The idea behind the change was that with less transition time between classes, fewer instructional minutes would be wasted, and the kinds of behavior issues and bullying that can crop up during class transitions would also be cut down. On top of that, having extended blocks of time would give teachers the opportunity to dive more deeply into their content.

And in many cases, schools have been successful with block scheduling. They've even found solutions for some of the problems it presents, like offering shorter periods for classes like math and band, where consistent daily practice is more important. But one issue with block scheduling seems to persist, a problem that is highlighted in the letter above, a problem that is still voiced by teachers and students today: The ineffective use of the longer block of instructional time.

So that's what we're going to focus on here. We'll start by looking at the mindset that causes a lot of block scheduling's biggest problems. Then we'll quickly review some best practices for teaching in the block. Finally, I'll walk you through five specific structures you can choose from to plan solid, interesting instruction for an extended class period, the kind of teaching that will make those 90 minutes fly by.

The Big Problem: A Lecture-as-Teaching Mindset

Some of the challenges associated with block scheduling boil down to logistics, like needing more time for AP courses. These issues can often be solved with creative scheduling tweaks.

But the rest of it, the criticisms lobbed at block scheduling and the problems that can crop up with it, can almost all be traced back to one mindset, a single strong, pervasive belief about teaching, and that mindset is this:
teaching = lecture
This mindset, the belief that lecture is the only "real" way to teach, causes all kinds of trouble in block scheduling.

Let's go back to the math teacher who described the extended classes in block scheduling as "glorified play periods" in his letter. One likely reason he felt that way was because he saw his co-workers doing something besides straight-up lecturing. Here's a line from his letter again, where he longs for the good old days of traditional scheduling: "Classes used to consist of core subject material being communicated to students by individuals rich in knowledge and experience." What could he possibly mean besides lecture?

In this teacher's mind, anything that wasn't lecture couldn't possibly be "serious learning," and therefore all the other non-lecture-based activities he observed in his colleagues' classrooms were a waste of time.

And to an extent, he may have a point. We don't know what was going on in his colleagues' classrooms. Maybe the other teachers were using some highly effective techniques that he was just unfamiliar with. Or maybe, if his school was like some who don't invest enough in training teachers in different methodologies, they really were just screwing around. Because if teachers don't have a well-rounded repertoire of instructional strategies, methods that they know are effective, they will only use lecture to teach, and that gives them one of two choices:

1. Lecture for the full 90 minutes, which bores students to tears, can lead to behavior problems, and ultimately has a negative return, since student attention spans can't be sustained for longer than about 15 minutes. So in this case, you're "covering" a lot of material, but students aren't learning it.

2. Lecture for half the period, then give students the second half for "homework time." This is also ineffective, because that means students are actually learning only half the material over the course of a semester or year. This is typically the reason why some teachers object to block scheduling: They say they can't "get through" as much material. But if these teachers knew more strategies, that remaining time could be used for instruction that would actually hit more learning targets.

Best Practices on the Block

Do not rely solely on lecture.
This advice comes from every teacher I have talked to and every piece of research I have read about successful block teaching (for a good summary, see Queen, 2002). Although I do believe a brief, dynamic lecture every now and then is an efficient way to deliver instruction, and does not need to be abandoned entirely, teachers who lean too heavily on it are doomed to failure in a longer class period. Instead, use a variety of instructional strategies, many of which we will get to in a little while.

Switch activities every 15 to 20 minutes.
Students get restless when they are required to sit still or do the same thing for long periods of time, so unless they are working on a task that will truly engage them for a full hour (and we'll get to these later on), look at your class period as a series of 15- to 20-minute chunks of time and switch activities in each chunk.

Overplan.
If you've ever finished your planned activities in a 50-minute period and found yourself with ten awkward minutes to kill, imagine how much worse it is when you have 30. So plan for the essential activities, but also build in some extras that would be nice to get to, but aren't essential. Meagan Brockway, a high school history teacher in Greencastle, PA, says, "Block scheduling requires planning for more than you can accomplish and then continually readjusting based on student needs." This readjustment may vary from student to student and class to class. "If I have a class that is tremendously behind, then it is a matter of looking at the 'extras' and either cutting those out completely to get to the content needed OR if it is a class that is up for a challenge, then I give them extended time to complete it on their own."

Use a smart pacing guide.
One of the challenges of block scheduling is "fitting in" all of the content you might be used to teaching on a daily schedule. Pacing guides, which are used to map out when you will address each learning target or standard throughout the year or semester, are essential to make sure you use class time wisely. But these often value "coverage" over actual learning. The late educator Grant Wiggins, who always offered incredibly insightful ideas on authentic learning, wrote a great post on designing pacing guides that help teachers hit the most essential standards but also build in time for re-teaching and extension when necessary.

5 Structures for a Block Class Period

To make the most of your extended class period, consider one of these five structures, which you can mix and match over the course of a marking period, depending on your instructional needs. For the sake of convenience, I'm going to assume we're talking about a 90-minute class period, but you should obviously make slight adjustments if your block is longer or shorter than that.

The Classic

This would look the most like a typical lesson, except you would have time to do it right and include ALL the bells and whistles that we all know a good lesson should have:

(10 min) An engaging anticipatory set to pique students' interest, build relevance, bring concepts out of long-term memory or just set the stage for learning. This is a step we often skip over when we are pressed for time. (For ideas, see my post on anticipatory sets or this one on How to Approach Your Teaching Like a Master Chef.)

(15-20 min) Some kind of direct instruction, where the teacher delivers the day's lesson through a lecture (Yes! In small doses this is okay!), doing a demonstration, showing a video, having students read through some kind of text or do an interactive online lesson.

(30 min) Student application of the content. This might take the form of individual practice, reciprocal learning, or some other kind of group work.

(15-20 min) An assessment of the content or skill, followed perhaps by re-teaching to those who need it and an extension activity for students who met the standard.

(10 min) A reflection or other kind of wrap-up, where the value of the lesson is reinforced.

Whitney Schultz, who teaches 80-minute blocks of English at a high school in Baltimore, MD, uses this kind of structure on most days, mixing up the activities within each of the segments. "That 10-15 minute review and 10-15 minute introduction might instead be a 20-30 minute quiz followed by self-grading; or, in my AP class, it might be 20-30 minutes of daily AP practice followed by 40-50 minutes of text discussion/analysis. I've found it's easier to fill 80 minutes than try to trim down what I cover each day!"

The Workshop

In this structure, students would spend the majority of time working on their own projects. The class period might start with a brief (10-minute) mini-lesson, and it would ideally end with some kind of a wrap-up, sharing, or reflection time, but at least a full hour would be spent working independently or in groups on a long-term, hands-on project. Meanwhile, the teacher would circulate, conferencing individually with students as needed or using an appointment system like the one used at the Apollo School.

In an English language arts class, this could be independent writing or reading, or a mixture of both, depending on what each student happens to be working on at the time.

If you are running a self-paced math class, or are delivering instruction through hyperdocs or playlists, where students work at their own pace through a series of lessons, then during the hour, students would just get started from wherever they are in the materials.

In any class that has implemented Genius Hour, this time could be devoted to research, writing, or working on presentations.

The Lab

One big, focused activity takes up most of the class period in this structure. Class may start with some kind of an introduction and end with a reflection or wrap-up, but at least an hour is set aside for an activity where the whole class digs into a single meaty task. In this case, the task itself is designed to be active and engaging, so the rule about switching every 15 or 20 minutes is waived. The big activity could be any of the following:

Simulations or role-plays, which can be incredibly useful in helping students understand complex social studies or science concepts.

A debate, socratic seminar, or some other long-form discussion strategy

A project-based learning activity

A virtual field trip

Jigsaw or another cooperative learning activity

An actual lab (hello, science!)

Sketchnoting: This idea comes from Jana Maiuri, a middle school English teacher in Oakland, California, who will occasionally set aside a whole class period for students to create sketchnotes on a given topic. It starts with "a ten minute rapid-fire warm-up...followed by a kind of 'okay, show me everything you know about commercial fish depletion in a sketchnote in the next 90 minutes.' Then in the next class we do two concentric circles and everyone gets two minutes to present their sketch: three vital facts, the most unique or compelling thought, and one artistic accomplishment or challenge. The movement and the art are engaging and thought provoking." (To get started with sketchnoting, see Vicki Davis' comprehensive post on sketchnoting here.)

The Performance

At the end of a learning cycle, students should ideally have some kind of final product to share with peers, or even outside visitors. A 90-minute block class would be ideal for sharing and celebrating this student work. This performance could take many forms:

Student speeches

Film festival

Gallery of physical or digital products

Skits

Poetry or other readings

The Variety Pack

On some days, you might opt to just give students a fast-paced mixture of activities, some that might review previously learned content, some that introduce new stuff, others that do a bit of drill and practice, and even some that are just there for fun and enrichment. These can be handled in a station rotation model, with student-selected learning centers, or just by having the whole class do a a series of smaller activities together. Here are just a few possible activities you could include:

Any kind of skills practice, flashcard work, or retrieval practice

Watching a short video clip

Independent reading

Journal writing

Having a short philosophical chairs debate

A short read-aloud from a book you're reading together as a class

Small group work with the teacher

Games like Kahoot or Crumple & Shoot

So whether you're brand-new to block scheduling or you've already been doing it for years, I hope you've found at least one new idea to help you make the most of that extended class period and never again be accused of running a "glorified playtime period." ♦
References
Queen, J.A. (2002). Block scheduling revisited. Phi Delta Kappan, 82(3), 214-222.

There's more where this came from.
Join our mailing list and get weekly tips, tools, and inspiration-in quick, bite-sized packages-all geared toward making your teaching more effective and fun. You'll get access to our members-only library of free downloads, including 20 Ways to Cut Your Grading Time in Half the e-booklet that has helped thousands of teachers save time on grading. Come on in!!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Whether you're brand-new to block scheduling or you've been doing it for years, these strategies will have you handling those 90 minutes like a boss.

# data[].attributes.headline
Great First Week Activity:  I am From Poem Template

# data[].attributes.subject
Great First Week Activity:  I am From Poem Template

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Active Learning is one in which interactive methods are used which improves learning by allowing the learners to participate in the process. On the contrary, passive learning is one in which the students are held accountable for grasping all that is presented to them.

While in passive learning you have to wait for the direction, instruction or information from the instructor to be given to you, in active learning you look for different methods to increase your involvement in the learning process. This means that, in passive learning, information is provided to you and you simply do as per the instructions given to you, be it written or spoken. On the other hand, in active learning, you participate in the learning process wholly.

What is Learning?

Learning is a continuous process, in which essential changes in the learner's behaviour are brought due to experiences, be it direct or indirect. However, learning does not necessarily mean improvement or development of the individual in the right direction. It is characterised by:

Universal process.

Changes in behaviour due to learning is relatively permanent.

Purposive and goal-directed.

Encompasses resetting of experiences.

Product of activity and circumstances.

Transferable from one situation to another.

Brings intended change in behaviour

In this written account, we will enlighten you with all those points that differentiate active learning from passive learning.

Content: Active Learning Vs Passive Learning

Comparison Chart

Definition of Active Learning

Active learning can be defined as an approach to learning wherein the students engage themselves in the learning process by developing knowledge and understanding. It demands full-fledged participation on the part of the learner and is not based on classroom teaching, rather it is based on interactive learning sessions.

1. Any form of learning in which there is the direct involvement of the learner in the learning process, through a number of individual and group activities.

2. It has been proven that - "Learning is more durable and enduring when the learners are cognitively involved in the process of learning".

This means that when onerous mental efforts are made by the learners, it results in long term retention and understanding.

The basis of active learning is Constructivism theory of learning, that stresses on the fact that learners construct, i.e. develop their understanding.

In active learning, the student may not get bored easily, because the attention span is longer that keeps the mind fully absorbed. Hence all those strategies that encourage activities involving the learners to perform things on their own and think about what they are doing, comes under active learning.

According to Meyers and Jones, Active Learning is based on two basic assumptions:

By nature, learning is an active endeavour.

Different people learn in different ways.

So, active learning is more than just listening to the lecture, i.e. the learners should read, write, act, discuss and take part in solving problems.

Active Learning Methods

Active Learning involves learning by way of:

Question-answer

Excursion

Brainstorming

Debates

Strip story

Dramatization

Assignments

Independent study

Problem-solving

Also Read: Difference Between Debate and Group Discussion

Definition of Passive Learning

Passive Learning means the traditional form of learning wherein teachers are seen as experts and they are expected to transfer knowledge to the learners. Hence, the students have a laid-back attitude, as they learn from what is taught to them by their instructor. Moreover, the student does not get any feedback from the instructor.

Passive Learning assumes that - "The student's mind is like empty cups which are to be filled with knowledge".

The learners are perceived as a passive recipient of the instructor's knowledge which means that the learners memorize and imitate knowledge transferred by the teacher.

That is why, no conscious efforts are taken by the learner to gain knowledge, rather a knowledge or ideas are fed to the learner by the teacher.

In passive learning, the student often gets bored or tired easily, which is due to the minimal involvement of the brain during the learning sessions, that limits the thinking ability of the students. Further, it provides only a few opportunities to check the student's comprehension and understanding.

Passive Learning Methods

Passive Learning involves learning through:

Lectures

Tutorials

Seminar

Programmed Instructions

Power-Point Presentation

Illustration

Textbook

Also Read: Difference Between Conference and Seminar

Key Differences Between Active Learning and Passive Learning

The difference between active learning and passive learning are discussed hereunder:

1. Active Learning is engaging the learners in the learning process, directly and actively. On the other hand, Passive Learning is that form of learning in which students are provided with all the information by the teacher or instructor and they are supposed to integrate it.

2. When it comes to the involvement of students, active learning tends to use such methods wherein the students learn the concept by doing and that is why the students need to actively participate in the process. As against, in the case of passive learning, traditional methods of learning are used, in which the involvement of the learner is comparatively less.

3. While passive learning is teacher-oriented, active learning is student-oriented, in which the focus is shifted from the teacher to student, as well as from the provision of information by the teacher to active participation by the student.

4. Active learning is used to improve learning in students, i.e. it allows the students to learn or educate themselves by constructing their own meanings while performing the activity. In contrast, passive learning is used when new material is presented to the students.

5. Obviously, when the students are going to learn the concept by actually performing the activity, they are going to grasp it in a better way, so the knowledge retention rate is high in case of active learning. Oppositely, the rate of knowledge retention is considerably low in the case of passive learning, as the students are dependent on their teachers to provide the information.

6. Active Learning helps in developing Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS), which may include analysis, synthesis, evaluation, public speaking and collaboration. On the contrary, passive learning often develops, Lower Order Thinking Skills (LOTS) in students, which may include defining, describing, and writing skills.

7. In the case of active learning responsibility of learning is taken by the Student. Contrastingly, in passive learning, it is the teacher who takes the responsibility of student's learning.

8. In active learning, the teacher plays the role of a facilitator who creates a favourable environment for the student to gain knowledge, But, in passive learning, teachers are regarded as the primary source of knowledge, so they play the role of an instructor.

9. Active learning promotes divergent thinking in students that results in the generation of creative or unique ideas. In contrast, passive learning promotes convergent thinking, i.e. the students will be able to provide the correct answer to a basic question.

10. In active learning, the main source of knowledge is hands-on Observation, Practical application, Experiments, etc., whereas in passive learning the main source of knowledge is the Teacher/Instructor, Books or Online Resources.

