The pattern of working can now be reversed. Instead of us presenting materials in class and then sending them home to practice (and possibly get stuck), they now review the content outside of class and then come in to practice with help on hand.
Salman Khan put this idea forward at a TED session and it struck a cord with us. The students can now complete their work at any time of the day (or in many cases, night) and you can monitor, mark and mentor their progress.
They do not want or need "Sir" or "Miss" to stand in front of the class for an hour - they can get the content in their own time and in their preferred style - what they want is to get on with the work. I find
all my students, even the disaffected, want to do the course. This means that our task is now to:-
- Ensure they get feedback on their work quickly.
- Ensure their feedback and grades are recorded.
- Ensure that they are working.
A typical session would start with the students being greeted individually and casually as they come in. This shows that they are a person and not an object and it also gives you a chance to ask to see any who are on your "hit list". Getting these out the way at the start of the class gets them to be productive in the lesson.
The "hit list" would be made up of those you have not seen one-to-one recently, those who have not shared the coursework and those who personal issues that need addressing such as absence, lateness or behavioural problems.
These students are invited over one at a time so that they can be debriefed in a quiet, calm manner. These one-to-one sessions may last a few seconds (as in, can you make sure you shared P3 with me, please?) or it may, in an extreme case, last half-an-hour if there are serious issues to be addressed. Individuals have individual needs and the system in class should cater for that.
Once the two or three on the "hit list" have been seen then those who would like work marked or have an academic problem come up. Again, these one-to-one's may take seconds or tens of minutes depending upon the need of the student. The marking is done in front of the individual so that we can discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the work, the way of working and the next step forward. A student should leave the one-to-one either knowing what they have to improve or what needs tackling next. The comments are entered onto the coursework and, if the criterion is met, the tracking is updated (more on this in the next blog).
A welcome by-product of this is that students get used to using each other as a resource. A student will hear that Jo Blogetta has got P2 signed off and so asks how they go about this particular step. This is good for Jo because it helps to consolidate this material and increases her self-valuation. It is also good for the person being helped because they are getting help from someone who has trodden the same path (something we cannot do no matter how good we are).
If I run out of work to be marked then I'll pick a few randomly as I see that they are not in a topic (there is no point in spoiling their concentration). So, I might suggest that Jo Blogetta come over for a chat if I see that she has just sat back to appraise her work. This helps her since she is getting feedback and may prevent her spending hours waddling down a blind alley. It also gives me an idea of about what is happening in class.
I find I spend a lot of time on the personal tutorial side too. Nipping a problems in the bud is much less effort on both sides than attacking a fully grown tree of an issue. However, the main benefit is that I get the chance to see what makes each one tick. They feel more confident in class and are more able to approach me about issues. This has saved a number of would-be drop-outs over the years.
Individuals are just that - individuals. Treating a collection of them as if they were a single object cannot work. Maybe we could call this groupism, an anti-social trait. We have to treat each student separately if we want them to reach their potential. Anything which treats them as a group, such as most whole class teaching, schemes of work or lesson plans, mitigates against that.