Bringing Order to Group Projects:)

We are looking at ways to keep this meme below from happening again.  One of the biggest issues for both teachers and learners is the potential for a lack of balance in participation within a group.  Moreover, group work can be noisy and confusing for some teachers and learners, and yet has developed the deserved reputation for being research-based practice.  We want all learners engaged during group work; the ideas that follow are based on our personal experience and training. 

As far as the learners who are uncomfortable and unwilling to participate we always allow for that option, but those learners are held to the same standards and expectations as the groups and have the same target and content dates.  Since the participants receive both an individual grade and a group grade, those who insist on doing all the work on their own are also held accountable to the rubric given at the beginning of the project, and receive two grades – albeit the same ones.

We have learned some easy and practical ways to keep learners actively engaged during group work.  These are presented in random order; they are of equal use.

·      Keeping ways to call on learners in a random form can be done with one of many randomizers, but we prefer the use of popsicle sticks.  These are inexpensive, require no tech, are readily available and can be stored in any sort of container you prefer.  Each learner’s name is on one stick and they can be completely random each time, or you can go through a class and then refill the holder with the previous names.

·      Almost all learners now have cell phones and will do their best to use them in class, so why not have a use for them that fits within your lessons.  We advocate the use of Google Drive, which can be accessed through their phones.  The groups can send drafts of their work to their team members and teacher, with each learner having a unique color during composing and editing.  It allows the teacher a quick and easy way to know who is doing what, and who isn’t doing anything.  The learners “choose” to share their documents with each other as part of the drive functions.  This helps to hold all accountable.

·      The teacher creates the groups and there is no changing from the assigned group.  It is essential that the teacher maintain control over this part of the process.

·      All work is time limited – work in class, due dates for stages of the project  and final due date.

·      Present a syllabus with clear dates at the beginning of the project, along with the rubric(s) through which the grades will be generated.  The syllabus and rubrics need to be reviewed at the beginning of the process so that all are aware of the requirements and the time frame within which they function.

·      There can be rubrics for self-assessment, peer assessment and teacher assessment.  Our preference is for all three sources of assessment being counted.

·      All prep work is done by the teacher outside of class be it at home or in the classroom in non-class time.  Asking learners to spend time in class cutting and pasting is a waste and inappropriate.

·      The time table includes regular monitoring and interaction with steps due at specific times, if only for the teacher to check if they are done.  For example:  topics and a list of potential resources/references, research notes/index cards, outline, rough draft, non-written parts of the project, final draft, revisions.  Each step has its own due date and may be graded or checked off, depending on your preference.

·      Groups are limited to four participants.  Three tends to lead to conflict and more than four tends to be unwieldy.  Of course, given the size of your class and how many choose to not participate, will have an effect on this.  Never form a group with all “A” level learners.  Make groups as balanced as possible.

·      Whenever possible have an example of a well-done finished product and a non-example – a poor, non-passing one.  You may be able to get some of these from the internet if this is first time you’ve assigned this content.

We know that the time for end-of-semester assignments is coming up and hope this review of what has worked for use gives you ideas to make yours run more smoothly.

We just found out that our presentation for the annual CABE conference in the Spring of 2015 in San Diego, “Reduce Student Paperwork Load With 5 Free Awesome Tech Tools”, has been accepted and we hope to see you there. 

Marnie Schwartz (marnie@ellteacherpros.com)

Denise Stewart (denise@ellteacherpros.com)

Cheryl Sawyer (cheryl@ellteacherpros.com)

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How to Write a Scary Story---Just in Time for Halloween:)

Halloween is just around the corner.  This fun day is enjoyed by all grade levels.  Since the day's events are fun for all, why not build an academic activity into it?  Student background knowledge is already there so all a teacher has to do is tap into it to use it for academic purposes--here writing:)

Writing scary stories activates student creativity with ease.  Remember that they love horror/monster movies so Hollywood has provided quite a bit visual stimuli.  No student starts from zero here.  Such activities may be completed within a small group of no more than 4 or in groups of 2.  For this to be a language developing assignment, students of mixed abilities must be in a collaborative setting where verbal give and take rules the day. 

The activity here lends itself to elementary through high school with adjustments for age group.  The video component is definitely a favorite with kids.  They will gain experience in "directing" the actors and in designing the set.

