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Bruce W Sims
Joined: 08 Mar 2011
Location: Illinois; USA
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 Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 5:43 am Post subject: |
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May I ask something about the environment in which you are teaching?
I have found it very effective to enlist the aid of the students themselves in teaching each other. The reason for this is two-fold.
Students have a natural tendency to interact among themselves and I have found that this energy can be harnessed to move the class forward. The teacher shifts from being a person who is constantly "putting-out little chatter fires" to a person who is sheparding a process.
Students are able to identify individuals amoing themselves who have a grasp of the material and tend to view things stated by a peer as valid over things said by an adult.
High performing students often become bored with time spent dragging the slower students along. Conversely, slow students become disenfranchised by smarter students constantly performing better. By engaging the high-performers to "tutor" the slower students both needs are met.
I have taught classes of 30-40 individuals and have learned very early in my career that I can't "do it all". I must delegate authority and develop a cooperative effort with my students, and even small children are able to get into the spirit. Reducing a large class to small clusters of rotating partners seems to work the best. FWIW.
BTW: Maybe somebody already addressed this....
When it comes to classroom management, what use is being made of visual cues? What I mean by this is that about 80% of the information about our environment comes through the eyes with about another 10% through the ears. In this way flashing the classroom lights to bring the class back to the "here and now" from some activity tends to be more effective that simply making a verbal request. Just a thought.
Best Wishes,
Bruce |
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jrwhite82
Joined: 22 May 2010
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| Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 5:45 am Post subject: |
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| Bruce W Sims wrote: |
May I ask something about the environment in which you are teaching?
I have found it very effective to enlist the aid of the students themselves in teaching each other. The reason for this is two-fold.
Students have a natural tendency to interact among themselves and I have found that this energy can be harnessed to move the class forward. The teacher shifts from being a person who is constantly "putting-out little chatter fires" to a person who is sheparding a process.
Students are able to identify individuals amoing themselves who have a grasp of the material and tend to view things stated by a peer as valid over things said by an adult.
High performing students often become bored with time spent dragging the slower students along. Conversely, slow students become disenfranchised by smarter students constantly performing better. By engaging the high-performers to "tutor" the slower students both needs are met.
I have taught classes of 30-40 individuals and have learned very early in my career that I can't "do it all". I must delegate authority and develop a cooperative effort with my students, and even small children are able to get into the spirit. Reducing a large class to small clusters of rotating partners seems to work the best. FWIW.
Best Wishes,
Bruce |
The higher level students will get annoyed at having to always help the lower level students in this method too. This is ok to do once in a while though. The higher level students need to work with other high level students more if you really want to give them a chance to grow.
Also, trusting young students to teach other young students is not always a good idea. Academically, they might be very strong, but some (or most) are not developmentally ready in elementary school for that. Middle and high might be different though.
Activities that have both homogenous and heterogenous grouping are more effective. Start with a heterogenous group. Each person has a special role to master. Let's say student A is low level, B is next up to F who is the highest level. So they break up the initial group. All the A's get together. All the B's get together, etc. They master their task. Then regroup to their original team and share what they learned. |
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Bruce W Sims
Joined: 08 Mar 2011
Location: Illinois; USA
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| Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 5:51 am Post subject: |
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| jrwhite82 wrote: |
The higher level students will get annoyed at having to always help the lower level students in this method too. This is ok to do once in a while though. The higher level students need to work with other high level students more if you really want to give them a chance to grow.
Also, trusting young students to teach other young students is not always a good idea. Academically, they might be very strong, but some (or most) are not developmentally ready in elementary school for that. Middle and high might be different though.
Activities that have both homogenous and heterogenous grouping are more effective. Start with a heterogenous group. Each person has a special role to master. Let's say student A is low level, B is next up to F who is the highest level. So they break up the initial group. All the A's get together. All the B's get together, etc. They master their task. Then regroup to their original team and share what they learned. |
I guess I just haven't seen those reactions, but maybe there is something I'm not taking into account in these Korean classrooms.
Best Wishes,
Bruce |
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jrwhite82
Joined: 22 May 2010
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| Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 5:51 am Post subject: |
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| Bruce W Sims wrote: |
BTW: Maybe somebody already addressed this....
When it comes to classroom management, what use is being made of visual cues? What I mean by this is that about 80% of the information about our environment comes through the eyes with about another 10% through the ears. In this way flashing the classroom lights to bring the class back to the "here and now" from some activity tends to be more effective that simply making a verbal request. Just a thought.
Best Wishes,
Bruce |
Dude, flashing lights? You ARE old school! Just busting your chops. I was advised to not make a habit out of flashing lights as it can be very ineffective for students with vision impairments and distracting for students with ADD and other learning disabilities. |
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