Chapter 10: Establishing and Maintaining Effective Group Work
Group work is so, so important to me. After all, in the real world, we rarely do things without the help of others. Unfortunately, I think it can be hard to execute group work well. Usually someone ends up frustrated because they either had to do all the work or they didn't get to do any. It's a hard balance. I think I can recall only one teacher I've had who effectively used group work, and he was a social studies teacher. One of my goals is to make sure students are engaging in effective group and partner work in math classes.
Really, I think the hardest part of group work is making sure that people actually work as a group, not individually (or not at all). The authors give two suggestions to remedy this situation: first, constrain the information so that not everyone has all of the information - each person just has a piece; second, require collaboration in terms of explanations of work (where everyone has to explain how the problem was solved). To me, these seem easier said than done, and easier to do with certain topics than others. Hopefully I can find out more about these in my Groupwork book I have coming up in the Summer Book Study.
There is a pretty solid list of group norms and expectations given, but I think that they might need more. I think it would be a good idea to include students in the creation of norms for groups so you can see what they want to get out of group work, or what negative experiences they've had that you can help remedy. This would be a good questionnaire/discussion for the beginning of the year. There's also the suggestion that students fill out a survey after group work, checking what behaviors they engaged in so that they know what's expected of them and where they stand. I think I would tell students they needed to meet a certain number of these ten behaviors during groupwork, increasing the number as the year went on, or when projects were longer.
As with all discussions of group work, the chapter touches on assigning roles, with the caveat that all roles should be focused on some sort of mathematical practice. I wholeheartedly agree with this, because I never understood how having someone be the "timekeeper" was helping the group or the person at all.
The last interesting point about this chapter was the suggestion to treat the group as a whole. Don't just talk to one student in the group (unless it's a personal issue). I've never thought about that before, but it's so true. You can't expect the students to work as one if you don't treat them as such!!
Really, I think the hardest part of group work is making sure that people actually work as a group, not individually (or not at all). The authors give two suggestions to remedy this situation: first, constrain the information so that not everyone has all of the information - each person just has a piece; second, require collaboration in terms of explanations of work (where everyone has to explain how the problem was solved). To me, these seem easier said than done, and easier to do with certain topics than others. Hopefully I can find out more about these in my Groupwork book I have coming up in the Summer Book Study.
There is a pretty solid list of group norms and expectations given, but I think that they might need more. I think it would be a good idea to include students in the creation of norms for groups so you can see what they want to get out of group work, or what negative experiences they've had that you can help remedy. This would be a good questionnaire/discussion for the beginning of the year. There's also the suggestion that students fill out a survey after group work, checking what behaviors they engaged in so that they know what's expected of them and where they stand. I think I would tell students they needed to meet a certain number of these ten behaviors during groupwork, increasing the number as the year went on, or when projects were longer.
As with all discussions of group work, the chapter touches on assigning roles, with the caveat that all roles should be focused on some sort of mathematical practice. I wholeheartedly agree with this, because I never understood how having someone be the "timekeeper" was helping the group or the person at all.
The last interesting point about this chapter was the suggestion to treat the group as a whole. Don't just talk to one student in the group (unless it's a personal issue). I've never thought about that before, but it's so true. You can't expect the students to work as one if you don't treat them as such!!
Chapter 11: Classroom Management
Classroom management is a big thing for me, basically because I don't think it's something that can be taught or read about - you have to have experiences to learn how to deal with all of the situations that arise. For me, sometimes classroom management is an issue because I'm not bothered by minor infractions, mainly because I know kids will be kids. However, then it's hard to actually crack down on real infractions or when those minor ones escalate or become more frequent.
Most of the suggestions in this chapter were ones I've heard before - know what's going on, give clear directions, give praise, reinforce, reprimand privately, etc.
I'll probably have lots more to say about classroom management when I re-read that book this summer, so I'll just leave this chapter alone for now.
Most of the suggestions in this chapter were ones I've heard before - know what's going on, give clear directions, give praise, reinforce, reprimand privately, etc.
I'll probably have lots more to say about classroom management when I re-read that book this summer, so I'll just leave this chapter alone for now.
Chapter 12: Teaching Struggling Students
I understand this all too well!! In reality, half the problem with "struggling" students is that they have a negative perception of themselves and their math abilities, or they think that being successful at math is just getting the right answer all of the time. I want to battle those perceptions by explaining to students that success has multiple facets in math. Perseverance, explaining what you know, trying new things - those are all traits of good mathematicians!
I remember facing this issue with some of the less advanced students when I was student teaching. There was one kid who never really had the right answer, but who always thought out of the box in his solution methods (just didn't carry them all the way out). I worked really hard to get him to see that he was still being successful even if he wasn't doing things like everyone else.
I think you can also help struggling students by changing the way you teach or the types of activities you do. The same less advanced students were not responding well to the standard way of solving equations, so I made the activity hands-on, and they all got it instantly. It was easy to do for a big reward.
I also think struggling students can be helped greatly by working on basic skills and strengthening those. When those skills are weak, they become discouraged when doing pretty much any other problem because it takes them too long. If they have the basic skills down, they can spend more time on the new skills!
I remember facing this issue with some of the less advanced students when I was student teaching. There was one kid who never really had the right answer, but who always thought out of the box in his solution methods (just didn't carry them all the way out). I worked really hard to get him to see that he was still being successful even if he wasn't doing things like everyone else.
I think you can also help struggling students by changing the way you teach or the types of activities you do. The same less advanced students were not responding well to the standard way of solving equations, so I made the activity hands-on, and they all got it instantly. It was easy to do for a big reward.
I also think struggling students can be helped greatly by working on basic skills and strengthening those. When those skills are weak, they become discouraged when doing pretty much any other problem because it takes them too long. If they have the basic skills down, they can spend more time on the new skills!