Development of Skills

Both active learning and passive learning tends to develop specific skills in learners, namely:

Examples

Some common examples of active and passive learning are presented in tabular form below:

Taking part in Group Discussion

Hearing lecture during the class

Doing Presentation in front of audience

Reading of a textbook

Playing a role in Role Play

Seeing pictures, charts, tables and graphs

In-depth examination of case study

Watching videos

Researching, designing and completing the project assigned.

Watching live demonstrations

Conclusion

By and large, in passive learning, various pieces of information are regarded as individual units, whereas in active learning you seek the links, to draw connections between different units, to understand the complete picture.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Difference Between Active and Passive Learning (with Examples, Methods, Skills and Comparison Chart) - Key Differences

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The basic difference between active and passive learning is that while passive learning is teacher-oriented, active learning is student-oriented, in which the focus is shifted from the teacher to student, as well as from the provision of information by the teacher to active participation by the student.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Direct instruction - A practical guide to effective teaching

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
According to
research,
direct instruction is one of the most effective teaching strategies. Although
often misunderstood, students who are taught using the direct instruction
method perform better in reading, maths, and spelling than those who weren’t.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Dr Spencer Kagan is a renowned educator who changed the way the world viewed teaching. He is mainly known for his work on cooperative learning strategies (often referred to as Kagan learning structures).

Instead of didactic teaching, in which a teacher stands at the front and tells information to whole class, Kagan thought that there were more effective methods.

Watch this excellent video clip, for a useful overview of the Kagan approach:

By adopting Kagan's approach, research has shown that it greatly improves:

Team-building

Social skills

Communication skills

Knowledge building

Decision making

Processing information

Thinking skills

Presenting information

Below are my favourite cooperative learning strategies:

Some others I have used are:

Pairs Squared (pair the learners, then pair up the pairs!)

Show not tell (pupils have to use drawings and diagrams to explain an answer)

Swapsies (pairs work on problems individually - they swap every minute to help solve or check answers)

If you want even more, this great document has many fantastic ideas: CLICK HERE TO ACCESS

Finally, these tech tools can really support the Kagan approach:

1. Todays Meet - A classroom chatroom allowing for excellent discussion.

2. Google Docs - Collaborate on projects easily.

3. Sound recorders - Excellent for peer evaluation and lesson reflections.

4. Padlet - A digital 'wall' in which ideas and work can be shared.

5. QR Codes - An easy way to disseminate information.

If you are looking for a mass of high-quality QR code stickers, CustomSticker provides the best and most reasonable products. It is low-cost and can be attached to anywhere you want, saving costs and achieving good teaching effects.
Have a go at some new ones! See how useful the tech tools can be. Let me know how you get on 🙂

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
10 Top Cooperative Learning Strategies (and some tech tools that could come in handy)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Dr Spencer Kagan is a renowned educator who changed the way the world viewed teaching. He is mainly known for his work on cooperative learning strategies (often referred to as Kagan learning structures). Instead of didactic teaching, in which a teacher stands at the front and tells information to whole class, Kagan thought that there were...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Sponsored by PowerSchool and ISTE U

This post contains Amazon Affiliate links. When you make a purchase through these links, Cult of Pedagogy gets a small percentage of the sale at no extra cost to you.

When I taught seventh grade language arts, one of my favorite things to teach was S.E. Hinton's book The Outsiders. Every year, we began the unit with a discussion about the cliques that formed in students' lives, how these groups interacted, the unwritten rules that governed their behavior, and what happened when groups clashed or people formed relationships across group lines. After we did some reflecting, writing, and talking, we were ready to start the book.

The reading went fine, more or less. Some chapters we did in class (I would read to them, then they would read silently), and others at home. Some students became as absorbed in the novel as I'd hoped they would; others, not so much. Predictably, some fell behind in the book like they did with all assigned reading.

I checked students' progress with occasional quizzes, we did some work on plot and characters, setting and theme, and then, after a unit test over the whole book-containing mostly questions that asked students to identify characters, setting, and key plot points-we spent nearly three class periods watching Francis Ford Coppola's movie version of the book. And I got to drool over Matt Dillon in the movie's opening scene again and again and again. From start to finish, the whole unit took about three weeks.

In retrospect, I'm not sure why it was my favorite. Seriously. I mean, even though I loved the book, my students' response to it was mostly lukewarm. Maybe it was just the idea of teaching it that I loved. Maybe it was the connections I was able to make to the stuff students dealt with on a day-to-day basis. I don't know. I taught that book a few times, and even though I looked forward to it every time, I always finished the unit a little unsatisfied.

And it's only now, years later, that I'm starting to understand that dissatisfaction: I can't say with any confidence that my students actually learned something from that unit. Upon deeper reflection, I'm not confident that any of my students learned anything of lasting value from at least half the lessons I taught.

This is a hard pill to swallow, because I wasn't half bad as a teacher. I had decent relationships with my students and I believe most of them had good experiences in my classroom, but real, durable learning? I can't say how much of that actually happened.

I don't love admitting that.

But at least now I understand why my teaching didn't produce a lot of actual learning: I never set clear, measurable learning targets.

Things would have been so different if I'd known about backward design.

When teachers talk to each other about the stuff they're teaching, they often say things like this:
"What novels do you do in 8th grade?""Oh that'll be perfect. I can use this when I teach the American Revolution!"
"I don't think I can fit that in; we're doing moon phases next month."

We tend to talk about our teaching plans in terms of the broad topics we cover. This shorthand is practical; we're not going to drill down into specific skill and knowledge objectives while waiting our turn at the bagel table. But when I think about the lessons I gave my students, the ones I observed in my colleagues' classrooms, and the work I've seen my own children do, I think this shorthand might be a pretty fair representation of what many of us are still doing: churning out lessons that keep students busy with our content without ever getting clear about what we want them to learn.

Instead of starting with a topic, we'd do better if we start with an end goal, and that's where backward design comes in.

Traditional vs. Backward Planning

Traditional Lesson Design

For many years, teachers have been planning lessons and units of instruction like this:

Step 1: Identify a topic or chunk of content that needs to be covered.

Step 2: Plan a sequence of lessons to teach that content.

Step 3: Create an assessment to measure the learning that should have taken place in those lessons.

Notice that in this approach, the assessment is created after the lessons are planned. Sometimes it isn't created until most of those lessons have already taken place. The assessment is kind of an afterthought, a check to see if students were paying attention to the stuff we taught them.

For most of my teaching career, this is how I planned. It's presumably how most of my colleagues planned. I believe it's still how many teachers plan.

So what's wrong with it? Well, when we plan this way, we're more likely to include content and activities that have questionable value. When teaching the American Revolution, for example, if our goal is just to "teach about the American Revolution," we can throw in anything that has any relation to that topic: a coloring page of the Boston Tea Party, a colonial flag craft project, or a worksheet where students unscramble words like minuteman, independence, and Hancock.

This random approach creates two problems.

The first and most important problem is a lack of durable, transferable learning. One reason so many of us don't remember much of what we learned in school is that we learned it through this haphazard, topic-driven approach. These random activities are taking up precious time that could be spent on much more valuable stuff.

The other is poor student engagement. Our students know when they're being asked to do something pointless. If they don't see the relevance of what they're learning or a direct line between the content of your course and a desirable outcome, they'll tune it out. Sure, many students will do what you ask anyway, because they want good grades and the benefits that come from them. But they're not learning. If you don't believe me, ask them.

Backward Design

In their book Understanding by Design, which was originally published in 1998, Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe introduced us to backward design, an approach to instructional planning that starts with the end goal, then works backward from there. The "full" version of Wiggins and McTighe's original approach is pretty complex and can be time-consuming to implement. If you're ready for that, I recommend digging into their book. For now, though, I'm just going to share the most basic version of backward design.

Here are the steps:

Step 1: Identify what students should know and be able to do by the end of the learning cycle.

Step 2: Create an assessment to measure that learning.

Step 3: Plan a sequence of lessons that will prepare students to successfully complete the assessment.

The difference in order is significant: Plan the assessment first, then plan only lessons that will contribute to student success on that assessment.

I was first introduced to this concept in my sixth year of teaching, and the genius of it completely blew me away. I used it when planning my next unit and experienced the biggest spike in student success I'd ever seen. On top of that, I was actually excited about teaching the lessons I had planned. For the first time, it felt like none of my class was wasted; everything actually mattered. There was something a lot more satisfying about doing things this way.

Let's take a look at an example to illustrate the difference between a unit planned the traditional, topic-driven way, and the same unit planned with backward design.

Before and After: The Lunar Cycle

The Before, Where the Final Product is a Test

At some point in their school careers, students study the phases of the moon. One pretty typical way to teach this is as follows:

A lecture or video about the phases of the moon, followed by a worksheet to label the phases.

An interactive activity like scraping the filling out of Oreos to represent the lunar phases.

Following a teacher's sample, creating a physical model of the moon phases using something like styrofoam balls.

A unit test that requires labelling the phases of the moon from memory and answering multiple-choice questions about the lunar cycle, eclipses, and seasons.

In many classrooms, teachers also have students track the appearance of the moon over the course of a month, so that might be added as well.

Following this plan, a teacher would feel pretty satisfied that they "covered" the topic of moon phases. But if we look at the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), the standard relating to moon phases says that grade 6-8 students will:

" Develop and use a model of the Earth-sun-moon system to describe the cyclic patterns of lunar phases, eclipses of the sun and moon, and seasons" ( MS-ESS1-1).

Note the language here: Students are meant to develop a model, then use it to describe these patterns. But in the plan above, students merely copied a model, and they didn't use it to describe anything; even if the model required some written captioning to explain what was going on, because the model was a copy, it can't be safely said that students were really the ones describing the system.

Then there's the test. If we assume that a large portion of a student's grade is based on the test, then students are not being measured on their achievement of that standard. The standard does not require students to memorize the phases of the moon. Nor does it ask them to "demonstrate knowledge" of how the whole system works. The standard wants students to develop a model and use it to describe the system.

It would be easy to blow off this distinction, to say Bah, same difference. The test asks students a lot of questions that would show an understanding of these concepts, so we're covered.

But not really. Asking a person to develop a model is a much higher-order task than asking them to copy a model. Describing systems and patterns is way more challenging than selecting the correct description.

Developing models and explaining things is the work of real scientists: They notice phenomena, study it, then figure out how to represent those phenomena in order to make it clear to other people. To say, "Look at this! It's interesting and it explains why things are the way they are!"

And that's exactly what the NGSS authors had in mind: "Any education that focuses predominantly on the detailed products of scientific labor-the facts of science-without developing an understanding of how those facts were established or that ignores the many important applications of science in the world misrepresents science and marginalizes the importance of engineering." (National Research Council, 2012, p. 43).

In other words, a superior education will teach students to think and practice like scientists. If we don't plan learning experiences that make that possible, we're giving them a sub-par education.

The After, Where the Final Product is a Model and a Presentation

So if we re-do this unit plan with backward design, we'll need to start by developing an assessment that would measure success with that standard. That means the assessment would not be a test where students merely label the moon phases, but a student-developed model of the moon phases along with some kind of presentation where students use that model to explain lunar phases, eclipses, and seasons.

When designing this final assessment, it's essential that the teacher crafts a rubric that clearly outlines specific, high standards for both the model and presentation. The rubric should list criteria for the accuracy and functionality of the model, plus the quality of the presentation itself. Here's an example of what that might look like:

With a good rubric in place, we then work backwards to determine what lessons students need to do excellent work on the final assessment.

Direct Instruction: Students still need to know the basics of the lunar system. Memorization is not the goal, so we're not grading for that, but students do need to know the information well enough to explain it and use the right vocabulary, so we can keep the lecture or video from the original plan. And having them work with the information a bit on some kind of worksheet or with some kind of online practice is fine, but I wouldn't give points for this work. If you need to motivate students to do it, require them to demonstrate proficiency (like scoring at least 80% on the match game with a set of Quizlet flashcards) before they can move on to the next step.

Active processing with models: Next, give students a chance to work with a model so that they experience the cycle in action. This will deepen their understanding of the earth-sun-moon system, which will better prepare them to give their own presentations. Something like this interactive model from CK-12 allows students to manipulate the time of day and the position of the moon to see how these variables change what we see in the sky. Working in groups, students could use the simulator to answer questions about the moon's appearance depending on what phase it's in and the time of day, then transition into making and checking predictions based on those variables.

Presentation practice: If students are going to do well on the final presentation, they'll need practice in explaining the lunar cycle in their own words. Using an existing model (such as the interactive mentioned in the previous step), have students explain the lunar phases, including information about the seasons and eclipses, to a partner or small group. Ask the listening partners to "coach" the presenter if their description has any holes or inaccuracies. Hearing their peers explain the system, along with attempting the explanation themselves, will help them use the language of the lunar cycle more fluently.

Model development: Now students begin developing their own models. The standard does not specify that this has to be a physical model, so you could offer students choice: The model could very well be made with styrofoam balls, but it could also be a hand-drawn diagram, a slideshow presentation, an animated video, a children's book, or even a short skit they present to the class or record on video. Many of these options, like the children's book, include the "presentation" piece right along with the model. Give students time in class to work on these models; this will ensure that they do their own work and will allow you to give feedback if a student is heading in the wrong direction. Remind them regularly that the explanation of the model is nearly half their grade, so they should consider scripting that out if their presentation is going to be "live."

Model presentations: Finally, students present their models. If you have a lot of students opt to give a "live" presentation this could take several class periods, which could be pretty mind-numbing since the subject matter is exactly the same for everyone. To cut down on that overall time, only have students present to the whole class if the class is actually participating in the model (like in some sort of skit or simulation). Otherwise, students can record their presentations on video or present to you one-on-one while their classmates work on something else independently.

With this "after" version, every lesson is designed to prepare students to give excellent presentations at the end. The whole time, they are using the lunar cycle vocabulary, correcting each other's misconceptions, and just like scientists, thinking about how to explain concepts to other people.

Some Questions About Your Lessons

Okay, so we've looked very closely at one small unit for a middle school science class. Now, take this same process and apply it to the things you teach.

1. What exactly do your standards require? Do they ask students to memorize and identify facts, or do they ask them to describe, explain, analyze, or create? (It's probably the latter.)

2. If it's the latter, how closely do your assessments measure those standards? Do they actually require students to do the describing, explaining, analyzing, or creating (which would likely require them to write, present, or create some product), or do they merely ask them to recognize when someone else does it in the form of an answer on a multiple-choice test?

3. Do you need to adjust your assessments so they more closely align with the standards?

4. If you do, the next step is to rework the lessons that lead up to that assessment. Does every lesson contribute to student success on that assessment? Could some of your lessons be omitted because they don't connect directly to the assessment? Are you missing anything? For example, if your assessment requires students to write in academic language and support their ideas with evidence, you should include some lessons that give students practice with that kind of writing.

5. Finally, will the assessment be weighted heavily in your gradebook? (It should be.)The lessons and activities leading up to the final assessment are there to give students exposure to the knowledge and practice with the skills necessary to perform on that final assessment; ideally, they should receive no grades at all on those activities. If you absolutely must assign some points, be sure the final assessment is worth a heck of a lot more than those smaller tasks.

Like I did, you probably also have some favorite lessons and activities. Some of these might turn out to be not just fun to teach, but also solid in terms of equipping students with knowledge and skills that will last.

