Cooperative Learning Strategies for Review, Part 2

Ideas in Education: Using Cooperative Learning for Review, Part 2

As a teacher, one of my least favorite times of the year was test review season. One of the reasons why: I wasted students' time with practice tests. Students took the test; then we went over the answers. It confirmed what I knew and what they knew. In my case: some students struggled with maps, graphs, and visuals. Almost everyone would benefit from a quick review of the world's religions/philosophies. They weren't confident on Great Zimbabwe, Western African Kingdoms, and pre-Colombian civilizations simply because we didn't spend much time on these, and some of the more obscure questions about Greek playwrights and inventors tripped them up). 

For many students, their scores on the practice test confirmed that they were in good shape for the SOL. For others, however, it confirmed their sense of dread and added to their anxiety. 
 
All-in-all, for most it was a waste of time. 

The good news: practice tests and review don't need to be a waste of time, if done right.

I highlighted some strategies last week, and here are some other strategies to make reviewing more effective and meaningful.



Using Practice/Review Tests 
The above isn't to suggest that practices tests have no part in reviewing. Here the focus is on maximizing their value as an assessment for learning tool and building metacognition and content learning. 

1. Students take the quiz/test. 
2. Students self-check their answers or trade with a partner for peer checking.
3. Students work in teacher-created groups (one stronger student in each group) to correct AND diagnose their answers. This includes Why did I get this wrong? What types of questions was I getting wrong? Where do I/we need to improve? You may include having students graph/chart/categorize this information by SOL strands, themes, etc. and then use this information to group students, determining what to re-teach or review, or for some of the other ideas included below. 
4. Provide an opportunity for students to show improvement and build confidence. This could include having them only do the questions they got wrong or grouping students and having them explain to peers the questions they got wrong and the right answer. There are some great opportunities for re-grouping and flexible grouping with this approach. 

Student review groups
This strategy can stand alone or you can use the data from the review test or another method of grouping, to have students review and teach each other.

1. Working in groups, students write questions and answers or complete a graphic organizer or poster on one topic. 
2. Groups swap and/or circulate their questions/answers and/or information with other groups. 
3. If using questions, the answers are passed back to the original group for checking and re-teaching. After this occurs, the second group tries again.

Race to the Top Game

This is a worthy means of reviewing while also instill a collaborative climate with a touch of competition. 

1. Each team is given a topic from the year. As a team, they will devise a set number of questions and answers for that topic. These should be short answer type questions. It may be helpful to require the students to refer to Bloom's taxonomy or something similar to ensure their questions require some mix of higher-order questions. 
2. Check their work. 
3. Have the groups create cards with their questions and answers. Alternatively, have them enter this into a spreadsheet that can be used to create flashcards or a similar tool. 
4. Create the cards and a game board (don't really need a board for each partner group). For every five cards, add a space. So if there are 20 cards, you will have 24 spaces. Every fifth space is a stopping point. 
5. Provide cards from each topic to student partner groups. Have the partners split the cards evenly. 
6. Student A asks Student B five questions. If Student B gets a question correct, he gets the card and puts at the bottom of his stack, so he will ask Student A the question later. Student B moves one space. If Student B gets the question wrong, it is place to the side. 
7. After 5 questions, switch roles. 
8. After both students have asked/answered five questions, they review the missed questions and ask them again. 
9. The next five questions are asked. 
10. Continue until both students are finished with all questions and get to the top. 

Important Dates and Information and SOLs

Monday & Tuesdsay: SOL Training Sessions before and after school, Re-test/Transfer students begin testing (see Monticello Outlook Calendar or Cindy's email for students) 

Tuesday: 8am AVID Site Team Meeting 

Wednesday: Continuation of SOL Re-test/Transfer 

Thursday: Leadership meeting &  Continuation of SOL Re-test/Transfer 

Friday: Continuation of SOL Re-test/Transfer; Club Day and Job Fair (see below)

Job Fair On Friday: In partnership with Virginia Career Works, we are hosting a job fair here from 9:45-12:15. Students will be able to attend the job fair during club period (sign up in adaptive scheduler) and during lunches (no sign-up required). It will be in the auditorium atrium. Please share this with your 1A classes so they can sign up!

