Tag: Actively Engaging

Walk through of how the first two units are structured as a class.

LPS initially built and tested their Academic Numeracy course in Google Sheets, and many of those practices have been captured as Blended and Personalized Learning Strategies. LPS has worked with Gooru to create Navigate Math, a free tool any school can use. These screencasts cover strategies that can be applied through both Google Sheets and Navigate Math, though the latter is used in screencasts for demonstration purposes.

Sophia Thomas, teacher, uses a heterogeneous teaming strategy to support student learning.

Transcript: Sophia Thomas: I decided to switch after my first team competition to heterogeneous groupings. How did I make that choice? In the first semester, the first unit was done through a whole class model because that’s a time where I’m teaching them all the skills that they’re going to need to be able to do this self-directed learning. From that summative exam, I was able to recognize who was going to be where. I made sure that on every team there was a mix of kids. So, it’s heterogeneous groupings. They have switched teams about three to four times now consistently making sure that the groupings are heterogeneous. It’s really cool because they learn so much from each other. Why teams? I believe that they have the greatest influence and impact on each other. They’re less resistant if they need help. It’s easier for them to ask for help in a team setting. It just lowers the effective filter about your capabilities of what you can do and what you can’t do. The way it was set up is that you’re not only responsible for your own writing. We’re working as a team. If we’re working as a team, as a team you have one goal. We’re here to learn. If someone on your team is not learning or is not accomplishing their goal then the team in itself has not accomplished the goal. That was the message from the start. We also used the idea of what research has proven. Students actually learn best from each other. […] collaborative effort has just allowed kids to experience success. When the team is successful, there is that one kid who, if it was just them working, they’d never get a shout out. But you’re working with a team and your team gets a shout out. That is crazy cool. I had this one kid who it’s like pulling teeth to get anything done. In the last two to three weeks, he’s been like come on man. We’ve got to get this done. I generally need to pull him for individual check-ins. He’s all antsy because he just wants to go back and contribute to his team. That’s what it has done. A kid like that before was like his head was on the desk. I don’t want to do this.

Roots teacher, Megan Miles, explains how rotations through different activities are personalized to student need and choice.

Transcript: Megan Miles: when they’re in the grove, each kid has a different grove schedule. So they’re the same activities, more or less, that the kids are doing, but they might be doing – one kid might be going to the flex center and doing a specially designed activity just for them. Another kid may be spending two rotations in the library because they really want to practice their reading, or they like just staying in the library a little bit longer. It helps them calm down – feel calm. Other kids are going from like, iPad, to library, to writing to iPad, to flex, to maker’s – ’cause they need that movement. Or, we might have kids doing a couple of like, different kinds of games in their iPad center to help target like, where their academic priorities are. So, even though all kids pretty much are going to all the centers, they’re not all doing the same activities, and they’re doing them in different orders in a different rate so that it feels a lot more personalized for them.