If it turns out that those favorite lessons don't really align with any standards, you might be able to revise them so they do. Or you might keep them for other reasons-not every minute of class time has to be spent on standards-based instruction. Some activities have value because they help us get to know each other better, they help students develop social-emotional skills, or they simply offer a bit of fun. But if a lesson doesn't do any of these things, if it's disguised as learning but is doing little more than keeping students busy, it's time for it to go.

Using a process like backward design helps us get better at making these decisions. By making this approach part of our regular practice, we'll be able to look back on a day, a week, or a year of teaching and say with a lot more certainty that when they were under our care, our students learned.
Reference:
National Research Council (2012). A framework for K-12 science education: Practices, crosscutting concepts, and core ideas. The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/13165.

Come back for more.
Join our mailing list and get weekly tips, tools, and inspiration that will make your teaching more effective and fun. You'll get access to our members-only library of free downloads, including 20 Ways to Cut Your Grading Time in Half, the e-booklet that has helped thousands of teachers save time on grading. Over 50,000 teachers have already joined-come on in.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Are we planning with clear, measurable, meaningful learning goals in to guide us, or are we just keeping students busy?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Looking to login to PowerSchool Curriculum and Instruction, formerly Chalk?

1. PowerSchool

2. Classroom

3. PowerSchool Curriculum and Instruction

Part of PowerSchool's Classroom Products

Support teachers and improve student outcomes with integrated digital curriculum mapping and lesson planning.

Introducing PowerSchool Curriculum and Instruction

A complete digital curriculum mapping and lesson planning solution built to support teachers and improve student outcomes with better instructional alignment and comprehensive analytics.

Learn how Curriculum & Instruction fits into our new Personalized Learning Cloud. Provide everything an Academic team needs all in one place!

Support teachers and improve student outcomes

Integrated digital curriculum mapping and lesson planning helps teachers align instruction, share ideas, and improve the student experience.

Get the Most From Curriculum and Instruction

Curriculum mapping and lesson planning have been complex and siloed for too long - fortunately, PowerSchool Curriculum and Instruction has deepening integration with PowerSchool's suite of solutions.

View data on students, classrooms, schools, and districts to inform decisions on updating curriculum, assessments, and professional development.

Learn More

Access data on grades, attendance, schedules, assignments, compliance reporting, and more.

Learn More

Additional Resources on PowerSchool Curriculum & Instruction

You Might Also Like

Check out these additional PowerSchool resources to help you maximize your product knowledge and use.

PowerSchool experts and dedicated project managers guide you through product onboarding, implementation, configuration, and training to quickly get you up and running.

Learn More

We know how important it is to get the help you need, when you need it. Reach out to our extensive support network to help you get the most out of your solution.

Learn More

Engage with K-12's largest edtech customer community. PowerSchool's award-winning community of Champions, Mentors, and User Groups provides a vast network of resources.

Learn More

Ready to learn more?

See how PowerSchool Curriculum and Instruction can support teachers and improve student outcomes throughout your organization with integrated digital curriculum mapping and lesson planning.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
An integrated digital curriculum mapping and lesson planning solution to better support teachers and improve student outcomes.​

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The practice of using single point rubrics is slowly but surely catching on. The simplicity of these rubrics - with just a single column of criteria, rather than a full menu of performance levels - offers a whole host of benefits:

Teachers find them easier and faster to create, because they no longer have to spend precious time thinking up all the different ways students could fail to meet expectations.

Students find them easier to read when preparing an assignment. With only the target expectations to focus on, they are more likely to read those expectations.

They allow for higher-quality feedback, because teachers must specify key problem areas and notable areas of excellence for that particular student, rather than choosing from a list of generic descriptions.

Want to Learn More?

I first talked about this type of rubric in an earlier post ( Know Your Terms: Holistic, Analytic, and Single-Point Rubrics). If this is the first time you've encountered this type of rubric, reading this will give you some background knowledge on all the different types of rubrics and why the single-point deserves world domination.

To give credit where it's due, I did not come up with the name single point rubric. Although the idea for a simplified rubric with a single set of criteria came to me independently, when I went looking for academic support for its use, I found that the type of rubric I had in mind was given the name "Single Point Rubric" in 2000 during a conference presentation by someone named Mary Dietz. Attending that conference was a researcher named Jarene Fluckiger, who published a study on its effectiveness in 2010. (The reference to Dietz is in Fluckiger's paper, but no one named Dietz has published anything on the topic.)

Show Us Your Rubrics!

I urge you to take one of your most convoluted rubrics and make a single-point version of it. Then show it to the world, so other teachers can learn: Take a screenshot of it and post the picture on Twitter with the hashtag #singlepointrubric. If you aren't on Twitter or don't feel like doing this, just put a link to your rubric in the comments below. Help us start a movement to rid the world of ineffective rubrics!

Another Variation (Added in 2017)

After considering some of the limitations of this format, I played around with the rubric a bit more and came up with this variation:

The original version of the single point rubric allowed no space for actually pointing out when the student hit the standard, apart from maybe circling or highlighting the middle column. With this format, teachers can pinpoint where the student is on each descriptor, then offer feedback, either constructive, positive, or both.

To grab a copy of this for your own modification, click here.

Need Ready-Made Rubrics?

My Rubric Pack gives you four different designs in Microsoft Word and Google Docs formats. It also comes with video tutorials to show you how to customize them for any need, plus a Teacher's Manual to help you understand the pros and cons of each style. Check it out here:

Stick around.
Join my mailing list and never miss another post. You'll get weekly tips, tools, and inspiration - in quick, bite-sized packages - all geared toward making your teaching more effective and joyful. To thank you, I'll send you a free copy of my new e-booklet, 20 Ways to Cut Your Grading Time in Half. I look forward to getting to know you better!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The practice of using single point rubrics is slowly but surely catching on. Try one for yourself and let us see it!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
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.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
C.I.G. is supported in part by its readers. If you buy through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Read more here.

1. Prepare Well Before You Get to Class

2. The 6 Best Note-Taking Systems

3. Should You Use Your Computer to Take Notes?

4. Get the Most Out of Your Notes

Heading off to college is kind of like leveling up in a video game. In high school, the tests and courses were smaller bosses that you could take down with low-level equipment. Now that you're in college, you're going to need to upgrade some of those items you're taking with you if you want to succeed. This is a whole new adventure, my dude.

One of the tools you have at your disposal is your notes. Maybe in high school you were pretty good at taking notes, and now you just need to upgrade them a little bit. Maybe you're feeling like I did in college, and you've realized you've never properly learned how to take notes.

Never fear! Your guide to taking awesome, effective notes is finally here. Your days of looking back at what you scribbled down in class and trying to decipher useful information from them before a test are over.

In this guide, we'll talk about how to prepare yourself to take good notes in class, introduce some popular techniques for taking notes, and cover the best ways to get the most out of your notes after class.

Prepare Well Before You Get to Class

"The most important single factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows" - David Ausubel

Before you even think about heading to class, make sure that you've read (or at least skimmed) all pre-assigned reading from your professor. Even if you don't have assigned reading, try and familiarize yourself with the topic before you get to class so you know what to expect.

A 2004 study by Spies and Wilkin found that the law students who were responsible for reading a legal case before they got to class displayed a greater understanding of the learning materials than students who were not expected to prepare before class.

Also, don't forget to pack all the things you need to learn effectively. Make sure you have multiple pencils (or some backup lead), a notebook, pens, highlighters, sticky notes, your textbook, and your laptop.

Don't forget water! It's tempting to bring coffee or some other form of caffeine to class. Try to stick to water and consume caffeine intelligently. While coffee doesn't dehydrate you, and coffee in moderation certainly helps you focus and stay alert, caffeine dependency interferes with your quality of sleep and impairs mental function, ultimately impacting your ability to pay attention during class.

Lastly, grab a snack before you head out the door for class. Avoid high-salt or high-sugar options, and aim for a "complete snack" that includes fat, protein, and carbs.

Apples and peanut butter, crackers and cheese, or even certain power bars are good options. These snacks will leave you feeling full for longer, ensuring that you won't be distracted by how much you want a burrito in the middle of your professor's lecture about the structure of a cell.

The Note-Taking Mindset

The other thing you should get in order before coming to class is your brain. I know that when I'm in a good mood and have a positive attitude, I'm way more likely to learn.

I hate math. I suck at math. I'm like, the worst math student ever. I failed my high-school algebra courses three times. That's how bad at math I am!

When I got to college, my college-level algebra course was the one thing holding me back from actually finishing my associate's degree. I decided that I was going to pass the class.

So, I showed up every day with a (more or less) positive attitude, made an effort to make friends with a classmate I could study with, and paid attention to the lecture, working out problems myself as we went along.

In the end, I may not have gotten an A in the course, but I did get a B...which was the highest math score I had gotten since elementary school.

Moral of the story? Attitude is everything.

Quick tip: If you notice during class that your professor has mentioned the same fact twice or more, or has repeated a fact that was talked about in the previous lecture, make a note to yourself. Circle it, underline it, something to tell your brain to pay attention. It's definitely going to be important later. Keep an eye out for repetition.

The 6 Best Note-Taking Systems

Now that you're ready to take notes, let's talk about some popular note-taking techniques. Everyone has a slightly different way that they learn, and certain subjects lend themselves to different styles.

Don't be afraid to experiment with different techniques to find one that's right for you!

Structured: The Outline

This is for people who like simplicity. It's one of the easiest ways to take notes, and it comes pretty naturally to most people.

When taking your outline notes, start by choosing four or five key points that will be covered in your lecture. Beneath those points write some more in-depth sub-points about each topic as the professor covers them.

If you're taking outline notes by hand, be sure to leave enough space on each page so that you have plenty of room for all your sub-points. Or, you can take them on a computer and simply rearrange them as you go in your text document.

This is a great, simple approach to taking notes. It'll help you follow along and pay attention during class, but it can be overwhelming to review these notes later.

To aid in reviewing these kinds of notes, try to read each main point and summarize it yourself without looking too much at your notes. Use your notes to test yourself on how much you actually know rather than simply rereading them over and over.

For Review: The Cornell Method

The Cornell Method is a pretty good way of dividing up your notes if you're looking to get the most out of your review time.

In this method, you divide your paper into three sections: notes, cues, and summary.

Your notes section is for the notes you take during class. You can structure them however you like, but most people like to use the outline method.

Write your cues section either during or directly after class. This section can be filled out with main points, people, or potential test questions. Use this section to give yourself cues to help you remember larger ideas.

You can write your summary section directly after class, or later when you're reviewing your notes. Use this section to summarize the entire lecture.

Keep your cue and summary sections as simple as possible. However, feel free to fill up the notes section with doodles, diagrams, page references, and whatever else you need to properly represent the material presented in class.

In-Depth: The Mind Map

The mind map is a great way of taking notes for specific types of subjects. Class subjects like chemistry, history, and philosophy that have interlocking topics or complex, abstract ideas are perfect for this method. Use the mind map to get a handle on how certain topics relate, or to go in-depth with one particular idea.

For instance, if you're attending a lecture about the Fall of the Roman Empire, start with that concept in the center and then draw "nodes" of all the things that led to Rome's fall as your professor lists them. Things like debt, irresponsible emperors, attacks from the surrounding barbarian tribes, and so on.

Later, to review, go more in-depth and add smaller sub-concepts onto each branch. Things like dates, formulas, supporting facts, and related concepts make for great branches. In the end, it might look something like this:

Holistic: Flow Notes

This note-taking method is great for students looking to maximize their active learning within the classroom and minimize their review time later. The point of flow notes is to treat yourself like the student you are, and not a lecture-transcribing machine.

Jot down topics, draw arrows, make little doodles and diagrams and graphs. Go crazy. Engage with the material. Try to actively learn as you're writing.

Perhaps you're in history class and your professor is talking about the Battle of Hastings, and you remember that it happened in 1066 and that there were other things happening across the globe in the year 1066, too. Write those facts down and draw connections.

The sky's the limit on this one. It's great for people who hate rules.

Caution: while this method is great for learning in the moment, it can be difficult to review flow notes later. If you're an auditory and visual learner and retain a lot of what you learn from your lectures, maybe that works fine for you. If not, try pairing your flow notes with the Cornell Method to make them easier to review for tests.

Easy: Writing on Slides

Let's be honest, this is note-taking for lazy people...and there's nothing wrong with that!

It's super effective, and it's easy.

If your professor is kind enough to provide you with the slides that they're using in their lectures, go ahead and download the files and print them out at the computer lab. The slides give you a leg up on the outlining process. The professor already did the work for you! All you have to do is take notes and expand on key concepts already presented in the slides.

It works great, too, because later you can look at the slide and more or less remember what the professor was talking about when they reached that slide. It's like having a step-by-step walkthrough of the lecture, and you hardly had to do a thing to get it!

Visual: Bullet Journaling

This is my personal favorite. It's the note-taking style I use most often, both in and out of the classroom.

If you're super into aesthetics, like to doodle, or are a particularly visual learner, this method might be best for you.

When you write in your bullet journal, you turn a blank page into a beautiful representation of your thought process. Try using it to combine different aspects of other note-taking styles.

You can have one page that's dedicated to mind maps, another that's dedicated to your flow notes, and even sneak in a class schedule or a doodle of Sonic the Hedgehog in somewhere. It's your bullet journal. I don't know, do what you want! It's your journal!

This method does have drawbacks. It can be difficult to take notes quickly. The goal of bullet journaling is to keep your journal organized and attractive, which can be hard when you're scribbling down information as fast as you can.

One way to combat this is to take notes during class in an outline or using some other method, and then organize them later in your bullet journal as a form of review.

Need ideas for what your journal should look like? Just go on Pinterest or google 'BuJo ideas', or, specifically, 'BuJo ideas for students', and knock yourself out. There's tons of stuff out there!

Should You Use Your Computer to Take Notes?

So, should you use your laptop to take notes, or write them longhand? Students, scientists, and teachers have been debating this ever since laptops were allowed into classrooms. The short answer? No.

The longer answer is a bit more complicated.

In a study published in 2014, students who took notes on a laptop were more likely to simply copy down what their professor said verbatim.

This actually impaired their learning because their brains were processing the information shallowly, instead of taking larger concepts and condensing them into note-form. These students performed poorly on conceptual tests compared to others who took notes longhand.

Not only that, but another study published in 2010 showed that most students who take their laptops to class are only working on class-related material about 58% of the time.

The other 42% is taken up by going online, working on different assignments, or playing Space Invaders. These students were more likely to fall off task and were less satisfied with their education when asked about it.

The studies concur: using laptops to take notes in class might not be the best choice.

How You Use Your Computer Matters!

Of course, it all depends on how you use your computer. If you're a self-disciplined person, you might benefit from having your laptop to take verbatim notes you can study extensively later.

One history class I took in college was actually better because we had access to our laptops, and could quickly check facts for our professor. They were put to good use during discussion times, since students could do a tiny bit of googling before they contributed their thoughts.

In short: it's up to you what tool you use to take notes. You're responsible for your education. Just make sure that the tool you're using is a tool, and not a distraction. If you find yourself nipping out of your note-taking document to play Sims 3 or scroll through your Facebook feed, maybe switch to taking longhand notes.
Looking for a great app to take and organize your notes? We recommend Notion:

The Best of Both Worlds

Prefer writing by hand, but still want to be able to access your notes on your computer and are tired of buying notebooks just so you can throw them away later? There's a solution for that.

Rocketbooks are a super cool piece of new note-taking technology. The notebook is completely reusable. Simply take your notes, scan them using your phone and the Rocketbook app, and then, depending on which notebook you have, wipe it clean with a damp cloth to re-use it virtually indefinitely.