Make Halloween work for you:)

Denise

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Jigsaw--A Cooperative Learning Tool Which Builds Students' Self-Confidence in Tackling Demanding Reading Materials

With Common Core, activities like jigsaw will provide academically weak students with multiple productive opportunities to interact with informational/non-fiction text.  If teachers want students to become independent learners, they must provide students with ample activities to support them in navigating complex texts.

 Jigsaw has as many variations as there are teachers who use it.  One common variation involves home groups and expert groups.  Home groups are created by just having students count off from 1-6.  Then all like numbers (ex. all the 1s, 2s, etc.) form home groups.  The teacher then numbers off students in the groups (1-6).  At that point, all like numbers move to form new groups (they will return to home groups after they do the jigsaw).   The teacher then assigns key chunks of the reading material to each expert group.   By having students work in small groups, anxiety for a struggling student drops.  S/he collaborates with fellow students within a safe peer group where questions can be asked and answered with no sense of embarrassment.  In this setting, poor readers are in groups of varying literacy.  Team spirit must be in play here as the group analyzes the text.  This leads to every student becoming an expert in the content.  Students then return to their home groups and each member teaches the others the content that they studied in their expert groups.

Here is a  classroom doing jigsaw.  Please note that though the video shows an elementary class doing jigsaw, it can be done at any grade level right up to professional development sessions for teachers:)

Denise

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Want to Boost Student Self-Confidence in Taking Exams? Let THE STUDENTS Conduct the Review Sessions:)

How do many teachers prepare students for examinations?  The traditional ways include, but are not limited to, worksheets, teacher lectures, practice examinations, teacher prepared notes, special homework assignments geared to the upcoming test, etc.  Now, there is nothing wrong with these techniques to be sure, but are they the most effective?  How engaged are students generally in completing such activities?  Of course the A student will do well no matter what approach is used.  However,  what about the students with special needs, the English language learners, the students in need of just a few more minutes to digest the data, or those who struggle when lessons are developed that do not take into account their learning styles?

Here is an approach that can be quite effective if teachers are willing to step outside their comfort zones.  Assign review topics to small groups to teach to their classmates.  The teacher would split up a chapter into 4 or 5 sections and then assign one section to a group of 3 or 4 to teach to their classmates.  This would entail their becoming thoroughly familiar with their assigned part, preparing charts or power points or videos to capture the main parts of the reading, creating handouts for classmates to complete on the section presented,  asking quality questions and picking on non-volunteers, "grading" (up to them how they might like to proceed, but teacher could offer suggestions as well) to see if fellow students fully understood the review session content, etc.  Further, the teacher, as a passive observer, would have another way to assess how well prepared the students are for the upcoming test.  This technique will tell teachers if there are any foggy issues still present or not.

One more advantage, the student presenters develop a deeper knowledge of the topic themselves making them in-class experts:)

Here is an example from a middle school, but it can easily be adapted for upper grades.

Passing the controls over to students can truly be a rewarding experience for everyone:)

Denise

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Thinking on One's Feet--a Gift Every Teacher Possesses:)

What happens when a lesson a teacher has carefully and thoughtfully planned out turns into a disaster?  This is an event that happens just as much with new teachers as it does with veterans (I include myself here as well).  How can such misjudgements be handled quickly and efficiently in time for the next class? :)

This clip is one that will raise the self-confidence of any teacher.  Notice how her original plans fell by the wayside when she noticed the rising noise level.  When her students starting chatting, she realized that they felt overwhelmed by the assignment.  When her hard working student raised her hand to explain that she didn't understand the vocabulary in the first sentence, she realized that she misjudged their reading skills.  By trying to attempt a heavy reading assignment in only a few minutes was unrealistic.  In fact, one student commented on how many papers they were expected to read.  He did not feel he could accomplish the task.

In between the students of one period leaving and the new ones for the next period about to come in, the teacher started reflecting on how to adjust the lesson to make it more accessible by carefully scaffolding accompanied by a teacher modeling and reading key paragraphs aloud (with time allotted for commentary from students).  She also employs a group charting strategy where small groups analyze an assigned passage and then note key phrases or create sentences using sentence starters on that topic.  After a minute or so, the charts are passed to the next group where students must first read what the prior group wrote and then add to it (like CAROUSEL but here students sit).  Students were doing most of the talking ON TOPIC than the teacher was (that is the ideal scenario).

