It’s more fun to talk about the wins, but we learn so much from the losses (if we take the time to look). Wins and Losses is a chance for me to reflect on one of each.
(Also, I could use a better series title, stay tuned for updates or suggestions)
Loss: Group Dynamics
I have one class with a particularly challenging mix of personalities. Some super quiet, some rather oblivious to social cues about volume and sharing air time, and a wide range of maturity, mental health, math skills, personalities and opinions about school. Individually, they all have plenty of things going for them, but it’s not a group that’s gelled.
After a frustrating class where more of my energy when to classroom management than to teaching, I decided to break it up. Small groups, spread far enough apart that they couldn’t distract each other, each with one of my generous classroom volunteers facilitating.
I gave them a beautiful activity, from a thoughtful resource, setting up functions by exploring the calories burned in different activities. Last time I used this, I had one student skipping soda and climbing the stairs by the end of class.
This time, I had, instead of one classroom full of conflicting dynamics, two. I was short a volunteer, so larger groups than planned, and had designed the groups to spread out the different management problems. In the process, I got groups with vastly different math skills, and no interest in working together. The quick ones were bored, the slow workers were lost, and I got “Is this on the test?” instead of “I’m taking the stairs”
Take away: Design for learning first, then dynamics. If I were to do it again, I might do more homogeneous groups and give chocolate/many thanks/lots of support to the volunteers working with the more challenging ones.
Win: Fractions
I don’t know about those of you teaching K12, but in ABE, fractions are a black hole filled with quick sand (or some other appropriately sticky metaphor). They’re counterintuitive, take for-EVER, set off students’ math anxiety, and then rarely appear on the HiSET.
*grumble*
But last week, my students figured out how to add fractions, with no explicit instruction on my part.
I gave them fraction circles, and visuals, and partners and said “observe, try it and report back”. And they reported back a neat summary of adding fractions, and that it was easy. I typed up their observations, gave everyone a copy and moved on to mixed numbers.
Take away: Trust them. With the right supports, and the right sized step (we saved uncommon denominators for the next class) they can do it.