If you're using the Rocketbook Wave, you can just throw it in the microwave and nuke it up to three times. Voila! You've got a reusable notebook, and digital notes that you didn't have to take using a tablet and stylus or type out on your laptop.
Want to learn more about the Rocketbook? Check out our full review.
I'd never heard of these before researching this article, and let me tell you, they sound like a great option for students looking to lighten their backpack load. They're good for the environment, and they'll save you some money and space since you're not buying a new notebook every single term.
Need help keeping your notes (and life) organized? Check out our guide to staying organized in college.
Get the Most Out of Your Notes

Phew! How are you doing? Good? That was a lot. Here's one last thing:

Now that you've got your notes and class is over, how do you get the most out of them? There are three great ways to maximize your notes:

1. Review, review, review. Make sure that you review your notes within the first 24 hours after your lecture. This cements everything you heard and learned in your brain so it won't fall out of your head later.

2. Review a small portion of your notes every day. Don't try to cram before your test. Reviewing over a long period time ensures that what you've learned will stick, and improve your recall.

3. As you're doing assigned reading or research, have your notes on hand and notice repetition. If your professor covered it in class and it's in your assigned reading, there's a good chance it'll be on the test.

Ultimately, we could talk about notes and note-taking techniques all day. But the most important thing to understand is that note-taking is a skill. Everyone's brain works a little differently, and what might work for me won't necessarily work for you. Take notes often, experiment, and find out what you like.

You made it to the end! Now, it's up to you. Commit to the process, pay attention in class, and don't forget to review. You've got this, dude.
Want to take notes by hand without sacrificing the convenience of digital organization? Check out our guide to the best note-taking apps for iPad. Image Credits: woman taking notes, girl walking, student writing, layout of hat and pens, typing, distracted on phone, studying in library

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How to Take Better Notes: The 6 Best Note-Taking Systems

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
What's the best way to take notes in college? Here we'll cover 6 systems, including the outline, Cornell, and flow methods.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Instructional Strategies for ELL Students

Strategy 1: Label Objects

As a classroom teacher, building leader or district administrator, you should first ensure that the spaces ELL students inhabit most frequently have many object labels. Whether these are classrooms or cafeterias, having signs that label each physical item in a room forces concrete connections through repeated exposure to the most basic of school concepts that native speakers often take for granted. You can use a template such as this one to create the labels.

One of my favorite strategies for ELL students are word walls. Teachers and specialists should ensure that word walls are current and visible in all classrooms that ELL students' attend. A bonus would be to include a related graphic image next to each word that can help explain the word, as repeated reading and visual connections lead to a more developed word knowledge. Read my article about word walls to learn more.

Strategy 3: Pop Culture Iconography

Third, as I have noted before, ELL students are eager to bring their own pop culture iconography to school. When they do, ask students to label their images with connected English words and then permit them to hang up their images in the classroom. Additionally, have them present their icons to the class with an associated song, movie clip, or possibly even a YouTube video.

Of all my strategies for teaching ELL students, linking students' pop culture interests to learning has the most impact. By sharing their icons with their class and hanging them up in the classroom, ELL students gain a sense of ownership in the classroom that allows them feel connected to their classes and to their learning. Repeated exposure to these labeled objects also drives home new vocabulary.

Many more basic and nuanced concepts can be taught by including pop culture ideas in the classroom. Students can create skits and plays based on popular culture concepts, since having engaging ideas on which to "hook" new knowledge always deepens their learning.

Strategy 4: Weekly Word Charts

I strongly encourage the systematic teaching of new words, and as a few new words are introduced and worked with each day, ELL students should fill out the Vocabulary Sheet of the Week or a Vocabulary Ladder Chart to solidify each word in relation to something they enjoy.

The Vocabulary Ladder Chart is also designed to help students learn two new vocabulary words from their unit each day. What makes this handout different from the Vocabulary Sheet of the Week is that this Vocabulary Ladder Chart is designed so that it repeats previous words and adds on the new words each day. This repetition requires that students write new sentences for older vocabulary words after they've recorded and learned the two new words for the day.

Strategy 5: Context Clues

Next, ELL students should learn to identify various types of context clues and how to use them effectively. The more students recognize these context clues and can understand the basic words being used, the more they can build on their knowledge in order to scaffold to more difficult words.

Strategy 6: Vocabulary Improv

A favorite strategy for teaching ELL students of many teachers is to make learning fun by playing a simple word and motion game. And example is included here, in the Vocabulary Improv game. Many ELL and traditional students alike find that making kinesthetic motions in connection with saying a vocabulary word deepens their word understanding significantly.

Strategy 7: Vocabulary Games

More vocabulary-building games to play in your classroom include , Oranges to Oranges, Guess That Word and other games that involve a great deal of speaking and understanding, but that are also fun and colorful, as well as being less intimidating than a blank worksheet.

Students can play and replay these games, using an increasingly difficult set of vocabulary words each time as they scaffold their learning. Bonus points are awarded when they can use a previous vocabulary word to help describe a current vocabulary word.

Strategy 8: Vocabulary Activities

When in doubt, do an activity! My favorites include Create a Car, Color Your Vocabulary, Build Your Own Sundae, and Puzzle Together Your Vocabulary. Each one allows for fun and interactive engagement with whatever words each student is learning.

Color Your Vocabulary

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
8 Strategies for Teaching ELL Students Vocabulary Words

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
ELL students need help in developing their vocabularies. Here are 8 instructional strategies for ELL students that can maximize their involvement in class! In this article you'll find free worksheets, professional development resources, games, and more!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Mastery Grading Conferences - June 2021 - Resources

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This page lists a number of useful resources for Mastery Grading. List of Articles Published as part of the upcoming PRIMUS special issue on Mastery Grading Build-a-syllabus workshop (Cilli-Turner, Dunmyre, Mahoney, and Wiley): This paper, used during the conference, is available for free to all

# data[].attributes.body
Overview

# data[].attributes.headline
20 Beginning of Year Getting to Know Student Activities:  Identity, Diversity, Justice & Action

# data[].attributes.subject
20 Beginning of Year Getting to Know Student Activities:  Identity, Diversity, Justice & Action

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The first day of high school is full of excitement and nerves for students and teachers alike. You can put your students at ease right away by enthusiastically welcoming them to your class and greeting them at the door with a smile, an introduction, and a handshake.

The first day will inevitably involve some logistics, like going over the class rules and reviewing the course syllabi. However, you can make your students' introduction to your classroom stress-free and positive by adding these fun first day of high school activities.

Would You Rather?

Help the teens in your class relax with a fun round of "Would You Rather," the game in which you pit two choices against each other. Sometimes the choices are serious; other times they're silly. Occasionally, neither is a good option, forcing students to choose the lesser of two evils.

Get started with these these Would You Rather prompts. Would you rather...

Live in the mountains or on the beach?

Be a famous author or a famous musician?

Have the ability to read minds or be invisible?

Spend the day at an amusement park or the mall?

Have a private jet or a fancy sports car?

Live somewhere that is always warm and sunny, or somewhere that is always cold and snowy?

After you ask each question, instruct students to move to one side of the room if they'd choose the first option and the other if they'd prefer the second.

If you'd rather keep everyone in their seats, provide students with different color choice markers (e.g. colored paper plates, paint stir sticks). Students hold up one color for the first choice and the other color for the second.

Two Truths and a Lie

Get to know your students and help them get to know each other with the classic icebreaker game Two Truths and a Lie. Tell the students to share two true facts and one made-up fact about themselves. After a student shares their facts, the other students should guess which statement is a lie.

For example, a student might say, "I moved here from California. My birthday is in October. And, I have three brothers." The other students then guess which of the three statements is untrue until the first student reveals that they are an only child.

You can start the game by sharing two truths and a lie about yourself, then go around the room until each student gets a turn.

Letter to Yourself

Begin the school year with this introspective activity. Invite the students to write a letter to their future selves. Provide a list of questions, writing prompts, or sentence starters and instruct students to answer the questions in complete sentences. Try some of the following:

I am wearing...

My best friend is...

What I'm looking forward to most this year is...

What is your favorite subject?

What are your favorite songs, TV shows, books, games, or music artists?

What are your hobbies?

What is your favorite way to spend your free time?

Provide envelopes so that students can seal their letters once they're complete. Then, the students should turn in their sealed letters to you for safe-keeping. Return the messages to the students on their last day of school.

Tell Me About Yourself

Get to know your students with an engaging questionnaire. Write five to ten questions-some lighthearted, a few thoughtful-on the board or provide a printed handout. Ask questions such as:

What is one of your favorite memories?

Are you an introvert or an extrovert?

What qualities does a great teacher have?

How do you learn best (examples: quiet environment, hands-on, listening, reading)?

If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Students should turn in their finished questionnaires to you. Use this activity as an opportunity to gain insight into their personalities.

Pop Culture Quiz

Take a break from the first-day-of-school stress with a pop quiz - a pop culture quiz.

In advance, create a list of 10-15 questions about current pop culture, from music to movies. Then, to begin the game, divide the class into multiple teams. Distribute paper and pens/markers or personal whiteboards to each team.

Stand at the front of the room and ask one question at a time. Give the teams time (30-60 seconds) to confer quietly about their answers. Each team should write down their final answer on a piece of paper. Once the time is up, ask each team to hold up their answer. Each team that answers correctly earns a point. Record the score on the board. Whichever team earns the most points wins.

Anonymous Responses

Create a sense of community and connection in your classroom through this activity. In advance, prepare one or two questions to ask the students. Here are some examples:

What makes you most nervous about the new school year?

What is one thing you wish everyone at school knew about you?

What is your biggest goal this school year?

Write your question(s) on the board, pass out an index card to each student. Explain that they should write down their answers without including their name, and assure them that their responses are completely anonymous (but that they will be shared with the group). Give the class 5 minutes to complete the activity. When time is up, instruct students to fold their cards once and place them in a basket or bin at the front of the room.

Once everyone has turned in their index cards, read the responses out loud. Many students may be surprised to find out how similar they are to their classmates. To extend the activity, moderate a brief discussion about the students' reactions to hearing their classmates' responses.

Teacher Multiple Choice Quiz

Give your students a chance to get to know you through a silly multiple choice quiz. To create the quiz, come up with a list of fun or surprising facts about yourself. Then, turn them into multiple choice questions. Be sure to include some funny wrong answers.

After the students have finished the quiz, go over the correct answers and have the students "grade" their own quizzes. This activity often generates fun, engaging discussions, as many students are curious to hear the backstories behind some of the facts you included on the quiz.

Classmate Interviews

Divide the students into pairs and pass out a list of interview question prompts. Tell the students to be on the lookout for things they have in common. Then, give the students 10 minutes to interview their partners. When time is up, each student should introduce their partner to the class using the information they learned during the meeting. Each presentation should include a fun fact and a newly-discovered commonality.

This activity is an excellent way for students to get to know each other. In addition, many students find it less intimidating to speak to the class about someone else rather than themselves.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
8 First Day of High School Activities to Get to Know Your Students

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The first day of high school is full of excitement and nerves for students and teachers alike. You can put your students at ease right away by enthusiastically welcoming them to your class and greeting them at the door with a smile, an introduction, and a handshake.

# data[].attributes.headline
Creating Classroom Expectations with Students

# data[].attributes.subject
Creating Classroom Expectations with Students

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The hustle and bustle of a new school year can get overwhelming. This is true because of things like curriculum planning, attending meetings, and organizing supplies, but also because you have to teach students the routines, procedures, and rules of the art room.

Because we have so many classes, the repetitive nature of this can grow tiresome. That's why, in my classroom, I believe in creating expectations with my students.

Creating expectations with students is an empowering activity to help build the community and culture of the art room.

Allowing students to take ownership over their environment shows them you value their thoughts. In the book, The Classroom of Choice: Giving Students What They Need and Getting What You Want, author Jonathan Erwin says, "One of the most effective and practical ways teachers can give students a say in the classroom is by allowing them to participate in developing the classroom rules or behavior guidelines."

From experience, I find teachers value leadership that takes their ideas and opinions into account when creating building norms or making changes in the school environment. So, you can see how this would work well with students, too!

Here are 3 benefits to creating classroom expectations with your students.

1. Your students will feel valued.

Many times in school, students are told what to do or how to think. Erwin supports this statement when he writes, "In academic classes, students are told how to behave, what to learn, when and how to learn it, and they are assessed in ways that may not take into account the diverse intelligences that exist in every student population."

Giving students a say will allow them to feel valued. As they contribute to the classroom expectations, they are more likely to follow them. They also will be able to use their critical thinking skills as they develop ideas to share with the class. It is beneficial to have student investment to promote a positive and safe learning environment.

2. Your students will understand the power of collaboration.

Getting students to collaborate on the first day is a great way to show how much you value students working together. As the teacher, you are modeling collaboration as well by getting students involved in developing classroom expectations. Instead of the usual "sit and get" structure, you are providing your students with a meaningful and interactive learning experience.

3. Your students will have a clear understanding of the expectations.

Having students directly involved in the creation of classroom expectations leaves less room for confusion. When students are a direct part of the process, they comprehend everything better. Students won't just be listening to you explain the expectations, they will be direct participants, brainstorming, discussing, and refining!

Let's talk about exactly how to generate expectations together.

Here are 3 ways to create shared classroom expectations.

1. Hold a Group Discussion

If this idea is new for you, having a basic classroom discussion is helpful and a comfortable way to start. This method also works especially well for younger elementary students who can't yet write well. Simply give prompts about rules you have had in the past and ask for additional suggestions.

For example, respect is a typical rule you will find in most classes. Bring up the topic of respect. Ask students, "Why it is important to be respectful in art class?," or, "What are ways for the class to be respectful in art class?" This questioning technique allows you to guide the discussion but allows for students to gain a deeper understanding and add input about expectations for the classroom.

2. Have Your Students Create Web Charts

To get even more collaborative, allow your students the opportunity to work and brainstorm together.

First, split your students into groups.
Each group will need a large piece of paper and a writing utensil.

Then, show your students how to create a web chart.
The center circle on the chart should be labeled something like, "Art Room Rules." Then, show them how to add lines going from the center circle to another circle. These secondary circles will house what they feel are good rules for the art room. For example, "Use supplies correctly." Let students get to work.

Finally, have students share out to the class.
After about 5-10 minutes of work time, have students share what their ideas with the class. Write common themes on the board and create a list of classroom expectations from what your students added to their web charts.

3. Conduct a Collaborative Sticky Note Activity

This activity is great for older students who can handle more movement around the room and more independent work.

1. Start with a brief discussion about the importance of expectations in the classroom. Write the main expectations your students discuss on the board.

2. Create a sticky note for each expectation. These might be things like Respect, Be Kind, Work Hard, etc... Place each sticky note on a different table in your classroom.

3. Give your students sticky notes (or even small pieces of scrap paper). Then, ask them to consider each expectation. For each expectation, have them write some specific ways students could follow the expectation in the classroom or why the expectation is important. Have students leave their thoughts at the corresponding tables.

Holding Students Accountable

No matter how you go about creating your classroom expectations, it's important to come up with some sort of visual or document for your students.
Here are two ways to do that.

1. Create a classroom visual.
Your classes will likely come up with similar expectations. Therefore, you can create a poster to lay everything out and display it in your room. You could also create a verbal pledge for your students or have them recite the expectations and acknowledge that they will follow them.