Expected companies:

At Home Care
Bojangles
Farmington County Club
Charlottesville Aquatics
Doubletree Hotel
Express Employment Pros
Goodwill of the Valleys
Monticello
People Ready (18 year olds)
Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act Program (WIOA)
UVA Temps
UVA Talent Flexibility Team
Aramark (18 year olds)
Grounds Maintenance
Mathnasium of Charlottesville
Chick Fil A
Brooks YMCA **
Boars Head Aquatics**
Census 2020 (18 year olds)
Sentara Martha Jefferson
Panera Bread
CATEC Summer Programs**
ServPro
Marshalls
Belk**
Timberwood**
Shadwells**
Management Services Corporation**
Raising Canes**

**Waiting for Confirmation from Employer to attend

Job Opportunity for Teachers: As you may know, the Census is here. Much of the work will take place in July and August, but may extend into October. A hiring representative from Census 2020 will be present at the job fair, so feel free to stop by or email Ms. Terrell for more information. 

20-year Past and Present Staff Celebration: May 2 at Carter's Mountain from 5-9. Please bring your lawn chairs, blankets, etc. Friends and family welcome! Food and beverages for purchase.
 

 

Field Trips, Performances

May 3: In house previews of Once on this Island.

Friday: Club Day & Job Fair

Birthdays

April 30: Louise Weaver
May 3: Michael Schafer and Kelsey Terpay
May 4: Mary Morales

 

Useful Information

Bell Schedules : http://bit.ly/MOHSbells

FAC Form

To add to Monticello-Outlook, School Calendar, PowerSchool Daily Bulletin

Morning Announcement Stream: http://streaming.k12albemarle.org/ACPS/links.htm

Announcement Request 

Athletic team schedules, rosters, etc. 

Teacher Handbook  

We’ve got something new! Want something included on the Monticello Outlook Calendar, the Monticello website, in the PowerSchool Daily Bulletin, or the student newsletter (viewed by parents, students and staff)? Please use this link https://goo.gl/forms/bIjfJLKokWPcEHx33  

Student, Staff, Student of the Month Form

Worth Your Time

Girl born with no hands wins national handwriting contest 

 

The other segregation: focus is on division between schools, while tracking has created a separate and unequal education system within single schools 

A lot of the focus on this article is on gifted education. 

Here are the numbers for Monticello's Gifted Student Population (numbers exceed 100% because of different ways of calculating)

 

2.19%	African American
2.73%	Black/African American and White
3.28%	Asian
4.37%	Asian and White
85.79%	White
6.01%	Hispanic

 Teacher didn't punish girl caught napping, his response has the internet talking

4 Strategies for Using Cooperative Learning for Review

Ideas in Education: Using Cooperative Learning for Review

While review games like Kahoot! and Jeopardy can be fun, they often only confirm the learning of some students and provide little help for students who haven't yet mastered the content. It's easy to use cooperative learning strategies for review and test preparation, and unlike review games or worksheets, you're able to build student knowledge, advance learning and build interpersonal skills. The below strategies can be competitive and cooperative, making them fun and productive where the success of each student depends on the teamwork and hard work of the other members in the group.

Strategy 1: Marketplace

1. Strategically split the class into groups. Each group is given one subtopic. Groups should create a poster-style presentation for their subtopic. 
2. One person from each group stays. The rest of the group goes visiting other groups. One student visits group B, one visits C, one visits D, etc. Visitors are responsible for taking notes. (Some teachers find it effective to require the person who stays only to answer questions after allowing the visitors to review the poster. This helps ensure that everyone is responsible for learning).
3. After a set amount of time, everyone returns to their original groups and shares their knowledge. 
4. Assessment: It is important to assess students soon after completing this activity. Assessment can be formal or informal: a quiz/test, a discussion, a learning activity, etc. Students are not permitted to view their notes or posters. A possible strategy is to have students check the work of their groupmates.

Tips:

• Limit the number of words that can be used on the poster. 
• Strategically grouping may mean grouping students by ability/readiness in this activity and providing least-ready students with the simplest topic. 
• Depending on your students or groups, determine whether or not you give students resources. 

