Heather has been having great success lately by saying very little in the classroom. Students have been working closely with texts and with each other instead.
Heather gets the conversation started by inviting students to share passages from the texts they are reading. She reviews the rules of a good classroom conversation and then announces her intention to remain an observer. She even makes a bit of a show of moving to the back of the room and taking notes--and the students get the hint.
I'm thinking I'll do this on Tuesday with a spreadsheet chart that lists all the students names and allows me to check off the ways they participate: offers idea/extends/re-directs/questions/disagrees/jokes.
Heather gets the conversation started by inviting students to share passages from the texts they are reading. She reviews the rules of a good classroom conversation and then announces her intention to remain an observer. She even makes a bit of a show of moving to the back of the room and taking notes--and the students get the hint.
I'm thinking I'll do this on Tuesday with a spreadsheet chart that lists all the students names and allows me to check off the ways they participate: offers idea/extends/re-directs/questions/disagrees/jokes.
Sounds interesting, especially so early in the year. Is this 11th grade? Is it an integrated group and is this on days that you would be doing book discussions?
ReplyDelete10th grade made use of the time that would normally have been used for Community Meeting.
ReplyDeleteThese were "cohort" groups--a mix of international and domestic students who will be working together all year long, in both academic and social settings.
Thanks for reading, Tuney.
Can you post Heather's 'rules of good classroom conversation?'
ReplyDelete