2. Create a contract.
If you want to save your wall space, have students sign a contract with the expectations they designed for the classroom. You can give each student an individual copy or have a copy for each class with a line for each student's name. You can post this in the room or refer to it when needed. If you are low on paper, try a verbal agreement.

Both of these methods allow you to have an easy reference if students forget the rules. If things are going awry, you can point to your poster or contract and conduct a mini-class targeted toward the expectations that need attention. It's powerful to be able to refer to the expectations and remind students they were involved in the creation of them.
What do you do on the first day of class when it comes to classroom expectations? What other benefits are there to creating shared classroom expectations with students?
Magazine articles and podcasts are opinions of professional education contributors and do not necessarily represent the position of the Art of Education University (AOEU) or its academic offerings. Contributors use terms in the way they are most often talked about in the scope of their educational experiences.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Create Your Classroom Rules WITH Your Students for a Powerful Start to the Year

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Create Your Classroom Rules WITH Your Students for a Powerful Start to the Year Relationship Building % %

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Also see Empathic Critique: a search to discover what has happened in the work.
Note: For a printable Art Critique Sheet student handout, click here
For a page of explanation to accompany the student handout critique form, click here
For an used to assess art (not the same as class critique), click here
For a Rubric to Assess the Critique Discussion and Writing about art, click here

1. I have students display their work so every participant has a work up for discussion. I give some display guidelines for them to follow so the presentation looks good and work can be seen easily by all participants. Students who are not finished might use the time to keep working to finish. It is sometimes found that students without work on display are not as interested and they are more apt to offer negative comments.

2. I hand out copies of the Artwork Critique Forms and they draw names from a box.

3. I introduce the process. I tell them that what they write will be seen by the person whose work they are describing, use the "platinum" rule. The Platinum rule is: "Try to write what you think that person wants to hear". The Golden rule would be nearly as good, "What you would like to hear."

4. If it is peer evaluation, I ask students to avoid all judgmental comments. I stress description, analysis, and interpretation. These are comments that say what we see, why it makes an impression, and what it might mean or how it makes the viewer feel. No one may say, "I like . . ." or, "I don't like . . . " I ask them to simply say, "The first thing I see is . . . " "This ____ stands out for me because of the . . . . (size, color, brightness, placement, subject, etc.) contrast."

5. If this is a critique of an exemplar from art history, I do allow them the end up with judgment after they have described, analyzed and interpreted.

6. I ask students to jot down responses on the critique form. I encourage them to make a guess and to speculate if they are not sure what to say. I encourage them use their imaginations.

7. I tell them they will get to see what other students have written about their work.

8. If a student makes an observation that may seem a bit unusual, I try to affirm something about it, and invite others in the class to offer alternative observations. If I strongly disagree with an observation, Ido not argue the point, but I first see what other students might have noticed. Often this takes care of it. If nobody notices something important that I notice, I might simply say,"I am still curious about something." I might say, "To me it looks a little more dimensional here than here. Does anybody else see it that way? Why might that be?" Or, I might say,"I was wondering about the size of this item, what would happen if was smaller or larger? Which would you try first?" Or, I might say,"What would happen if this item was brighter or duller? Which would you try first?"

9. To the extent that class time is available, I lead a discussion. I call on class members to share their answers. I try to be fair by spending about the same amount of time with each participant's work. If I run out of time, I apologize to those who have been missed. I promise to start with them the next time. I try to keep my promises.

10. I often ask for other answers after the first student has spoken. I like to get the alternative ideas out in the open for discussion.

11. I try to call on those who are quite. I may have to do this early so they have a chance to talk before all the obvious responses have been mentioned.

12. After some discussion, the student who made the work is given the option of make comments.

13. At the end, calling first on a quiet person who has not said to much, I ask for a summary and review of what has being discovered and learned in this discussion. If I habitually review it for them, they may grow to depend on my thoughts rather than thinking for themselves.

1. Students select another student's work by some fair method so that every student's work gets at least one or an equal number of peer assessments.

2. After jotting down their ideas, they discuss under the leadership of the teacher. The teacher monitors the discussion be sure no one makes judgmental or negative comments.

3. At the end they allow the student who created the work to see the form before it is turned in to the teacher who can use it review student writing and thinking skills.

Using a Team Learning Collaborative Process

Once a group of students has learned the process, they are encouraged to conduct critiques on their own in small groups without direct teacher supervision. This type of teacher-free learning is my goal in art education. The more I can get students to ask questions and develop answers for themselves, the more I can expect them to be life-long learners who will continue to develop their artistic skills and understanding. I encourage them to think like team members in the same way that athletes work in teams. Their goal is help each other so that every one can benefit from the practice. That means not hoarding the ball, but being sure that each person on the team is encouraged to express their ideas.

----------------------------------- end of essay --

If you like this page, try clicking on Lots-a-Links about Art Education by Marvin Bartel

Note: This page is for the art teacher. For printable student handouts, click here, and here.

You are invited to link this page from your web site.
Teachers may make copies of the for Art Students for educational and/or non profit use.
Teachers are also invited make copies of for their Art Students.
You must keep the copied by permission line attribution line with the form when you copy it.
Also seeEmpathic Critique: a search to discover what has happened in the work.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
You may not place this page on your web site unless you get permission. Your questions, suggestions, and comments are appreciated. CONTACT the author.

UPDATED: January 2012

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
An Art Teacher's Guide to Critique Artwork

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Also see Empathic Critique: a search to discover what has happened in the work. Note: For a printable Art Critique Sheet student handout, click here For a page of explanation to accompany the student handout critique form, click here For an used to assess art (not the same as class critique), click here For a Rubric to Assess the Critique Discussion and Writing about art, click here I have students display their work so every participant has a work up for discussion.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Back in my early days of teaching, I was always a bit hesitant to take away studio time for critiques, but my students were missing out on an important part of their art education.

I knew I didn't have time for long, drawn-out methods, but I also knew critiques were necessary.

So, I did some research and asked others in the field why they thought class critiques were necessary and how they went about fitting in this often daunting task.

Here are 4 reasons all art teachers should make room for critiques in their curriculum.

1. Students value what their peers think.

Believe it or not, students like to talk about their art and the art of their peers. Dr. Lauren Phillips, a teaching colleague of mine with over 19 years experience, echoed this thought. She told me, "I find that my students sometimes put more weight on what their peers say. Especially when their peers say the exact thing I've been saying! Class critiques are valuable because those other points of view can see more than our individual eyes can."

2. Critiques allow students to dive deep.

Dr. Marvin Bartel, Emeritus Professor of Art at Goshen College, echoes this thought in his essay, Empathetic Critique. He writes, "Empathic critique is collaboration, not competition. Empathic class critique in studio art is not a debate session. It is a hunt for visual effects, meaning, purpose, and new ideas. Competition is replaced by mutual discovery." Making your students feel comfortable with the critique process and developing a positive classroom climate will go a long way to helping students open up. Then they can really dive deep with their peers to find ways to push their art to the next level.

Are you looking for even more tips about running critiques in the art room? If so, you won't want to miss the Art Ed PRO Learning Pack, Finding Success with Critique at Every Level. You'll explore methods for simplifying critique methods and activities, discover how to encourage students to reflect on their artmaking for increased engagement, and so much more!

3. Without critiques, your students' view of their artwork is limited.

Stan Dodson, a teacher at Burke County High School, echoes many of these same thoughts when he describes why critique is so important. He told me, "Critiquing work is such an invaluable method for growth and process. Without this measure of understanding, our lens is limited, and thus our growth stalled. I infuse critiquing through informal and formal applications.

Students seem to receive the words from their peers more in kind than from their instructor. I'm not sure if that's fear of failure or if they empathize more with a peer, but the words the students use often align with much of what I would say. This perhaps is the greatest compliment to a successful teaching environment in that your students are now modeling your methodology. An effective critiquing style must be taught and modeled. A safe environment must be cultivated, and from this base, authentic words and feedback will stem."

4. Critiques foster collaboration and community.

Dr. Drew Brown, past president of the GAEA, agrees. She said, "I think critique is important because as artists we work alone with media in the process of creating." She then went on to describe the power critiques have to help people build relationships saying, "Critiques gives us a chance to interact with the art as the focal point. In doing so, we get to know each other better. We establish trust; we are able to discuss our perceptions, interpretations, and values in a safe space. In synthesizing and verbalizing our ideas, we understand ourselves better. At the same time, we begin to understand others, their motivations, and beliefs. This can hold true with class critiques or by critiquing master works of art."

My Favorite Way to Run a Critique in the Art Room

There are many different ways to run critiques in the classroom. Tim Bogatz wrote a great article for the Art of Education a few years ago detailing seven different ways to conduct informative and fun critiques. If you'd like to explore even more, here's everything we've ever published on the subject.

In my room, I tend to keep a similar format for all of my classes, from Intro to Art all the way through AP. Because they get so familiar with the process, my students look forward to our critique days now! I always conduct in-process critiques, so students can take what they've learned and immediately apply it as they continue to work on their final pieces.

It's fun to surprise students with critique days now and then. However, you know your students best, so if they don't like surprises, you may want to give them a heads up.

Here are 6 simple steps to the "Glow and Grow" Critique - my favorite!

1. Set up the artwork.

As I said, I like to surprise my kids with their critique days. As they walk into class, I have our table easels out, and they know it's time to do some thinking and some talking! Students grab a table easel and get their art off their shelf and set it up. You can have your students set up their work in whatever way works best for you!

2. Pass out sticky notes.

The next step is to pass out sticky notes. This is where the students will be writing their feedback. In my room, I require each student to start with three. If time allows, they can certainly do more.

3. Observe the art.

Once everyone has their sticky notes ready to go, give your students about five minutes to quietly walk around the room and just look at the art. There's no writing or talking during this time. Instead, the students should be quietly reflecting and thinking about the work created by their classmates.

4: Choose 3 piece of art and give feedback.

At the end of five minutes, students are asked to choose an artwork and write down two "Glows" (what is working really well) and one "Grow" (what could be improved and why or how) on their sticky note. Students are deep in thought during this stage and writing meaningful notes to their peers. These sticky notes are left next to the art, and each student moves on and does two more.

For a slightly different take on how to run a "Glow-and Grow" Critique, check out this article from our archives.

5: Read the comments.

Students are asked to go back to their art and read the comments left for them. This is an important time to reflect on what their peers have to say about their current works.

6: Hold a group discussion.

Finally, in my room, we open up the critique for a quick discussion and talk about the pieces in the room that are working well and discuss why. Students are excited to talk about the art, and it's always great to see how they are guiding one another in a constructive and kind atmosphere.

Part of the reason I like this process is that the whole thing takes only about 20 minutes. Therefore, students have time to use the information they've been given and spend the last part of the class in studio mode.

I think another exciting part of this established class routine is reading my students' final self-assessments. I love to hear how they completed their pieces by using the information they received from their peers. It's always exciting to see our kids create, but when they reflect and learn, and their art goes to the next level, that's when we know we've done our jobs well!
Do you think class critiques are an important part of your practice? How do you have your students reflect on their own art and the art of their peers?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
4 Reasons Critiques Need to Be Part of Your Curriculum - The Art of Education University

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Back in my early days of teaching, I was always a bit hesitant to take away studio time for critiques, but my students were missing out on an important part of their art education. I knew I didn't have time for long, drawn-out methods, but I also knew critiques were necessary.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
While collaborative learning through group work has been proven to have the potential to produce stronger academic achievement than other kinds of learning environments (Johnson, Johnson, & Smith, 2006), it can be challenging to implement successfully because many students come to college without the tools they need to automatically succeed in collaborative learning contexts. One way of providing supportive structures to students in a collaborative learning environment is through assigning roles within group work.

Potential Benefits of Using Assigned Roles in Group Work

Assigning group roles can be a beneficial strategy for successful group work design for a number of reasons:

Group roles offer an opportunity for high quality, focused interactions between group participants. Participants are more likely to stay on task and pay closer attention to the task at hand when their roles in the collaboration are clear and distinct.

Group roles provide all students with a clear avenue for participation. Students are less likely to feel left out or unengaged when they have a particular duty that they are responsible for completing. Along the same lines, assigning group roles reduces the likelihood of one individual completing the task for the whole group, or "taking over," to the detriment of others' learning.

Group roles encourage individual accountability. Group members are more likely to hold each other accountable for not completing work if a particular task is assigned to them.

Group roles allow students to strengthen their communicative skills, especially in areas that they are less confident in volunteering for.

Group roles can help disrupt stereotypical and gendered role assignments, which can be common in group learning. For example, Hirshfield and Chachra (2015) found that in first-year engineering courses, female students tended to undertake less technical roles and more communicative roles than their male colleagues. By assigning roles during group work, and by asking students to alternate these roles at different points in the semester, students can work past gendered assumptions about themselves and their groupmates.

POGIL: A Model for Role Assignments in Collaborative Learning

One small group learning methodology where the use of group roles is well-defined and researched is the Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) method. The POGIL method calls for groups of three or four students who work in a team on process-oriented guided inquiry activities in which students construct their knowledge through interactions with others. Traditional POGIL roles for group members are provided below (POGIL, 2016).

Manager or Facilitator: Manages the group by helping to ensure that the group stays on task, is focused, and that there is room for everyone in the conversation.

Recorder: Keeps a record of those who were in the group, and the roles that they play in the group. The recorder also records critical points from the small group's discussion along with findings or answers.

Spokesperson or Presenter: Presents the group's ideas to the rest of the class. The Spokesperson should rely on the recorder's notes to guide their report.

Reflector or Strategy Analyst: Observes team dynamics and guides the consensus-building process (helps group members come to a common conclusion).

Other Highly Adaptable Roles to Consider

You can adapt roles for different kinds of group tasks. While the POGIL model is a useful place to start, you may find that the tasks associated with your discipline require other kinds of roles for effective group learning. Adding to or reframing POGIL roles can be beneficial in these contexts. Below are some suggestions for additional roles that might be valuable to a variety of learning situations.

Encourager: Encourages group members to continue to think through their approaches and ideas. The Encourager uses probing questions to help facilitate deeper thinking, and group-wide consideration of ideas.

Questioner: Pushes back when the team comes to consensus too quickly, without considering a number of options or points of view. The questioner makes sure that the group hears varied points of view, and that the group is not avoiding potentially rich areas of disagreement.

Checker: Checks over work in problem-solving contexts before the group members finalize their answers.

Strategies for Effective Facilitation of Group Roles

The following suggestions are strategies for effective facilitation of group roles. These strategies are helpful in a wide variety of group work situations, but are essential for group work that will last beyond a single class period, or constitute a significant portion of student grades.

Be transparent about why you are assigning group roles. This kind of transparency can increase student buy-in by helping them recognize the value in establishing group roles

Provide students with a list of roles and brief definitions for each role at the beginning of the group work activity. Make it clear which tasks are associated with which roles.

Alternatively, you may find it helpful, especially in advanced-level classes, to encourage students to develop their own roles in groups based on the tasks that they feel will be critical to the group's success. This strategy provides the students with a larger level of autonomy in their learning, while also encouraging them to use proven structures that will help them be successful.

Roles can be assigned randomly through a variety of strategies, from who has the next birthday to color-coded post-it notes, or a place card that points out roles based on where everyone is sitting.

Circulate early in the class period to be sure that everyone has been assigned a role, and that everyone is clear about what their responsibilities include.

