"I had seven students in my group. Were there 6 in yours?" This Friday, this quote came out of the lips of NOT a teacher but a student in my class. He was one of my assigned group leaders for a differentiated activity that we were doing in class. He was asking this to another group leader in my class and both of them saw their groups as their own students.
I've never been more proud. I know that in a lot of classes, the struggling students get the majority of attention by the teacher while excelling students sit quietly working on their problems until they're done. Neither group really feels a part of any kind of classroom community. just bodies in a room. Unless... they're talking to each other. Having students continually work together and push each other to help each other has been helpful on days when I simply can't be 6 places at once. And I don't need to be! Sometimes, I had groups of 7 students in one group (usually a logistical and management nightmare) working very hard for most of the period because they had a group leader to guide them through their work. They felt like they could help each other and get help if they needed to. It helped that the task was differentiated to their needs and that they were able to choose which assignment best fit where they were. It helped that students were used to working together and listening to each other. As much as possible, I take a step away from the groups so that they don't even notice me. It's so they recognize their own expertise and forces conversation with each other. So, how do I assess progress on individual students if I'm mostly steering away from groups? Toward the end, I call each group leader one by one outside in the hallway and ask for a (literally) 1 minute assessment of where each of their members are. I get qualitative info like which students are working really hard, which ones are just copying. I also get info like which ones are struggling and which ones are doing well. They are also specific about the types of problems they have difficulty with. This is probably better data than I could have gathered myself. This is only one day, but I'm going to need to continue thinking about how to keep this kind of rigor and intensity in my class more often
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