When this class left, the teacher sought feedback from a colleague (a great support for any teacher and non-threatening since a colleague is not an administrator) where she shared her experiences between the two periods and why she was especially pleased by what happened in the second class.  Her colleague confirmed her good judgment.

WHEN LESSON PLANS FAIL

The bottom line here is that all teachers have those occasional days when carefully planned lessons fall flat on their faces.  With reflection (which all dedicated teachers do), adjustments are made so that the next time a lesson is delivered, it is a more successful one:)

I hope you enjoy this very positive affirmation of what we strive to achieve with the delivery of every lesson.  Teachers never give up on trying to meet the needs of their students every day in every lesson.

Denise

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Common Core Lessons Will Need to Include DIFFERENTIATION

Though common core based lessons necessitate the wide use of a multitude of teaching strategies to ensure that every student understands the lesson being taught, many teachers feel a bit overwhelmed with long term English language learners in their mainstream classes.  Often times, differentiation of  instruction is pointed to as the answer to the problem.  At that point, a teacher is given a handout or two and told to just try to accommodate the needs of the different learning types using the handout as a guide.  Though the handout may be excellent, teachers need more than that to feel confident enough to successfully implement it in their classes.

This video, DIFFERENTIATION, clearly outlines all the necessary components of differentiation.  It explains how to successfully incorporate this instructional tool into classroom instruction covering such sections as classroom management (students must be trained), starting out slowly with just one activity at a time, trying not to overwhelm students or teacher---essentially baby steps:) 

I will be sharing this with new teachers at my school site, with my teacher candidates, and on my website.  I believe in it especially with ELLs in mainstream classes.  Every student excels at something and it is the teacher's job to help the student discover her/his style of learning. 

Denise

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Powerful Uses of Cooperative Learning in ANY Classroom With ANY Student

As Common Core standards begin to surface in classrooms across the country, students will be faced with more demanding assignments covering much more technical readings.  Project based learning (PBL) will be a focus in many classrooms at all grade levels.  

How will PBL be handled in the classroom?  PBL will employ many of the approaches of cooperative learning.  In PBL, cooperative learning groups will be very focused on accomplishing an assigned task.  ELLs will be in all mainstream classes so teachers will need to make sure that support is built into groups with these students. What face could this support take?  Visual notes, students with same personality types working as a team, some bilingual academically successful student team members, charts and posters in every corner of the room for the ELLs to reference as needed in completing their tasks within the group, regular monitoring/facilitating of the teacher to support as needed, video clips, graphic organizers, mind maps, etc. 

How long should PBL segments last?  Typically, no more that 10-12 minutes on average.  When students know that there is a time limit, they tend to stay focused longer.  This determination is evident in how the group, as a team, makes decisions based on feedback from each member of the group.  Further, since students know that each one is accountable for being able to share with the class what their group accomplished, every student works on being able to share their group's results.

UNC COOPERATIVE LEARNING  Here is an excellent description of cooperative learning activities.  With accessible language all around the ELL, s/he will be able to actively participate in an PBL activity successfully.

BEST PRACTICES  This site offers some suggestions to prepare ELLs to do well in cooperative group activities.  The videos are very effective.

Denise
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Multiple Intelligences--Discover How Your Students Learn Best (Great for ELLs Especially)

With the start of the school year fast approaching, teachers are looking at tweaking their instructional approaches to accommodate the ELLs who will be entering their mainstream classes.  Many teachers will try their best to develop language and content delivery strategies to meet this need on their own.  This may work for many, but it can truly be an overwhelming process considering the fact that only a small fraction of the students in the class may be ELLs.  So the question becomes how they can meet the unique needs of the ELLs without shortchanging the other students.  Also, how can they deliver quality core content instruction to the ELLs whose English proficiency skills are often intermediate (at best) or lower?

Is there a magic formula to make this happen?  No, but how about looking at the ELLs first as individuals each with unique ways to process information?  Then, with that information in hand, build class activities around that given intelligence?  In such a setting, the ELL would be in groups with other students (EOs and ELLs) who share the same talent.  Here would be an avenue for the ELL to acquire language and access content knowledge since the material would be presented in a format that would mesh with her/his learning style.