Be willing to reinforce the given roles throughout the activity. For roles to work, students have to feel as though they will be held accountable for fulfilling those roles. Therefore, it is critical for you to step in if you see someone taking over someone else's role or not fulfilling their assigned role. Often gentle reminders about who is supposed to be doing what can be useful interventions. For example, if someone is talking over everyone and not listening to their other groupmates, you might say something like "Remember, as a spokesperson, your job is to represent the ideas of everyone in the group."

Talk with students individually if their speech or conduct could be silencing, denigrating, or excluding others. Remember: your silence on this issue may be read as endorsement.

Changing things up regularly is imperative. If you use group roles frequently, mixing up roles throughout the semester can help students develop communication skills in a variety of areas rather than relying on a single personal strength.

If this is a long-term group assignment, be sure to provide structures for individual feedback for the instructor and other group member on group dynamics. This could be a formal or informal check in, but it's critical for students to have a space to voice concerns related to group dynamics-especially if this assignment counts for a large portion of their final grade. This feedback might be provided through an anonymous survey in paper form or through a web-based tool like Qualtrics or a Google form. These check-ins can reduce student anxiety about the potential for uneven group participation.

Overall, using assigned roles in group work provides students with a supportive structure that promotes meaningful collaborative learning. While group learning can be challenging to implement effectively, using roles can mitigate some of the challenges associated with learning in groups, while offering students the opportunity to develop a variety of communication skills that will be critical to their success in college and their future careers.

References

Burke, Alison. (2011). Group work: How to use groups effectively. The Journal of Effective Teaching, 11(2), 87-95.

Beebe, S.A., & Masterson, J.T. (2003). Communicating in small groups. Boston, MA: Pearson Education.

Cheng, W. Y., Lam, S. F., & Chan, C. Y. (2008). When high achievers and low achievers work in the same group: The roles of group heterogeneity and processes in project‐based learning. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 78(2), 205-221.

Eberlein, T., Kampmeier, J., Minderhout, V., Moog, R.S., Platt, T., Varma-Nelson, P., White, H.B. (2008). Pedagogies of engagement in science: A comparison of PBL, POGIL and PLTL. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education, 36(4), 262-73.

Hale, D., & Mullen, L. G. (2009). Designing process-oriented guided-inquiry activities: A new innovation for marketing classes. Marketing Education Review, 19(1), 73-80.

Hirshfield, L., & Chachra, D. (2015). Task choice, group dynamics and learning goals: Understanding student activities in teams. 2015 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference: Launching a New Vision in Engineering Education Proceedings, FIE 2015, 1-5.

Johnson, C. (2011). Activities using process‐oriented guided inquiry learning (POGIL) in the foreign language classroom. Die Unterrichtspraxis/Teaching German, 44(1), 30-38.

Johnson, D. W., Johnson, R. T., and Smith, K.A. (2006). Active learning: Cooperation in the university classroom. Edina, MN: Interaction.

Moog, R.S. (2014). Process oriented guided inquiry learning. In M.A. McDaniel, R. F. Frey, S.M. Fitzpatrick, & Roediger, H.L. (Eds.). Integrating cognitive science with innovative teaching in STEM disciplines (147-166). St. Louis: Washington University in St. Louis Libraries.

The POGIL Project. (2017). https://pogil.org/

Springer, L., Stanne, M.E., & Donovan, S.S. (1999). Effects of small-group learning on undergraduates in science, mathematics, engineering, and technology: A meta-analysis. Review of Educational Research, 96(1), 21-51.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Using Roles in Group Work - Center for Teaching and Learning

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Assigning successful roles within groups so that students have what they need to succeed in a collaborative learning environment.

# data[].attributes.headline
PBL Works Project Based Learning Resources

# data[].attributes.subject
PBL Works Project Based Learning Resources

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
of videos, planning forms, rubrics blogs, and more. Whether you want to learn about PBL, or find classroom resources, our materials will support your journey.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
ELL-SDAIE Strategies...Instructional Strategies Used Throughout the Year

# data[].attributes.headline
Using interactive digital notebooks for vocabulary (and more)

# data[].attributes.subject
Using interactive digital notebooks for vocabulary (and more)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Google Slides interactive notebooks + 20 activities to fill them

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
There are TONS of awesome multimedia activities you can do with interactive notebooks. Get the how-to’s and a downloadable template to get started!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Today's fast-paced and ever-changing educational climate demands an enhanced focus on the learning needs of students. Yet, most classrooms still represent the traditional-fixed elements like a large teacher's desk in the front of the room and rows of student desks-filling up spaces that were designed for specific subjects or teachers.

But, as pedagogies evolve and collaboration becomes a foundational component of the professional learning community, school districts must partner with architects to create innovative solutions that advance these learning environments so that they are not tethered to a specific teacher or subject, but instead become spaces that support various modes of learning.

This model supports the development of flexibility, innovation, and the consistent sharing of best practices. It also utilizes-at its core-the concept of intellectual risk taking, which is a key component that every learner needs to embrace to be competitive in their rapidly changing future.

But collaboration requires appropriate space, and structure to support it. The idea that teachers individually "own" a space is counterproductive to that end goal. A dynamic learning space needs to center around the learner, and be flexible enough to transform into any configuration that will facilitate collaboration, especially as curriculums change. For example, more schools today are having their departments collaborate on group projects where an English and Theater Department may team up on a project about Hamlet, or a Math, English and Science Department may do a project on hydroponics.

With adaptive open spaces, collaboration zones, dynamic science and innovation labs, the middle and high schools we're designing today look and feel more like college campuses or Silicon Valley offices than schools. And there is good reason for that. Designing spaces for a different type of experience-rather than a specific subject or teacher-will enable schools to curate far more powerful experiences by having environments that are more supportive, interesting, and captivating.

Students at schools like our recently designed Portola High School in Irvine, California, have access to different tools and room configurations. Classroom buildings are clustered around dynamic shared commons to promote cross-collaboration between students, teachers and different disciplines, with second floor walkways connecting the learning clusters. Students have the freedom to move between buildings, reading nooks, collaboration rooms and "maker spaces"-encouraging them to learn from each other's work.
How collaboration equates to cost savings
When teachers own their classrooms, there are often hours during the day when that room is not fully utilized. By designing schools more like a college campus, where teachers have a permanent and securable space in a staff collaboration room, all classrooms can then be fully loaded throughout the day as teachers move to other rooms to teach. With classrooms designed to achieve flexibility, a teacher can teach a math class in a flex-science lab or an English teacher can teach in the same space that is used for a Social Studies class.

The big cost savings idea is to simply build fewer classrooms, but still accommodate the space needs to fulfill curriculum requirements. By identifying multiple uses for spaces, architects can reduce the amount of rooms built-creating cost savings for school districts. When less classrooms are needed, less square footage is required to be constructed. This results in a facility that uses less energy to condition spaces, and ultimately requires less maintenance. More resources can then be put into more windows to increase visibility/security, more collaborative furniture, nicer and more durable finishes, and sustainable features across the campus.

Teachers also need spaces to collaborate and work together. By allocating rooms throughout campus where groups of teachers can regularly connect and work, true collaboration will happen organically for them, too.

To address the old model, architects must collaborate with administrators on their curriculum requirements, and focus on more creative and effective approaches to design, including the following:

- Eliminate the teacher desk in the classroom and equip teachers with a laptop and large podium or tall portable table that can be easily moved. Allocate a comfortable workspace on campus to accommodate several teacher desks equipped with assigned securable spaces, docking stations and computer monitors. Comfortable furniture such as sofas and coffee tables can help make the space more inviting.

- Technology is a critical part of any 21st century classroom. Students use computers and mobile devices to learn and create, so classroom designs need to support tech advancements that foster discovery and experimentation. By designing a wall that's both a whiteboard and a surface for projection, you can facilitate collaboration and creative learning. For maximum tech and curriculum flexibility, outlet locations and desks with built-in electrical outlets and mobile device chargers should also be considered. An experienced architect will help meet your current technology needs and offer designs that anticipate inevitable future changes.

- Schools are moving away from the "I teach, you listen" instruction model and becoming much more Socratic. As a result, spaces that allow for a wide range of activities, such as working through problems in large groups, discussing books in small groups, or quietly focusing on projects independently, are needed. To emphasize collaborative learning, incorporate mobile furnishings and writable, foldable partitions to allow learning spaces to be joined together into one large, collaborative space.

- Collaborative spaces call for innovative classroom furnishings that support active learning and teamwork. Modern desks designed on casters are easily arranged to support both group work and individual study, and can be pushed aside to open up the space completely. Desks and tables with whiteboard or stain-resistant surfaces on which students can write and draw can be included to encourage creativity.

- Along with a focus on collaboration, schools are embracing a more hands-on style of learning. "Maker spaces" give science- and tech-minded students opportunities to flex their creative muscles as they experiment, invent, and build. Try incorporating flex-labs and maker spaces in which students learn by doing. Encourage the creative nature of children by allowing them to experiment with apps, programming, and other technologies so that they build confidence and discover the lessons behind trial-and-error.

As teaching continues to evolve toward the development of skills rather than mastery of content, we can't continue to force teachers and students into spaces with little flexibility. Instead, let's open up their world and create an experience that gives them access to outside resources and opportunities to interact with the outside world. Designing spaces that allow for those things needs to be our focus moving forward so that the next generation can flourish and progress along with their curriculum.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Rethinking classroom design to promote collaboration

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Today's fast-paced and ever-changing educational climate demands an enhanced focus on the learning needs of students. Yet, most classrooms still represent the traditional-fixed elements like a large teacher's desk in the front of the room and rows of student desks-filling up spaces that were designed for specific subjects or teachers.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
If you design learning with physical space and interaction in mind, it absolutely can.

Desks are a staple of the 'modern' classroom as we know it. Usually, these learning spaces are simple, and simply arranged: places for students to sit and read and write, lined up neatly in rows. While progress has been in the design of schools and classrooms, it's usually only in pockets of well-funded 'future schools' with very little application for the rest of us.

So what can we do? That's the point of this post. If you think of the following ideas as exactly that-ideas-then you'll realize that none of these are either good nor bad. They're ideas. If they are used well to solve a problem or promote a characteristic, they are being used well; if they don't, they're not. Many of these aren't immediately reproducible in your own classroom. They may not work for your grade level or furniture or budget or content area. But you can take it as an idea, learn from it, and use it (or not) accordingly.

So, the bit about 'classroom setups impacting thinking.' Learning is an ecology. Classroom design impacts classroom management impacts curriculum needs impacts lesson and unit design impacts teacher personality impacts technology needs impacts literacy strategies and teaching strategies, and so on. Each one of these possibilities will only work as well as you are able to adapt the way you plan instruction and design learning experiences. Yes, you can design a classroom using a Fishbowl approach-and not just to host a Fishbowl discussion, but for longer periods of time.

You can also set up a 'Google Room' or 'Maker Space' and not promote thinking at all, or have students performing stunning cognitive acrobatics sitting by themselves on a cold floor. The idea here is that new ways to set up your classroom can help you think differently about how and why you use certain arrangements, and then design more intentionally moving forward (even if you just stick to plain ol' rows).

In fact, if you think of rows and rows of desks as having pros and cons, causes and effects, you'll see that these rows lend themselves well to certain things (organization, paper passing, etc.), while not so well to others (collaboration, movement). You've already (perhaps unwittingly) adapted your instruction to whatever design you normally use. You plan with it in mind. If you take a new approach, you'll need to design with that in mind as well. And that's where the actions and behaviors that promote thinking-interaction, movement, study, making, collaboration, thinking alone, and so on-become a factor.

Note, we've placed an asterisk* beside those approaches that are more strongly suited to 'thought' than others. With that preface, on to some of the possibilities (there are many more!).

20 Ways To Setup A Classroom To Help Your Students Think

How this is structured depends on your space, content area, grade level, etc. But any content area can use 'making' as a primary teaching and learning strategy, and to do so, you'll need to create the spaces for that to happen. A mix of the 'Learning Labs' approach and the 'Google Room' may work well.

2. Geometric Mix

This approach takes a mix of forms-rows, groups, semi-circled tables. While the furniture in the pic above may be beyond your reach, you can produce a similar effect with a combination of tables and desks.

3. Differentiation Stations*

This is physical grouping, but based on areas of differentiation-background knowledge, reading level, an individual skill, etc. If instruction is tailored for a student in this way-with their Zone of Proximal development-there is more opportunity for thinking, teaching, and learning that 'fits.'

Also a teaching strategy, Fishbowls sees a group of students in the middle, and a group on the outside in a circle facing the group in the middle. You can also arrange your classroom this way permanently-or at least for an extended period of time. The 'fish' in the middle have one function (e.g., reading roles from a play, solving a problem, analyzing art, etc.) while the group on the outside participates in a #backchannel twitter chat with a love running log on a screen. Here, everyone can have a voice-and an opportunity for thought.

5. One Group + 4 Rows

This one is what it sounds like it'd be-one group complemented by 4 rows. This setup could be useful if the majority of the class is often working on one activity-or part of an activity, while the bulk of the class works on something else. It obviously can be used collaboratively as well.

6. 2 Groups + 2 Rows

Same as above, but more of the class is in a group this time, so the class is split more evenly.

7. Function Pods*

This one is similar to Differentiation Stations, only the idea here is less about differentiation and more about a task. Think literature circles, for example, where everyone has a role. The difference here is that the whole classroom is set up that way.

8. A 'Google Room'*

Think colors. Lots of colors. Shapes and textures, too. Diverse lighting sources. A lot of natural light, if possible. Areas to work alone, in pairs, or in groups. Sitting. Standing. Openness. Collaboration. May not be possible to realize completely, but you could use it as inspiration.

9. Two Sides*

You can also split the classroom into 'two sides.' This may be comprised of rows, but the room is set up in halves oftentimes facing one another. This can be especially effective for Social Studies classes, or other content areas that use Accountable Talk as a teaching strategy.

You can also have the two sides comprised of angled rows. This isn't a huge change from traditional rows, but it does offer a few advantages if you've got the room, namely that students are in the line of sight of one another more naturally.

10. Giant Oval

Usually, this is used for team-building activities, but it's possible to run a classroom this way for a full unit if you plan for it effectively. Maybe a steady diet of agree/disagree, debate, Socratic Seminars, and Accountable Talk, for example.

11. Teacher In The Middle

Picture a 'regular classroom,' but with the teacher (and their desk, if they have one) in the middle. Changes the dynamic of the classroom quite a bit. Whether that's an effective teaching tool or not depends on how you use it (the same goes with all of these, I suppose).

They're out there. Write a grant proposal, put your desk in the middle, and make it work.

13. Horseshoe

An oval with one end missing. Kind of. Not sure this would be very effective long-term, but for a reading activity or a write-around (which are terribly underrated as teaching strategies), it'd work swimmingly.

14. Two Circles

Circles allow students to face one another and encourage conversation. It's not ideal for small group work, but fordirectn instruction and literacy activities, it has potential. One giant circle may not work well for a daily setup, but two circles might. With two circles, the size is obviously reduced compared to one, giving you a bit more flexibility for classroom management.

This is less about the shape of the desks, and more about the workflow and lesson design. The idea here is to plan lessons and units that require students to work together with different groups for different reasons, and to keep them moving, whether within one class, one week, or the unit overall.

16. Middle Circle, Outer Square

Putting a square on the outside and circle on the inside-or even vice-versa-is really just a 'geometric variation' of the fishbowl, but the size of the circle can be adapted for daily use by a large cluster of students.

