Shaking Things Up with Resource Groups

Happy New Year! Yesterday, when my students returned to class I needed to shake things up a bit. We'd grown close during the beginning of the year, but right around Christmas (as tends to happen), some people were a little too comfortable. Groups had organically formed, and though I love the familiarity, I know that the best learning doesn't always happen there.

I've always used strategic groupings and wrote about it in my first book and also in a ton of blogs, like this one for Middleweb. However, this time, I have a different motive. I've grouped kids according to some social/emotional need I've tracked since the beginning of the year.

Here are some examples of what I'm up to: a shy girl really loosens up with a particular student, so I put them together; a very chatty young man focuses much better with an all female group, so I arranged that; a student who is absent quite a bit is assigned a leadership role to help stay engaged in what is happening--even if it is virtually.

I've long since noted the academic reasons for strategic grouping, and more recently paid attention to the social benefits, but it is only in this year's experiment that I am actively seeking to meet an emotional need of my students. Do all groups have some deeper meaning? Nope. But, I will say that they are all thoughtful and planned around data about their personal needs, or at the very least, a good hunch.

Today was the second day of the groupings, and I love it already. I'm seeing my students experience my class in a different way based on their emotional experience of being here. We are all better when our needs are being met, and in this case they are being challenged as well.

I believe that when students feel safe and are challenged while being engaged, the optimal learning environment is created. I'll be sharing pictures, student work (including the presentations students will do in order to prepare for our escape room).

Happy New Year! I'd love to hear how you are shaking things up in your own life, classroom, or family. There's great learning that happens when we are off balance, just a little, when we know that there is someone there to catch us.

We Are A Community . . . and it shows!

Last week we got loud. There were hoots, hollers, stomps, claps, and some standing ovations. There were chants of names, and there were proud parents, squirmy brothers and sisters, tiny babies and grandmas too. We were in celebration mode.

But, we also got quiet. Very quiet. There were tears, some sobs, and hugs. We held each other up when the reality of being a teenager came crashing down around us. It was both amazing and terrifying. Some students had never been in the presence of such unadulterated emotion.

It was my privilege to be the teacher. It was my honor to be the one who gave the pep talks. It was humbling to know that these kiddos took these risks for me, for us, for our class. We are a community, and it showed.

Reading With Purpose

My favorite book to teach is probably A Prayer for Owen Meany, but given that I no longer have access to AP Lit students on a regular basis, my next favorite book to teach is Lois Lowry's The Giver. I've taught this book for about 15 years, and my students do extensive Utopia Projects, which I've written about in many blogs like this one for Middleweb, this one for ShareMyLesson, and in my book The Flexible ELA Classroom.

However, this year I'm shifting my focus a little bit to frontloading the student experience.

I'm now asking them to apply a lens of their choosing to reading The Giver. This slideshow offers them four lenses to read the novel with a specific purpose in mind: this essay test. I've noticed how much they struggle to provide evidence of their arguments when writing about a novel, so this approach is meant to help them trace their thoughts about a particular theme the novel addresses or to do a deconstruction approach for option #4.

They've settled into reading and taking notes, and though I doubt this lens business makes much sense now, I'm excited to see how it helps them formulate an argument at the end of December. I'll keep you posted.