How do you start on this road?  Try having students take an assessment to see what their learning styles are.  In fact, why not take it with them so students can see what your learning style(s) is (are)?  Students will be impressed with your honesty about what the assessment reveals about you and how you best learn.  When I took the test with mine, they saw that I did miserably in music (which was no surprise to me), but excelled in visual and interpersonal.  The other learning styles did not come close to my top two.   The class results even motivated the generally disinterested ones because it revealed to them that they were good in something.  Of course, this activity screamed GRAPH of classroom talents which I laminated and kept up as inspiration for them but also to serve as a reminder for me to design my assessments using this data.  It was really worth the effort since it motivated those few who had given up on school in general (high school).


ASSESSMENTS AND ACTIVITIES FOR MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES With this link, you will find several assessments on preferred learning styles based on results of multiple intelligences assessments.  This is only one assessment type, but there are many more free ones out there on the internet.  This site also provides the teacher with the language to use in giving directions to each of the groups.  So if you are a visual teacher, you would need to find new language for the other groups such as "listen to me", "try this", etc.  Why not make a copy of that to keep in your lesson planning book as a constant reminder on the need to deliver instruction that every student will follow?  Another idea is to structure your cooperative learning groups with the same learning types together.  Another time, mix the learning types.  ELLs would therefore fit in easily and therefore be more open to learning.  Language would become side benefit:)  Some classes even have learning centers where each learning center processes the key points of the lesson in ways that suit their common learning style.  There are so many possibilities so feel free to experiment!

LEARNING STYLES

Here is a video that goes into more detail on learning styles and how they support full student engagement.  Small accommodations are all that are needed.  Common core will naturally support this since the goal is for all students to succeed in ways that work best for them.  You will empower all of your students to want to succeed.  You will build self-confidence.  You will see your students believe in themselves. 

Denise


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Cooperative Learning Strategies Level the Playing Field for ELLs

What do you do when you have a class size of 36 including both ELLs (different levels of English proficiency) and native speakers of English? Many teachers face this situation nowadays and struggle with trying to deliver content and language. Though there are many approaches which claim to work, one of the most effective is cooperative learning (formally called "group work" in high school). When done correctly, it provides content and language in small group settings with the teacher facilitating the learning process, but not dominating it. ELLs in this type of setting feel less intimidated by their English speaking peers. Due to this risk-free setting, ELLs are generally actively engaged in the learning process while receiving language support from their EO peers (or ELLs with more English).

So, how does a teacher set up the class to thrive with this strategy? How can this tool be used to break down not only language barriers, but also ethnic/racial ones? This post will provide you with definitions, techniques, strategies for providing equity for all, and a video. As with all other posts in this blog, everything is free:)

Cooperative Learning offers many different creative venues for students to excel. This strategy promotes student learning, increases student retention, makes the learning experience a rewarding one, strengthens the social skills of ELLs and EOs, and boosts student self-esteem. Some strategies include numbered heads together and jigsaw. With numbered heads, students count off the numbers 1-4 (this will probably give you 8 or 9 groups of 4). The teacher then tells all the 4's to work on one aspect of the assignment, 3's another, etc. These students become experts in their assigned topic. When the time is up, they return to their home groups and then each student teaches the group about the area he/she became an expert in. There are variations of this of course so you pick what works for you. Jigsaw is another favorite. Here reading material is divided into sections (one section of each teacher created group). The small groups study their assigned part. The teacher can then call on any one member of a group to answer the key question. Since all students know that any one of them could be called on, all the group members practice to make sure that whoever is called on (including ELLs) will be able to answer the teacher's question. Very effective in accountability!

Cooperative Learning Techniques This link provides additional strategies that can be used to in a cooperative learning classroom. Think-pair-share is a very popular one here and it can be used at any grade level. Again, this is a setting that is safe for an ELL since the student is working with a partner who will assist him/her in analyzing the assigned material. A variation of this is "elbow partner" where students sit side-by-side to read a passage (the stronger reader supports the weaker one) or edit work as a team. Discover what works for you and your students and use it:)

Now, the last question on every teachers mind is how do you assess an ELL's progress in such a setting. This last website is furnished through TEACHER TUBE (free to join and if you do, you don't have to watch the commercials). It covers ASSESSING ELLs The author offers great tips on how to use varied assessment techniques to get a true picture of ELL's understanding of content and growth in language.

I hope you find these links useful:)

Denise

ELL Teacher Pros