Royce Rolltide,
I'm glad to hear that you are eager to have your middle school science students work in pairs and small groups. There are several things you might want to consider.
-Successful group work requires a knowledge of the content, so you will have to ensure that this knowledge has been "pre-loaded" before the group work will be productive.
--Despite the benefits of "discovery" based learning, time is a critical factor; you probably don't have the time for your students to discover all of the 118 or so elements on the periodic table.
-Start with students working in pairs and give them something fairly easy so that they can cooperate to accomplish the task.
--Consider using mini-labs that they can do at their seats, e.g., mini-math labs are a good way to start. Once they are working as a pair you can then pair up pairs to form four person work groups.
-Once you and the students are comfortable with the groups (a function of learning styles, abilities, and personalities--go for a cross-section here) you must still have structure in the group.
--Start by assigning specific duties, e.g., one person is the team leader, another is the recorder/writer, another is the primary operatior/manipulator, and yet another is supply/equipment person. Rotate these duties among the goup members and keep this group together for at least four different events.
--Give the group a "report sheet" that they must complete and turn in. It should include: the purpose of the activity, the procedure, the materials used, the results/data, the analysis, and the conclusion. Each of the students should sign this sheet upon turn-in to the teacher.
--Make sure that you have been very clear about the purpose of this group event and your expected outcomes for the group, i.e., everyone in the goup will receive a "group grade" and cooperation and participation are important to success.
-Also, consider the use of modeling by these groups. Models may be verbal/written, graphic, matematical, or picture/diagramatic. This really facilitates student understanding.
--I use mini-white-boards (approx. 24 in. x 30 in., one for each group) so that they can write/compute/draw their models and state a clear conclusion to their event.
I hope this has started to help you. Stop by and I'll give you written examples, books, web sites, and other tools that may help you even more. Rolltide!
Stan Lane
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3 comments:
Great suggestions! The only thing I would change is the premise that "discovery" learning can't be done because of time. I would suggest that they should focus on one skill at a time and then try to incorporate inquiry based learning on a different activity. I'm suggesting this from the point of view as a science teacher where many teachers say they can't do inquiry because of time but the real issue is the lack of understanding the type of discovery learning a teacher wants to use in their classroom. Discovery learning can be teacher-guided where it doesn’t take a lot of time and there is the other spectrum of student led inquiry. I’m jut suggesting this because many colleges teach new science teachers from the constructivist theory, which in turns becomes a issue for many new science teachers because they were taught to teach with these “discovery” strategies but real life teaching environments don’t always allow for this “discovery” type of teaching. With some new science teacher this can become a conflict if they don’t know how to change their dispositions quickly.
Anyway, I don't know the entire context of your letter but there is a ongoing debate about inquiry and non-discovery types of teaching in the science field. The suggestions of having team roles would be quite helpful for a beginning teacher.
It looks like you are well on your way to getting several very valuable teaching strategies to help you with group and pair learning activities. Like many other situations in life we teachers all have different opinions and techniques to use based on how we run our classroom and how we teach or often also how we learn the best. Keep in mind that you have to have a variety of methods to help reach your students and you have to find the suggestion that you are most comfortable with. I am a very hands on and discussion type of teacher which you will see in the suggestions that I give for group and paired learning. I like to do things that encourage creativity and prevent boredom. I often use Discussion Partners (pg. 53) which is a technique that makes students get up and out of their seat while still working together to get a better understanding of the material. I like this because it is achieved in chunks or stages and prevents the material from being too overwhelming or confusing. It is a method that you might have to practice several times to achieve success with but once the kids understand the process it will be lots of fun for them and you. I like to walk around the room and get their ideas just by listening. I have some great suggestions for you if you would like some tips on how to make this run smoothly. I also enjoy the Grafitti method (pg. 79). I like to get all the kids up and able to use their creative side and with this they are able to draw or write creatively and at the same time they are mastering the content that needs to be understood. Let the kids use markers and or pencils to make their signs and it will make it more fun to them. It also makes them pay closer attention when they know they will be expected to contribute to their teams poster. I also really like the Facts in Five (pg. 76). This is a great way to end a class and make everyone reiterate what they remember from class. It also makes them get used to being a leader and speaking up for what they believe in. I like to let the students do this towards the end of class and then get all their thoughts and groups organized with their top five lists being put together and then I like to use these by posting them on the board and reviewing them at the beginning of the next class to get us back on the same page where we left off. I hope that these strategies will help you with your planning if you would like to come and see my class utilize these strategies just let me know I would love to have you visit or I can come and help you set up this new strategy with your students. Keep up the hard work and let me know what else I can do to help you.
Hola Stan:
I like the way you broke it down to Royce. I use small groups a lot in class. At first, I allow my students to pick who they will like to work with but before the 9 weeks is over, all 30 students would have work in at least 6 different small groups.
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