Four corners

Greetings my friends!  In preparation for this post, I thought about what every Tanzanian classroom has in it.  I realized that a common factor was walls and students.  Walls provide corners in the classroom.  This strategy uses four corners of the classroom and students. A teacher prepares  a selected response question.  Students are given the opportunity to select their response and commit to an answer.  The teacher has four possible answers posted around the room.  Students meet in the corner of the room that best represents their answer.  By meeting in a corner of the classroom, students have the opportunity to discuss with each other  similar ideas and prepare a statement of why their answer is correct.  After time for discussion, students are asked to explain their thinking.  This creates an opportunity for students to learn from each other. When they listen to each other, they will begin to notice gaps in their own understanding of the concept.  This allows them to adjust their thinking.  This can be done prior to a lesson regarding the content.  I did this recently in my classroom with the different ideas of the nuclear atom and electron arrangement.  I had students draw their ideas of an atom then meet together to discuss their similar ideas/drawings.  This allowed me to note that most of my students had an understanding of the nucleus and the Bohr model of the atom.  Several students were using the planetary model and very few students had an idea of an electron cloud.  This was valuable knowledge as I began my lesson.
Until next time,
Donna

Using a "Chalkboard Splash"

"What are the five most important safety guidelines to remember before doing a chemistry lab".  This was the question that I gave to my students last week prior to discussing safety with them.  I placed my students in groups and had them answer this question on large pieces of paper.  Once all students finished creating their posters, we spread the posters throughout the classroom.  Next, all students rotated around the room reading the posters and analyzed all the posters for three things: similarities, differences, and surprises.  If you don't have large paper or chalkboards, you can use the cement floors in your rooms and chalk.  Students are very interested in what their friends think.  This will also begin a dialogue of how similar, or different the responses were.  It allows for many ideas to be generated during class time.
 Step for a Chalkboard splash
1.  Create a sentence starter, prompt, or question
2. As students create their response, have them write it on the chalkboard, easel paper, or the cement floor with chalk.  Designate different areas of the room for different groups of students.
3. Have students rotate around the room reading other students' responses and writing down similarities, differences, and surprises.
4.  Place students in small groups to share what they noticed then ask for volunteers to share with the entire class.

Similarities	Differences	Surprises

Making every student an Active learner

Greetings my friends!
Have you ever looked at your lesson planning and realized that it is based on "I".  For  example, I will do a demonstration, then I will present information, then I will ask questions, and finally I will close my lesson.  The problem with this type of planning is that it doesn't reflect the students.  It is not about the teacher but about the students.  In order to have a student centered classroom, you need to have active participation from all your students.  It is having a gauge in the classroom where you can tell if the students understand so you can move on.  Perhaps you need to slow down and re-teach or perhaps you need to quicken the pace.  If the students are not actively involved then you as the teacher have not received the feedback essential for engaging students in the learning process. One of the main reasons for student failure is the teacher presumed the students understood.  "I taught therefore he learned" is the most common mistake a teacher can make.  As professionals, we need to make sure our students are learning by creating classrooms centered on active learners.  By asking for their feedback during our lessons, we can adjust to the students' needs.  Here is a method to try to gauge student learning.  It is based on facial expressions.  On the first day of class, have students draw 3 different faces either on index cards or small pieces of paper. One expression per side of a piece of paper or index card.  The first card is a happy face, the second face is sad, and the third face is to show some confusion.  As the lesson progresses, the students flip the card to show how they are feeling regarding the content.  The teacher by moving around the classroom has a visual representation of her students' progress towards the content.  She can then adjust her teaching to meet the needs of her students.  Once the cards are made, the students keep them and can use  them during every lesson. (If you attended the seminar at Peace House during June, this is very similar to using  red light, yellow light, green light.)   I'll post pictures of the cards as soon as my students make them.  Until next time,
Donna

Joining an online professional learning community

Dear Friends:
Beginning August 22, 2011, check out this site for a new technique each week in formative assessment for the classroom and teaching techniques to get 100% of students involved in your classroom.  Each week of the school year, a new technique will be presented for you to try during the school week in one of your classes.  Please post comments after trying the technique so we can all learn from each other.  Comments may include the following ideas: how did you use the technique?,  how did your students react to the technique?,  did you need to modify the technique for your use in the classroom?, and what were the benefits to using this technique in the classroom?. As comments are posted to the blog, we will learn from each other.  Joining a blog is free!  You will need to create an account through google.  Remember to keep your candles burning!
Donna