17. Learning Labs*

If you can recall back to the high school science lab-high desks, 'things' to tinker with, students standing and moving around small areas of collaborative learning space-that's the idea of learning labs. This can be used in any content area and any grade level, and doesn't even necessarily require hands-on manipulatives. Students standing around a high desk solving physics or geometry problems while 'mixing' isn't a management nightmare if you've planned a lesson with this approach in mind.

18. A Learning Studio*

This is one example non-traditional classroom setups-imagine a Starbucks mixed with a library mixed with a classroom mixed with a maker space mixed with a design studio. Probably wouldn't work if you have 35 students, but if you have less than 20, this kind of approach could change the culture of learning in your classroom.

19. Open Square

Similar to #10, this one came on twitter from , "I do an open square with the open side facing the board & I put a table in the middle for my materials."

20. Fluid

Change your classroom setups weekly. Let the learning goals dictate how you use your space-and how students use their individual spaces. A fixed learning space reflects a fixed mindset. It's not 'a lot of work,' it's adapting.
20 Ways To Setup A Classroom; 20 Classroom Setups That Promote Thinking; adapted image attribution Google, flickr user makerfestivaltoronto, bsfinhull

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
20 Classroom Setups That Promote Thinking

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
If you design learning with physical space and interaction in mind, it absolutely can. Desks are a staple of the 'modern' classroom as we know it. Usually, these learning spaces are simple, and simply arranged: places for students to sit and read and write, lined up neatly in rows.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Chapter 3 - Positioning Students for Independent Learning (from Reinventing the Classroom Experience)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Cognitive load theory in practice - Examples for the classroom

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Nine Ways to Reduce Cognitive Load in Multmedia Learning

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
school kills creativity   ken robinson   YouTube

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Fuel Creativity in the Classroom With Divergent Thinking

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Teachers can inspire outside-the-box thinking for students by using problem-based learning, art, music, and inquiry-based feedback.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How Novice and Expert Teachers Approach Classroom Management Differently _ Edutopia_ 8.13.21

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
You Can Get Better - Growing Your Own Teaching Style (Chapt 8. of You Can Do This - Hope and Help for New Teachers - 2014)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Do Lessons in Nature Boost Subsequent Classroom Engagement_ Refueling Students in Flight

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Jigsaw Strategy as a Cooperative Learning Technique

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Lesson Design Institute
Learn more about the Lesson Design Institute, where you will learn how you can support California educators in high quality lesson design to be shared and showcased with educators across the state.

Learning Resources
Classroom-ready materials from high-quality providers free for educators to blend with their own instructional strategies and share with students and peers.

Collaboration
Group tools help local teams collaboratively develop and share learning materials, instructional strategies, and leadership approaches.

Leadership Support
Resources, programs, and strategies to guide leadership teams in promoting educator excellence, student success, and community support.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Lesson Design Institute Learn more about the Lesson Design Institute, where you will learn how you can support California educators in high quality lesson design to be shared and showcased with educators across the state. Learning Resources Classroom-ready materials from high-quality providers free for educators to blend with their own instructional strategies and share with students and peers.

# data[].attributes.headline
CA Career Zone:  Students explore careers and learn how to budget

# data[].attributes.subject
CA Career Zone:  Students explore careers and learn how to budget

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The California CareerZone helps students, educators, jobseekers, and others access up-to-date information on wages, job openings, and other information specific to their state along with great information on careers, colleges, and more.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Over a decade ago, I had a boy in my class who liked to put his head down. He was a new student who had only been in the states for less than three months. He was from Lithuania and had a little more command for the English language than most of my newer students. But, at seventeen, he was forced by his family to move to the United States from the comfort of his home country. He was also forced to process a new language in what would be his senior year of high school. When he put his head down, like any newer teacher, I would assume the worst. "He doesn't care! He doesn't want to do the work! He's just putting his head down to rebel against me!"

I had enough of what he was dishing out to me. I was going to flex my muscles as a newer teacher to send a clear message that he had to sit up and pay attention to me. He was going to pay attention, take his notes, participate in class discussions, and do his work. So, I gave him "the look", you know "that look" we are told to give in our teacher prep programs to communicate we aren't happy with a student's behavior, and told him he needed to stay after class in toughest voice I could. In conversation, I told him that he was NEVER to put his head down in my class and he was to focus. He looked at me and said "You give me headaches! I have to put my head down."

I was shocked. I mean, yes I'm a little eccentric. I can be animated and expressive. I can also be loud. Think of it this way, my whispering is like anyone else's talking. I am who I am. But I was livid. "Excuse me?" I said. I wasn't about to let him get away with telling me that I was giving him a headache. Then he proceeded to explain that we all gave him headaches, all of his teachers. He then told me that all day long he has to hear English and he is not used to it. We also talk fast and expect quick responses. It caused him to have severe headaches and just tune out. He said he wish we just all slowed down.

I was schooled in understanding what was really going on in the minds of our students. We needed to rethink our instructional practices as a highschool that had housed a good amount of English Learners. We also really needed to work on our comprehensible input and strategic methods for within our instruction. Wait time is not something that we think about in our planning as teachers.

Yes....waiting. Waiting for students to process what we say and respond to it. We think about standards, objectives, activities, and materials. However, that glitz and glamour of our activities sometimes takes over the plan for communicating with our English Learners. What's really important is how we are ensuring a whole-school approach so that every educator can work effectively with ELLs.

We needed to remember that:

1) Our kids will go through a silent period when they are newer to the country.

2) Our kids need more time to understand what we are saying in order to process information that they are trying to comprehend from us.

3) Our kids need us to create ways to support them in order to be able to respond to us (their teacher) and their peers.
Why Do Students Stay Silent When They Are First Learning The Language?
Students may come to an English speaking country with an inability to produce language because they are still processing how to produce the language. This is called the "silent period". I have had plenty of teachers come to me alarmed because after a month or two in the United States, a student was still not speaking to them. Students will speak when ready. "The silent period occurs before ELLs are ready to produce oral language and is generally referred to as the preproduction stage of language learning. ELLs should not be forced to speak before they are ready." (Haynes 2007) As teachers, we need to give our students a chance to take in the environment, new stressors and the language. All we need is just a little patience...

Approaching this with a growth mindset is important. All children grow at different rates. Our brains are growing and they are always changing. As a we continue to hear and process language we can become more proficient in that language. Many times in my teaching career, the student who chose not to speak eventually became the leader in class discussions. Does that mean we need to force intensive English on students in the classroom? No, it means we need to gradually ease them into the language so that they can reach levels of proficiency.
What Happens When An English Learner Hears Us Speak English All Day Long?
Think of it this way, class after class, hour after hour, these students are hearing words, sentences, and tones they are not used to. After minutes of hearing us speak in English, we begin to sound like adults in a Charlie Brown cartoon. Wawawawa... Students get to the point where they don't even try to comprehend the speech they hear. The over exposure of language that is coming to the student is exhausting to them.

Before even thinking about wait time, we need to think about how our language that we are using is comprehensible for students. Comprehensible Input is a term used for methods of communicating concepts for English Learners. "Students who are at the beginning levels of language proficiency benefit from teachers who slow down their rate of speech, use pauses, and enunciate clearly while speaking." (Echevarria, Vogt, & Short 2017) This means that we really need to reflect on how we talk to our students as we are introducing new material to them.

To be able to reach a student who needs language support, teachers may need to be more animated and find various ways to support students' understanding.Using strategies that are TPR (Total Physical Response) influenced will reach learners of all ages when terminology is being explained. Slowing down our speech and highlighting key vocabulary is helpful. Also, using visuals and realia (When you use realia, you are using real life objects to teach a concept.) will help bring the gap for all learners. I am not telling you anything new. This is just good teaching.
About Wait Time...
Wait time is an art. Really, it is an art that teachers of English Learners develop as they continue to teach and perfect their craft. A teacher really needs to think about the wait time strategies that work for them in order to make it work. It is also important for teachers to understand that some cultures have different response timings and also that children globally respond to adults in different ways.
Strategies that Help Teachers Make Wait Time Work
Mentally Count to Five...

I always counted to five (in my head) after posing a question to the class. Eventually, it became a natural habit for me to just wait for students to respond to me in a question/answer format. This gave students more time to process what I was saying to them. Students gave more fruitful responses than "I agree" or "okay".

Life Saver...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Check Yourself!: How Language Input and Wait Time Can Make or Break Instruction For English Learners - Confianza

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
by Sarah Said Over a decade ago, I had a boy in my class who liked to put his head down. He was a new student who had only been in the states for less than three months. He was from Lithuania and had a little more command for the English language than most of my newer students.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Group work.

Two seemingly innocent words that cause both teachers and students alike to tremble with apprehension. The ghosts of bad group work past conjure haunting memories of disagreements, distractions, and indifference. Yet, as educators we know student-to-student interaction is a crucial component in increasing both engagement and academic language development.

So, how do we avoid the pitfalls of bad group work and foster an environment of stimulating discussion and student collaboration?

Mix It Up & Observe

Creating student groups is an important task that requires the careful consideration of many factors, but especially student dispositions. At the beginning of the year, teachers should be strategic about devising opportunities for students to work with as many different partners and small groups as possible so they can observe which grouping configurations are going to be the most productive.
VIDEO: Lit Circles: Fostering Heterogenous Collaboration
Corner Partners is an imaginative way to provide students ample opportunities to interact with a variety of their peers. Language and Literacy SIOP Trainers Kellie Bugajski and Maura Sedgemen have adapted one of Vogt and Echevarria's SIOP strategies to develop this interactive activity for pairing up students.

To begin, students are asked one of four teacher-prepared "either-or" questions, such as: Do you prefer winter or summer?

Based on their answers, students are then directed to go to specific corners of the classroom.

Once at their designated corner, the students are asked to introduce themselves to someone new and discuss the reasoning for their answers.

After they've finished talking about their answer choices with each other, the students write their partners' names on the recording sheet their teacher has prepared. These new partners can then be used for future classroom groupings.

The process continues until students have answered and discussed all four questions.

While students are working with different partners, pay special attention to their individual personalities and the needs they have to feel comfortable actively participating in a group.

For example, look to seewhich students are patientand might be good at working with students with limited English proficiency, who may need extra wait time to process the language.

It's also helpful to take note of which classmates the more reserved students open up to and which overpower them during discussions.

Finally, study the student interactions toidentify potential leadersthat have demonstrated skill at coordinating and guiding the work of their peers.

Troubleshoot Potential Problems

Another essential strategy for ensuring harmonious and constructive student collaboration is to troubleshoot potential problems by establishing student-generated working agreements prior to diving into a group project or assignment. In order to create high-quality working agreements, I lead my students through the following brainstorming activity:

Begin by having students divide a blank sheet of paper in thirds and label each section with the following headings: benefits, problems, and solutions.

After the students have their papers set up, ask them to make a list of the benefits of working with a group and record their answers in the first column. Students should work on their lists individually at first, but then add to their ideas through small-group and eventually whole-class discussion.

Next, ask the students to make a list of potential problems of working in a group and record their ideas in the middle column. Remember to ask students to share out their ideas as a class, so everyone will have a well-developed list of potential problems they might encounter while working within a group.

Finally, ask the students to review the list of problems and recommend a solution for each problem they've identified. For example, if students have pointed out that sometimes group members argue about the right answer, a solution might be to vote or get an outside opinion when group members cannot agree on a response.
VIDEO: Group Contracts for Collaborative Work
Now that students have a thorough list of potential problems and solutions of working in groups, they're ready to draft a list of working agreements. Make sure to remember to change around the student groupings, so the students are interacting with different partners than they did for the brainstorming activity. Doing so will maximize the students' exposure to different viewpoints. After the students have had the chance to discuss their ideas with their new small group or partner, they can share and consolidate ideas to create a class set of small group working agreements to be posted in the classroom.
There are four key factors to keep in mind while planning a group assignment. 1 - Shared Leadership
Design for Success

Equally important to developing student work agreements is being strategic in the way you design group projects or assignments in the classroom. The choices teachers make when crafting a group activity can either lead to cooperation or chaos.
2 - Evenly Distributed Workload
In every group, there are students who will naturally step up to take the lead and students who will quietly sit back hoping that nobody will notice if they don't say anything. This can be especially true of English learners who may lack the confidence to speak up during discussions. Yet, practice in leading a group and justifying your thinking is important for all students, particularly our English language learners who need practice speaking the new language they're learning.
3 - Clearly Defined Protocols
When designing a group activity, teachers should make sure that every member of the group has a meaningful role that requires him or her to take the lead on at least one part of the group assignment. For example, in my English Language Arts class, I have my students work in groups of three to review and discuss the chapters of the novel they're reading. In these groups, the students are required to complete a vocabulary log, write a chapter summary, and generate discussion questions. Each of the students in the group is required to be the discussion leader for one of the activities.

Another important consideration in planning a group assignment is to ensure that every student is required to contribute equally to the final product. For example, when asking a group to write discussion questions about a text they've read, you'd want to make sure that the number of questions you require the group to write corresponds to the number of members in the group. Additionally, if you asked students to work together to answer a set of questions, you'd want to ensure there are enough questions to be equally distributed amongst all the members of the group. You can require students to initial the ideas they shared or the questions they took the lead on answering to verify that every group member has had equal input on the assignment. Setting the expectation that every student has to participate equally prevents the more confident students from taking over and ignoring the ideas of the other members of the group.
4 - Intentional Grouping
One of the greatest obstacles students experience when working collaboratively is not knowing how to get started and trying to figure out a logical order to accomplish the tasks they've been assigned. Our vast experiences of having worked in teams as adults make us forget that collaboration is a skill we've developed over time. We forget the importance of laying out some protocols for our students and giving them some guidance on how to organize their work and discussions.

For instance, in the cooperative learning structures Dr. Spencer Kagan designed, group members are assigned letters of the alphabet: A, B, C, D. These letters are used to help the students determine who will begin the discussion and the order in which the conversation will proceed. It's also important to establish some guidelines for active listening, such as looking and leaning into the person that is speaking, asking clarifying questions, and giving a verbal acknowledgment of what the speaker has said.

The final element teachers should remember when planning and designing collaborative assignments is the grouping of students. When assigning students to groups, there are several aspects I reflect on to enhance the collaborative experience for my students.

Group Size: I limit my small group size to 3-4 students. It's a small enough working environment for all students to have plenty of opportunities to share their thinking, but large enough so that if one of the members of the group is absent it won't result in students being left without partners.

Student Dispositions: As I mentioned earlier, I spend a great deal of time at the beginning of the year observing how my students interact with each other. My goal is to be able to use this information to form groups that balance out their personalities. For example, if some students tend to rush through assignments and skip over important details, I partner them with those who are more deliberate and take their time to attend to all the specifics of an assignment. Also, when I have students who are talkative and easily distracted, I pair them with students who are focused and aren't afraid to redirect peers when they get off task.

Language Proficiency: I also consider the language proficiency of my English language learners when creating groups. It can be frustrating and overwhelming for students with limited English proficiency if they're partnered with those with very advanced literacy skills. Newcomers need an environment where they can feel comfortable experimenting with the language and making mistakes. Another idea is to place two students who share a common native language in the same group, so newcomers can use their first language to ask questions and clarify confusing information. Keep in mind though, that not all members should share the same language, so communicating in English will still be a necessity for completing the assignment.

Literacy Strengths: The final consideration when assigning students to groups is the students' capabilities in the four language domains: reading, writing, speaking, and listening. While it's important for English language learners to be placed with students who will boost their confidence and encourage them to participate, it's equally important that they interact with native speakers who can provide sound models of the English literacy skills they're acquiring. When forming collaborative teams in the classroom, make sure each group has at least one member who can display the appropriate reading, writing, and speaking skills necessary for the successful completion of the assignment.

