Ideas, ideas!

Although my commute is a long one, it offers me time to reflect on my teaching and to brainstorm new ideas regarding my teaching strategies. Some questions that come to my mind include:

-Are my students moving forward at a reasonable pace?
-Are there ways to switch-up my style of instruction to keep students actively engaged?
-What are some new ways to help my students interact with the material?

I was reflecting on these questions and how my classrooms have been acting during this stressful time (regarding PSSA testing, awkward bell schedules, and arena scheduling). Some neat ideas came to mind! Some include:

~Working backwards with my planning WITH my students. For example, "We need to finish the novel FRIEDRICH by May seventh. How do you think we should go about finishing the novel, starting with the week it needs to be completed? By having students involved in my planning, they may become more receptive to completing the work in a timely manner.

~Having students teach each other chapters of the novel. This (of course) will be carefully scaffolded so that students may be prepared for teaching. Students will be given a few days notice, where I will explain the activity and assign a chapter to be taught. Some questions that must be answered to assist in the teaching of other students include:

What is the main idea of this chapter?
What are the two most important events that happen in this chapter?
How do the characters react to these events? (What does this say about their overall characters?)
In regards to the overall novel, how important is this chapter?

By having students analyzing the chapter with these questions, they will have a better understanding of it as well. I can quickly assess their work before they begin teaching another student so they know they are on the right track.

As part of the activity, student "teachers" cannot just tell their partner what the chapter is about. Since both students will have read the chapter, it is the student "teacher"'s responsibility to have their "student" come to his/her own conclusions and help them with the process of analyzing the chapter.

I am in the process of designing this activity for my students and am looking forward to seeing the results!