Strategy 2: Snowballing 

1. Students are placed in groups (either randomly or teacher-selected) of 3-5. 
2. Students are given questions or problems to do, and students work individually on these.
3. After the set amount of time expires, students enter their groups and compare their answers, their thinking process, etc. This is an important focus for this stage as it makes the learning visible and focuses on the reasoning and why--not just the answer. 
4. The teacher then provides each group with exemplars to compare their group's answers to. 

Strategy 3: Numbered Heads Together 

This strategy is best used for reviewing information before a test. A high-functioning group supports each member and provides opportunities for practice and discussion.

1. Students are placed in groups and each person is given a number. 
2. The teacher asks/posts a question and groups are required to put their heads together to figure out the answer. Provide each group with a set amount of time to answer the question (more simplistic/closed answer questions require less time and open-ended questions, require more time). 
3. The teacher then calls a specific number to respond to the class. This ensures that each member is responsible for knowing the answer. They cannot receive help at this point. Some teachers like to have each group use a small whiteboard for the student in each group to write down their groups answer and then ask all the number 3's for example to show their boards at the same time. 

Tips:

• It may be helpful to keep track of the number of correct answers given by each group. This increases the accountability even if it's not entered into the gradebook. 
• Ensure that students have the correct answers. If you are pulling the questions from a review, encourage students to write down the answers to use for studying. 
• If you are using more open-ended questions (those without right/wrong answers), have students agree or disagree with the other group before sharing their answer. You may also require/encourage a clarifying or deep question as part of the process.

 Strategy 4: Showdown

1. Place students in groups. 
2. Provide each group with a set of problem cards. 
3. The group determines who the first leader is. 
4. The leader picks up a problem card and reads the question aloud before placing the card in the middle for everyone to be able to read. 
5. Without talking, students individually write down answers on a dry erase board. When finished, they turn their boards upside down. 
6. The leader then says, "Showdown!" and everyone flips their boards. 
7. The leader checks all of the answers. 
8. If the answer is incorrect (see tips), the group is responsible for correcting the error and teaching each other. The card is placed back in pile in this case. 
9. Rotate the cards and the leader. 

Tips: 

• Cards can have questions and answers, depending on the learning intention. The answers can be checked by providing an answer key. You may also choose to not provide the answers and require students to find the correct answer.
• The assignment can be varied based on student need. If for example, you have several students who have mastered the content, you can place them in a group with higher-order thinking questions for enrichment.  
• Since everyone will be a leader, use an icebreaker question to determine the first leader. This can be something as simple as Who woke up first this morning? to a more complex thing like What's the most bizarre food you've ever eaten? (groups then vote on the most bizarre...this is also a great opportunity for a conversation on what's bizarre is often cultural).

Always Debrief

With all assignments, but in particular cooperative ones, it's important to provide students with time to reflect and debrief. Encourage students to identify what they learned and where they fell short. Have them discuss what worked and what didn't work and why?

What are some cooperative learning techniques that you use for review?  

Important Dates and Information  

 

Field Trips, Performances, SOLs

April 23: Senior English in Forum during MM

Friday: Club Day

Birthdays

April 22: Brooke Lipscomb
April 23: Dan Brown
April 24: Lisa Killham, Katherine Williams 
April 26: Veronica Price-Thomas 
April 27: Kim Morgan-Thomas

Useful Information

Bell Schedules : http://bit.ly/MOHSbells

FAC Form

To add to Monticello-Outlook, School Calendar, PowerSchool Daily Bulletin

Morning Announcement Stream: http://streaming.k12albemarle.org/ACPS/links.htm

Announcement Request 

Athletic team schedules, rosters, etc. 

