That’s good advice. Giving your students opportunities to “teach” each other gives them chances to exercise many skills and build their abilities as leaders and persuasive speakers. Whether working in pairs or reporting to the whole class, writing an essay or short story, or debating a point, give students opportunities to engage with content and feed it back.
One final point: HOW your students may
solve problems or interpret your directions
and assignments can be a surprise
– usually pleasant but
sometimes not. You may have
a clear idea
of how you expect they will
answer questions, perform in role plays, etc. But they may have “filters” to do with their own background and limited experiences of life. They may come up
with very imaginative solutions to
problems. Perspectives, attitudes, degrees of maturity all affect problem-solving in
children as well as adults. Remaining
open and really listening to the students as they share
their interpretations can be the best teaching.
Set them problems to resolve. Let
them use their creativity and critical thinking skills to solve
problems in their own ways.
Getting students to “take ownership”
of content and problem-solve
independently can provide important
insights and lessons for both students and
teacher.
One of the pleasures of teaching is seeing
your students gain greater
confidence through successfully resolving various problems. Help them succeed by giving them
the freedom to fail. And
teach them to persist!
If at first you don’t succeed, try try try again!
Homework Assignments
Before the end of class, be sure to give your
students something to think about
when they are at home. Class
does not end at the final
school bell. Encourage them to
think through the day gone by before they
go to sleep. What did
they learn that day? It does not have to
be a written assignment; you can give
students a problem to try to solve
overnight and bring in their
ideas the next day (a great way to start
the next warm-up!).
Homework
assignments can be a burden or
a tool for in-depth,
independent learning. Again, as always, try to step into their
shoes. Consider their circumstances when making assignments to be done at home:
·
If the students have several teachers or several
subjects to cover, how many hours will
it take for them to complete all the assignments?
·
Are their
parents supportive of home study time?
·
How will they get the work
done if they have other after school
activities or classes to attend?
·
How much homework is expected or
required by your department, school or
administration?
·
How much homework is appropriate to their age level and abilities?
·
How much is appropriate
for the time of
year, holidays, breaks and other
factors?
Step 5: The Closing Moments
Remember
the teacher who let her students go without confirming
the end-of-the-day procedure? The closing moments of a class are your opportunity to
reconfirm and underline the most important lessons of the day.
What do you want
them to remember ‘out in the real world?’
Give yourself a few key phrases to
use to remind them of the day’s lessons. You might write them on the board.
Tip:
Prepare a “Take Home” Envelope
At the end of the first day, the students
each take home an envelope of
materials from me to their
parents. If there is time
in class, you can have the students assemble these. In each
envelope, there is a “Welcome Letter” from me, a page about grade
level expectations, and a copy of my discipline plan.
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