Teach the Talk

One last strategy that's influential in generating effective collaboration is coaching students on how to conduct academic conversations. This is especially true of English language learners who may lack the experience and practice to perform all of the language functions needed to fully participate in a discussion.

Language functions are the purposes in which we use language to communicate, such as clarifying, adding, or justifying ideas. Since every language function has its own unique grammatical structure and vocabulary, we must explicitly teach these types of phrasings to our students. One way for teachers to scaffold these communication skills is by providing a bookmark or table topper with a couple of sentence frames for each purpose the students will be using language for during their group discussions.

These sanity-saving strategies help me to keep my students focused, courteous, and engaged when collaborating together on a group assignment -- and I hope they'll help you, too. Yet as an educator, I'm constantly searching for ways to continue improving the small group work in my classroom. I know that the next great idea is always just around the corner, so I'd love to hear from you about your thoughts and suggestions on this topic!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Essential Student Collaboration Strategies for Diverse Classrooms

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Group work . Two seemingly innocent words that cause both teachers and students alike to tremble with apprehension. The ghosts of bad group work past conjure haunting memories of disagreements, distractions, and indifference. Yet, as educators we know student-to-student interaction is a crucial component in increasing both engagement and academic language development.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A high school teacher with four decades of experience shares the principles she has used to build student excitement in a wide variety of subjects.

Wavebreak Media ltd / Alamy Stock Photo

Decades of teaching social studies, math, biology, English, French, and journalism taught me that no matter what the subject, getting high school students excited about it was the key to learning. I also discovered there are definitely some tricks to getting the kids engaged and having a productive learning environment.

4 Characteristics of Effective Classrooms

1. There's a culture of caring and kindness within the class: You can feel it-kids are smiling, working in groups, engaged. The teacher seems relaxed, and the kids are excited about learning. They feel trusted and respected, and they are. Students aren't afraid of making mistakes because they know they can revise. Grading isn't punitive, new ideas are welcomed, and the teacher is approachable.

I always started out my new classes with an activity I called "personality feature." It was an opportunity for each student to interview one other student in the class and also to be interviewed. The idea was to introduce each student to the class, so they all could get to know each other and work collaboratively. Kids work better when they know the other students and have a sense of trust and respect for them.

2. Students know why they're studying the subject: Their work has to be authentic and relatable. Kids love learning if it connects to their lives. Teachers need to tie whatever students are studying to their lives today, and kids can help with this. For example, in history, kids can work in groups looking for ties about policy decisions to events that happened years ago or even in the last century.

3. There's a student-friendly revision policy: Make sure that students always have the opportunity to revise, even on tests. Kids get discouraged because of poor grades. If there's no chance for them to get a better grade, they lose motivation. Giving them the opportunity to revise (with a deadline) gives them hope that they can improve and so can their grade.

I even had a student-friendly revision policy in math. I gave kids the opportunity to relearn the concept and take the test again. Some kids just take longer, but once they learn it, they retain it as long as it's meaningful to them. That's one of the advantages of adaptive learning. Kids can relearn a concept that's complex as many times as they need until they get it.

As Professor Carol Dweck at Stanford writes in Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, what you think about yourself and your ability to learn is the key to how you learn. Giving kids the opportunity to revise helps them see they can actually learn whatever they want to learn.

4. Embed collaboration in most of the assignments: Working with a partner or in groups makes learning fun. Allow students to pick their partner unless it's not a good fit. Humans are social beings, and no one likes to learn alone.

One example of the importance of collaboration is what's happening with massive open online courses (MOOCs). As many as 90 percent of the learners may drop out before completing courses. People don't like to learn alone or in isolation. They don't like lectures.

They like to talk to each other about what they're learning. Even math concepts, especially complex concepts, are up for discussion. One student can explain the concept to another student, and each learns-the one who teaches learns leadership skills, so it's beneficial for both students.

In a world where kids are focused on "learning loss," test scores, and memorizing, I cofounded a company called Tract a year ago to help give them agency and excitement-to bring the joy back to learning and not focus on test scores. It's a peer-to-peer, project-based, kids' social media platform focused on independence and collaboration. Teens create the learning for preteens on the assumption that no one is more exciting to a kid than a kid who's a little bit older.

Tract is built on the above key points and on my TRICK philosophy (trust, respect, independence, collaboration, and kindness), which I explain in my book How to Raise Successful People. TRICK belongs in all teacher-student and parent-child relationships.

TRICK worked in my classrooms for 40 years and with my own children who became highly successful. It can help empower your students to be passionate about school and learning, too, if you treat them with TRICK, it can make your life as a teacher much easier and more satisfying and bring joy into the classroom.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How to Engage Students in Any Subject Area

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A high school teacher with four decades of experience shares the principles she has used to build student excitement in a wide variety of subjects. Wavebreak Media ltd / Alamy Stock Photo Decades of teaching social studies, math, biology, English, French, and journalism taught me that no matter what the subject, getting high school students excited about it was the key to learning.

# data[].attributes.headline
Using Student Interest Surveys to Build Motivation

# data[].attributes.subject
Using Student Interest Surveys to Build Motivation

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
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.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
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.

# data[].attributes.headline
CTE Curriculum Standards (by Industry Sector)

# data[].attributes.subject
CTE Curriculum Standards (by Industry Sector)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
CTE Standards

Career Technical Education Standards for California Public Schools

Education Code Section 51226 provides legal authority to develop the CTE standards and framework. This legislation requires the development and adoption of CTE standards that incorporate the integration of career technical and academic education no later than June 1, 2005. The original CTE Model Curriculum Standards were adopted by the State Board of Education (SBE) on May 11, 2005. The standards, written for grades seven through twelve, specify learning goals in 58 career pathways organized around 15 industry sectors.

The California State Plan for Career Technical Education, A BRIDGE TO THE FUTURE 2008-2012, approved by the State Board of Education in May 2008, provides guidance for California's CTE programs in California. The State Plan states, "CTE programs are dynamic; curricula need to stay current with rapid changes in the workplace, requiring ongoing updates and learning on the part of CTE faculty." The adoption of the English Language Arts and Mathematics Common Core State Standards furthered the need to revise and align the CTE Standards with this new academic core.

Commencing in May 2011, 117 individuals representing secondary and post-secondary education and business and industry met to review the 2005 standards and make recommendations for improvement. Following the May 2011 meeting, industry sector meetings were held to develop the revised CTE standards based on the recommendations. Subsequently, the revised CTE Standards were share with the general public for public review, comment, and suggestions. Once the CTE Standards were revised, academic and CTE teachers collaborated on the alignment with the Common Core State Standards, Next Generation Science Core Ideas, and the History/Social Science Standards. The newly revised CTE Model Curriculum Standards designed to prepare students to be both Career and College ready were adopted by the SBE on January 16, 2013.

By Industry Sector

Resources

Timeline

Industry sector stakeholder meetings

May 2011

Standards Alignment Project

August 2011

Industry sector writing team

November 2011

CTE Pathway-Academic Standards Alignment

February 2012

Revisions and academic alignment by Project Team

March - June 2012

Public Input

September 2012

Instructional Quality Commission briefing

September 2012

SSPI issues recommended CTE Standards

December 2012

January 2013

Professional Development begins

February 2013

Project Team

Industry Sector Stakeholder Team

In order to accomplish this important work, the California Department of Education (CDE) has requested the assistance of the Solano County Office of Education (SCOE). SCOE is working in concert with CDE to organize stakeholder meetings, review, analyze and edit work completed by the stakeholder groups. SCOE is responsible to the CDE for the organization of the CTE standards product. SCOE and CDE convened industry sector stakeholder meetings to being the review and revisions to the CTE standards.
SCOE and CDE Team
Last Reviewed: Thursday, February 18, 2021

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Career Technical Education Standards for California Public Schools Education Code Section 51226 provides legal authority to develop the CTE standards and framework. This legislation requires the development and adoption of CTE standards that incorporate the integration of career technical and academic education no later than June 1, 2005.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
There are essentially three types of transitions: entering class and taking a seat, switching from one academic activity to another, and exiting class. And just like any academic procedure, transitions are taught through explicit explanations, clear models, rehearsal, and review.

Whether students are transitioning from reading to math, or PE to the drinking fountain, author Mike Linsin recommends standardizing the process with five steps that I paraphrase this way:

1. Secure students' attention: "Focus on me, please."

2. Explain the procedure: "In a moment, return to your desks and take out your history textbooks."

3. Prepare kids for the signal to start: "When I say 'smooth,' you'll quietly proceed."

4. Initiate the transition: "And... smooth." Don't say "go," warns Linsin, because that word cues students to race.

5. Observe: Watch to make sure all students are complying.

Troubleshooting

When transitions take too long or learners misbehave, it's time to don your figurative Sherlock Holmes deerstalker hat and reflect on these questions:

Did I provide too many or too few directions?

Did the transition catch kids off guard when they were absorbed in an activity?

Did too many kids have nothing to do?

Are there specific students who created chaos?

After answering those questions, try some of the techniques described below.

When transitions take too long: To counter students dragging their feet, announce how many seconds are left before the next event begins. Teachers like Tyler Hester take out a stopwatch and challenge kids to beat the transition times of other classes ( see a video example at the 35 minute mark). And here's a personal secret: Slowly counting down from five in a booming voice never fails to accelerate transitions.

When procedures aren't followed: Lining up her students at the end of the day was a problem for one fifth-grade teacher. Her challenging class often erupted into fights, and the assistant principal chewed her out for delaying the buses. As a solution, she affixed black dots to the floor three feet apart for students to stand on and provided more time for packing belongings. After a few practice sessions, her students' dismissal behavior improved.

Any transition benefits from showing young students how to ninja walk. Other routines are equally engaging; Watch Madeline Noonan's fifth graders ready themselves in "super scholar style" or with "word of the day" signals.

A number of studies show that reminders called precorrectives reduce misbehavior during transitions. Right before a transition, ask a child to describe the proper progression of steps for, say, entering the class after recess. Or play " correct the teacher " by performing examples and non-examples while learners indicate incorrect actions with a thumbs-down signal. Then call on someone to articulate or model the correct procedure.

In another precorrective, described by the National Association for the Education of Young Children, a child walks through the procedure while the teacher narrates: "Let's watch Noel at the sink. First, she turns the handles a bit. What does she need next? That's right, soap! She pumps once because that is all she needs. Now she is rinsing off the bubbles and is ready for her paper towel. How many pulls does she need? Let's say it together-one, two, that will do!"

Finally, an effective strategy for reteaching transitions is simply to direct the entire class to start over. Budget extra time for do-overs during the first two weeks of class and be patient. As the Navy SEALs say, "Slow is smooth, smooth is fast."

When students don't want to quit what they're doing: Have you ever seen a boy wail when bedtime is announced? More than likely, he felt blindsided. In the classroom, many kids feel the same volcanic emotions when asked to stop doing an activity that absorbs them. However, displaying a countdown timer, like E.ggtimer.com, Online-Stopwatch.com, or Timer-Tab.com -when combined with verbal time signals-helps students anticipate and prepare for an approaching transition.

When younger children get distracted: In an article on transitions, Sarah E. Mathews cites a 2007 study that showed how "children appeared excited to engage in many routines that were part of music." Singing the following song, says Mathews, will help kindergartners straighten their work areas between activities: "A helper I will be. A helper I will be. / There's work to do. There's work to do. A helper I will be." Or play this clean up song.

Letting students take charge of transitions: Transitions don't have to involve an entire class. Watch how Wendy Hopf's sixth graders use hand signals: Raising one finger requests help, raising two fingers asks for a bathroom or water break, and raising three fingers indicates that a pencil needs sharpening. "I love it," says Hopf, "because I have the option of saying no."

Research suggests that successful transitions are quick and have clear beginnings and endings. Meeting those requirements will maximize learning time. However, don't be afraid to add in some whimsy, like the North Carolina teacher who greets each student with a charming individual handshake as they enter the classroom each morning, thus illustrating that transitions happen with kids, not to them.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
There are essentially three types of transitions: entering class and taking a seat, switching from one academic activity to another, and exiting class. And just like any academic procedure, transitions are taught through explicit explanations, clear models, rehearsal, and review.

# data[].attributes.headline
Why pronouncing students' names correctly matters

# data[].attributes.subject
Why pronouncing students' names correctly matters

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Over the 30 years since Philimena Owona arrived in the United States from Liberia, she has heard her name and those of her children mispronounced and misspelled probably too many times to mention. It has come from all corners-strangers obviously, but also friends, colleagues, educators, and even on official documents.

"Throughout my life and education, my name has been pronounced all sorts of ways. It has been at times frustrating and humiliating," she recalls. "My name is an important part of my identity and heritage. As such, I expect it to be pronounced properly."

As an adult, Philimena believes she has been better equipped and more prepared to process the slights-even if they stung, which they usually did.

As a parent and educator in Prince George's County, Maryland, however, Philimena has always been more concerned with how mispronouncing a name impacts children.

"Children can't often speak up for themselves, so it's important that we as adults, especially educators, speak up for them."

This issue has hit close to home. Shortly after the birth of her son, a friend from Cameroon wanted to know what her son's 'English' name would be, because no one would be able to pronounce the name they had given him, she thought.

A few years ago, Philimena's daughter told her she wanted to shorten her name because people at school weren't pronouncing it correctly.

Inclusion and equity in school must include "something as simple but important as a name," Philimena says.

"Honoring all students' names is a building block in creating welcoming, inclusive classroom. This is about making sure every student knows they are important."

What's At Stake

"A person's name is part of their cultural identity," says Rita Kohli, assistant professor at the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Riverside. A failure to recognize this extraordinary significance can cut deep in the classroom.

In 2012, Kohli helped turn the spotlight on student names when she co-authored a paper titled "Teachers, Learn Our Names! Microaggressions and the K-12 Classroom." Through interviews with 41 students of color in K-12 schools, Kohli and colleague Daniel Solórzano found that the failure to pronounce a name correctly can adversely impact the worldview and social-emotional well-being of students.

"When the child enters school and teachers-consciously or not-mispronounce, disregard or change the name, they are in a sense disregarding the family and culture of the students as well," Kohli and Solórzano wrote. "The consequences of these subtle racial experiences are real and can have a lasting impact on the wellbeing and self-perceptions of youth."

If an educator is unaware or unsure of the importance of getting students' names right, they should be, says Susan Balogh, an elementary school teacher at Baker School in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts,

But if they feel disrespected, Balogh cautions, "the opposite can happen."

Heightened Awareness

by the Santa Clara County Office of Education (SCCOE) in partnership with the National Association for Bilingual Education, the campaign encourages children to feel a sense of pride about their name and patiently correct people who mispronounce it. The campaign asks all educators to "Take the Pledge" to respect student names. To assist them with pronunciation, the web site provides a wide variety of resources.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Why Pronouncing Students' Names Correctly is So Important | NEA

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Over the 30 years since Philimena Owona arrived in the United States from Liberia, she has heard her name and those of her children mispronounced and misspelled probably too many times to mention. It has come from all corners-strangers obviously, but also friends, colleagues, educators, and even on official documents.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Gladeo | Career Navigation Platforms & Courses

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Gladeo empowers educators and workforce to engage and prepare learners for careers with our research-backed career navigation platform, inclusive videos and enterprise cloud tools.