Teacher Handbook  

We’ve got something new! Want something included on the Monticello Outlook Calendar, the Monticello website, in the PowerSchool Daily Bulletin, or the student newsletter (viewed by parents, students and staff)? Please use this link https://goo.gl/forms/bIjfJLKokWPcEHx33  

Student, Staff, Student of the Month Form

Worth Your Time

Five E Instructional Model

Why this South Carolina teacher quit mid-year: 'The unrealistic demands and all-consuming nature of the profession are not sustainable'

School shootings didn't start in 1999 at Columbine. Here's why that disaster became a blueprint for other killings and created the "Columbine generation"

7 Ways to Ensure Your Students Become Good Learners

Ideas in Education: 7 Ways to Ensure Your Students Become Good Learners

Something most of you probably don’t know about me is that I have a learning disability. It’s most evident when it comes to working memory and verbal processing. If you were to tell me your phone number is 540-981-2540, I wouldn’t be able to recite it back to you and there’s no chance I’d be able to memorize it. I love baseball, but I can only recite a a couple of players’ numbers--Cal Ripken was number 8, Eddie Murray wore 33, but beyond that, I’m not sure I could tell you any other Baltimore Orioles’ number--and my daughter is named Camden after Oriole Park at Camden Yards! Poetry, especially memorization of poetry, are the bane of my existence. In high school we had to memorize 30-60 lines of poetry, despite hours of practice and using every memorization technique possible, I couldn’t get past 20 lines. I tried theater once; it was embarrassing, and I relegated myself to stage crew.

As a result of my learning disability, in many classes I wasn’t a good learner. I was motivated to do well and fortunately I was often able to compensate for my deficiencies. The thing is though, you don’t have to have a learning disability to be at a disadvantage, and this leads me to the need for differentiation of instruction and strategies to build learning and reasoning skills.

Like many students, when it came to learning in class, I was just trying to stay afloat. What were we just told? Do I need to memorize that? I already forgot it. Oh shoot, what’s going on now? I wasn’t a good learner. Often I got caught in the minutiae.  Other times I felt like I was caught inside waves grinding against the shoreline, unable to figure out which way was up.

We all have students who are motivated to learn but aren’t good learners.  

The good learner is constantly thinking,  I wonder if...How can that be used? What if...The good learner sees meaning, applies reason and thinks deeply without supports or scaffolds. Theay are more adept at making connections and possess habits of mind that enable learning. Good learners, whose academic success is not to be solely attributed to intelligence, possess skills and habits that enable higher order reasoning.

I desperately wanted to be a good learner. But, the cognitive load for me was often too much. Below are seven ways to differentiate and help all students become good learners.

1. Assume everyone wants to be a good learner. 
2. Ensure students understand the learning target, how they are going to be assessed and why this is important. For good learners this often is clear, and they will periodically self-assess themselves in relation to the learning target. For other students, it’s important they understand what they are working towards and why they are working towards that goal. By providing opportunities for self-assessment and feedback, students will be able to increase their ability to self-identify I’m working towards this...Right now I can...Next I need to...
3. Create learning tasks that lighten the cognitive load. For some students, this might be providing them with notes; for others it might be a graphic organizer or providing information in multiple formats. Avoid excessive teacher talk, tangents and non-germane additions to the lesson.
4. Structure the learning around principles that can be widely applied in your subject and so that learning builds on these principles.
5. Start off with the basics and build upon them. Provide students opportunities to be active in their own learning. Chunking assignments and scaffolding create opportunities for practice increasing student familiarity. This, in turn, helps students see patterns and builds their ability to memorize and learn.
6. Make use of active and reasoning tasks to create deeper learning opportunities for students through scaffolding. What can you do to first help the student understands? Once the student understands, how can you make sure they are able to reproduce or produce?
7. Use a variety of means to assess students. As you assess a student’s depth of understanding, recognize that his/her understanding may be higher than it appears because of factors such as motivation or poor skills that are not being assessed. For example, a student might understand the dynamics of immigration and be able to relate it to other concepts, but because the assignment required writing an opinion piece--and the student is a poor writer or unmotivated to write--it will be harder to assess that student’s relational knowledge.

What are some strategies that you use to help your students become good learners?

Can you think of some students in your class who are intelligent but might not be considered good learners and as a result are experiencing difficulties?

What separates good learners from poor learners?

