Reflect after reading Chapters 2-4:
How do we form collaborative groups and where will these groups work? Why does room arrangement matter?
Consider the following questions:
- What is resonating with you from the reading?
- What caused you to pause and think during this section?
Respond and Interact
After reading these chapters, please post your response to one {or more} of the prompts above. Read our colleagues' reflections. Feel free to respond to someone by sharing a comment, insight or interesting possibility.
I love the idea of random grouping. I often rely on this type of grouping because I am not always prepared when it comes time to grouping! I also think it is important to be okay working with anyone in our class- In 4th grade, it bums me out when I see cliquiness emerge- It was really interesting to learn how important it is to keep grouping fluid to elminate social barriers. I was surprised to learn that students begin leaning into their usual social "roles" after just one hour. I also appreciated how this type of grouping gives students a genuine opportunity to nurture empathy--all while increasing enthusiasm around math. I suppose what causes me to pause, is the question of the culture of my classroom. In our tenth week of school, I know students already have a hierarchy of their social structures. I wonder how it will play out when math groups are this dynamic. Will it be just as Liljedahl describes?
ReplyDeleteAfter reading chapter 3, I think I am beginning to understand how these math moves make massive an impact when combined. I can imagine the vertical work spaces would really get students engaged. I have a set of vertical white boards, but definitely did not realize the deeper rationale before these first few chapters. The shift of choosing tasks, grouping students, and how we arrange our work space affects how thinking occurs. Honestly, I thought the desymmetrizing was wild. I heard of defronting the room and that kind of makes sense to me, but I can't I am still trying to think how I could shake up my arrangement to align (ha) with chapter four. For now, I'll try to move around while I teach. I'm looking forward to see how it goes!
I agree - I quickly became one of the people Liljedahl was talking about as I very much symmetrize my room! I'm going to commit to more movement and possibly begin to "defront" the classroom!
DeleteI have utilized visibly random grouping and strategic grouping in my classroom. While there are TONS of benefits from random grouping, I find that finding a balance between random and strategic has benefited my class. The random groupings have helped students remove social barriers and have given them the confidence to participate more when it comes to strategic groups.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the comment about cultivating a safe risk-taking environment. Classroom arrangement can help encourage students to take risks in their learning. That’s what I aim to do every day, but I will enact the strategy of the ‘recorder’ not being able to write anything they say. This not only reinforces teamwork but enhances listening skills as well.
Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been intentional in varying the activities presented in the math lessons. For example, we did activity one in partners and whole group and then activity 2 was to work on specific expressions. Instead of staying in the workbook, we created posters to hang as a resource in our classroom. Students loved this and it was powerful to see the increase in student ownership and engagement. I have found success in varying types of activities and am excited to find ways to integrate VNPs into my classroom.
I am a huge proponent of flexible seating. When students have materials in their bins, they are able to move more freely in the classroom. It also benefits our class culture because we develop a greater sense of sharing space with one another, and in turn, respecting the space of others. However, my current classroom is limiting me. While I agree with the notes about classroom furniture, with the whiteboard being up front, it creates a “front” of the classroom. I have been intentional in teaching from various spots in the room and I want to push myself to think of a different placement for the flat panel in our classroom. I want to play around with my current layout and see if I can move some things to invite more risk-taking and thinking.
Hi Taylor! I liked how you mentioned that you have been teaching from different areas spots. I think the minor little switch up could keep kiddos on their toes. I need to get better at that. I am trying to defront the classroom too. Unfortunately, I even had a crazy idea to move things around on a Friday at 3:40! We will see how it goes next week. When I asked students to stand around me for a task it felt a little awkward for everyone...haha. We'll keep at it though!
DeleteThe random groupings really resonated with me! To be honest I have been doing some random groupings but still was holding on to the leveled groupings also and struggling with how to get all involved from high to low. I see now the power in the students actually seeing it's random (I've been using flippity) grouping and their level of engagement going up. I also love the idea shared about giving the marker to one member of the group and saying they cannot write their own thoughts. What a great way to help the 'lower academic level/low confidence' students feel good about participating in group work. Also, the seating and taking away the 'front' of the room is something I am looking at changing at the end of the week! I'm so excited about all of this!
ReplyDeleteI'm in the same boat as you. I still struggle with how to allow for random grouping while making sure that my groups are still going to be able to accomplish their tasks. Recently, my students have actually been asking me if I am assigning randomly or intentionally.
DeleteThe first time I read this book - defronting a classroom sounded completely crazy to someone who might be a little OCD {like maybe me 😂} But I like how Liljedahl pushes me to think. We can't expect different results if we always do the same thing. If we want a different/better outcome, then we have to change something. Sigh. Change is hard....but change can also be GOOD. I also LOVE how the micro-moves he suggests at the end of each chapter seem very do-able.
ReplyDeleteRandom grouping really stood out to me. This is something that I have been trying to do more in my math classes, even though I have small class sizes. Using an online random group generator helps to take away the stress of putting kids in groups and they are also able to visually see that it was random. This encourages my students to work with classmates that they would not gravitate to on their own which can have great results. Many of my more reserved students have come out of their shells and found their voice by either teaching their groupmates or speaking up when they know the answers. I also arrange my tables so that they promote face-to-face interactions. One takeway I had that I'd not considered before was the idea of NOT having students work on a task before going into groups. Letting students work together so not just one student is completing the task because they "got it" before going into the groups was eye opening to me. I'm going to keep this in mind.
ReplyDeleteSomething that gave me pause is the grouping of students. I think this is a constant struggle in classrooms. We know academic discourse helps content push further back in the brain so we want a lot of talking and collaboration. However, once groups are formed the talk is hard to manage. We have to practice routines and expectations around groups time/partner talk time and transitions.
ReplyDeleteThinking about random grouping constantly is challenging to social norms because students desperately want time to talk with their friends. I know that if friends can stay on topic they are going to learn so much better. But it is rare that friends stay on topic (even as adults). I think making sure students know they are random is a good idea. Maybe that will take the sting out of the grouping. I normally purposely pair groups, so I will try to work to randomize them this week.
Something that resonates with me is to de-front the classroom. I've always used to think that I was doing this. I like to have different learning activities in different places around the room. Community circle or read aloud at the carpet. Learning routines like word of the day at another space in the room. However, this past year working with the smart screen I have felt more tied to a specific space for teaching and learning. The board has taken away the ability to move around the classroom. I'm spending so much time trying to "utilize" this machine that I have abandoned previous activities that were more active and engaging. I used to do pictorial input charts and engaging posters on different surfaces. I would like to get back to that.