Monday, January 20, 2020

Teacher led lessons are sometimes best

Our team surveys students about how they like to learn, and when we do that, it always surprises me that a fair number of students prefer teacher led lessons. This probably surprises me because as a student I preferred more active, hands-on exploration than the sit-and-git lessons that were often the mainstay in school.

Tomorrow, I'll lead a teacher-led lesson as we revisit traditional division and problem solving. Students and I will begin with the RICE acronym that leads students with Reading problems carefully, Identifying key information, Calculating and checking their work, and Expressing and Explaining their conclusion/answer.

Then we'll tackle one problem after another together. After that, they'll have time to complete the problem packet and begin working on their homework--a traditional division review.

Recent assessments confirm that students are committed to their learning and mostly making terrific gains. Our efforts as teachers to promote a strong collegial-student-family team is proving to be successful and that makes returning to school after the long weekend a welcome event. Onward.