Important Dates and Information  

April 12: Nolan’s Story

• In preparation for prom, spring weather, graduation, etc. we’re bringing back Nolan’s story and Nolan’s mother Anita Brockette’s powerful presentation.
• It is for juniors and seniors. Teachers of junior and senior classes, please attend with your classes and have students fill-in from front to back. Please remind your students that this is a powerful and sensitive message that takes incredible courage to tell. Encourage them to be respectful by paying attention, keeping cell phones away, etc.
• It requires a modification to Friday’s schedule.
• More about it here

Nolan’s Story Only 1A and 1B schedule are changed No Clubs

0 Period: 7:40-8:40

1A: 8:55-9:50 9:20: 11th and 12th graders called to auditorium. 9:30-10:20: Nolan’s Story (times are approximate; announcement will be made when juniors and seniors return to class)

1B: 9:55-10:46

2A: 10:51-12:16 Lunch 1 10:51-11:31 Ayres, Bailey, D. Brown, Garland, Goodin, Huneycutt, Inman, Jennings, Lawrence, Lloyd, McClung, Meade, Pippin, Reynolds, Schafer, Skelton,Stott, Trent, Wade, Waidelich, Weaver, Wendell, Williams Lunch 2 11:36-12:16 Baber, R. Brown, Clark, Colgan, Csapo, Eddy, Eisenhauer, Haney, Lindemann, McCaskill, Mound, McDonald, Parks, Price-Thomas, Rocco, Rowanhill, Scott, Stanek, Smith, Stallings, Streit, Thomas, Warren, Waters, Williamson

2B: 12:21-12:59

3A: 1:04-1:42

3B: 1:47-2:25

4A: 2:30-3:08

4B: 3:13-3:50

Mustang Morning: Thank you to all who created Mustang Morning sessions and rosters for your students. Students with D’s and F’s were assigned to the appropriate Mustang Mornings. This was based on current 3rd quarter grades. These were copied forward until the end of the year.

• If a student does not need to be assigned any more, he/she will need to be deleted individually from each session.
• Honor society sponsors or others who have occasional meetings, please populate your sessions.
• Please remember to have students sign up for their Mustang Morning sessions on Monday during 1A. Please check to ensure all students do so.

  

April 8 from 11:30-1: ACPS technology department is seeking feedback and ideas from students and educators about technology and learning. Members of LEAD’s leadership team will be here to have these conversations. If you’re not able to stop by during this time or you have a concern or question you would like addressed, please email John Mitchem or me.

April 11 (9am): Grades and Special Education Progress Reports Due

April 12 (9am): Potential Senior Failure Form Due This form will enable school counselors and administrators to support your efforts to get our seniors across the stage. We ask that all teachers complete this form even if you don’t have any seniors in jeopardy of failing.

Prom April 13: Ms. Stott is looking for chaperones and supervision help. There are 2 shifts: 8-9:30 and 9:30-11. Areas needed: ticket check, bathroom supervision, outside areas, parking lot. This year’s prom is at the Holiday Inn on Emmet St.

 

Field Trips, Performances, SOLs

April 9: Tom Tom Festival

April 10: Environmental Science Rivanna River

April 18-21: Band trip

April 19-20: Orchestra Trip

April 15-19: VPT (Virginia Placement Test/PVCC)

April 25: PVCC Onsite Admissions

April 10: Spring Band Concert @7

April 11: Salmagundi @7

April 15: Orchestra Concert @8

April 16: Choir Concert

Birthdays

April 7: Shannon Mound

April 9: Ashley Roberts

April 11: Shannon Deegan, Laura Gaskins

April 12: Mike Parsons

Useful Information

Bell Schedules : http://bit.ly/MOHSbells

FAC Form

To add to Monticello-Outlook, School Calendar, PowerSchool Daily Bulletin

Morning Announcement Stream: http://streaming.k12albemarle.org/ACPS/links.htm

Announcement Request

Athletic team schedules, rosters, etc.

Teacher Handbook 

We’ve got something new! Want something included on the Monticello Outlook Calendar, the Monticello website, in the PowerSchool Daily Bulletin, or the student newsletter (viewed by parents, students and staff)? Please use this link https://goo.gl/forms/bIjfJLKokWPcEHx33 

Student, Staff, Student of the Month Form

Worth Your Time

Rebooting high school  Some interesting links about what some other schools are doing…

5 ways to design your teacher-led stations  #3 and #5 are my favorites...what are yours?

Compassion-based classroom management strategies