One of my colleagues showed me a worksheet with a very simple idea and profound effects: "lifelines"... basically agreeing to provide up to two hints when they are struggling most. For me, these lifelines are represented as smiley faces. See below. I'm going to give students a group challenge (a math task that students will struggle with but are within their capabilities). I usually provide hints (thanks to Complex Instruction Consortium's ideas) but this time, I decided to go with lifelines. My colleague told me that students are suddenly very protective of their lifelines. I believe it. I'm hoping this works. Will update once the activity is complete. UPDATE: I tried this in my most challenging class. WOW what a change! First the group challenge was more appropriate to their level but they really did NOT want hints to be taken away. Students were suddenly talking to each other, helping each other, checking answers. They hated the idea of me marking up one of their smileys. Small change, genius results.
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