Group Task Management

In my short time as a teacher, I've heard pros and cons to using Group Work as a teaching tool. Some people think it's the lazy teacher's way to get through the day, some people believe it's a way to get pupils to take charge of their own learning. If you have self-motivated pupils, then group tasks can be beneficial, but I don't think group work should be avoided just because some pupils need a little more motivation and guidance.

I'm sure I'm not the only teacher who's learned the hard way that dividing pupils into groups to accomplish a task requires more management and thought than you'd think. With no guidance, pupils fight over who will do what, or won't actually accomplish anything because no one has really taken charge or taken initiative. As a teacher, you really have to guide pupils with everything from who will collect resources for their group, to who will physically write down information. To be fair, some pupils just click and get on with it; but there are some who really need your guidance in order to accomplish the task you've set them.

Often when I divide my kids up to work in groups, I assign them roles so everyone is clear on what they need to contribute to their group. I've carried this out in several ways in the past: I've popped wee post-its on certain pupils to indicate who's the Scribe/Author, I've written the titles of each role on slips of paper and handed them out randomly, or I've allowed the children to decide who will be what. What I find to be the best method to carry out assigning roles is having these cards to use and re-use:

I created this set myself, including the illustrations. I've printed, cut out and laminated a few sets of these cards (so you can hand them out to several groups) so I can just keep reusing them. The children quickly learn what group roles are and what their responsibilities are, but I find the cards to be a good reminder. On the back of each card, the role title is written at the top with some reminders of what they should do:

I made up a separate page of the job descriptions and glued them to the back of the picture cards before I laminated them. Easy peasy.

I explained the group roles to the children as their Job Titles. For instance, my job title is "Teacher." The Job Titles, or Roles, that I use are:

1. Manager
2. Illustrator
3. Reader
4. Author
5. Resource Manager
6. Reporter

I don't necessarily use every role for every group task, and not every person in the group gets a role all the time because it may not be necessary for the task. Or sometimes, I have fewer than 6 pupils in a group, but there is a need for all the roles, so some pupils may get TWO job titles! I would slowly introduce these roles to younger pupils, but I've managed to be able to use them for as young as Primary 2 (Grade 1).

Let me know if you find this method of Group Task Management helpful in your classroom!

Just a little freebie

I like two things: designing things in Photoshop, and sharing.

Download

Teachers Pay Teachers

Teachers are known for reinventing the wheel. There are teacher supply stores, ready-made products and resources, books full of photocopiables, free printables online, and yet we spend hours making our own resources from scratch. I'm as guilty as the next teacher. In fact, I'll even admit that I like making my own resources. It drives Mr. West nuts, especially when I spend time on the weekend creating things for my class!

Well, it turns out I'm not the only one who likes to spend their downtime doing teacher-y things. Teachers Pay Teachers is a site where teachers can post their personally-made resources for other teachers to download either for free or for a price. Some of the stuff on there can be pretty useful, and I've recently set up an account of my own to share my handiwork.

There are quite a few languages represented in my class, so I recently made up multilingual Days of the Week posters. You can download your own free set here. The languages depicted are Lithuanian, Polish, Russian, Chinese, Bengali, Urdu, and English.

Free Resources - Take 'em where you can get 'em

Last year, I discovered a site called Freecycle, where you can post items that you're getting rid of, post messages of items you're looking for, and people will contact you through the site. And the best part of it all is, it's free!

Recently, I posted a message asking if anyone had a computer keyboard they were looking to get rid of. Why, you ask? I saw this little tidbit through Pinterest:

This is the explanation from the author of "3rd Grade's a Hoot:" "I just took an old keyboard and fancied it up with cutesy stickers. They "type" their words. I get a kick out of watching them do this. Some of my girls take it so seriously and act like they are at the office."

Now, I realize that my wee nursery kids don't quite have the grasp of reading, writing, or letters for that matter, but this idea was just too good to pass up (and I got FIVE free keyboards through Freecycle!). I started thinking about how I could use this idea, but gear it towards my little ones. Some suggestions from friends were to take the keys off the keyboard to use as letter blocks, or to use them to practice username and password for the computer. That's a little advanced for my lot, but some of them WOULD be interested in typing their names (and may even be able to do it!). Most of them, however, would just like to tap away on the keyboard for the sensory impact of it.

This week, I think I'm just going to put some of the keyboards out and see what happens! Kids are clever and creative. They may think up something completely different, but just as engaging.

Taking Care of Books

I've recently introduced Library books to my class and wish I had this book from Kindergarten Kindergarten for the occasion! Basically, the book is "ruined" with pens, juice, mud, and chocolate in an effort to teach children what NOT to do with books. It's a great stimulus to generate discussion about how we treat books in the classroom and at home.



But it's still early in the year, and I don't think it's ever too late to teach kids the value of books and how we can take care of them (especially as my colleague had a child bring a library book back with the front cover cut clean off!).

I had so much fun scribbling and painting and spilling over the pages of this book. It's very cathartic. I was doing a circle time lesson today on feeling calm and ways we calm ourselves down; I think scribbling is my method of calmness! Head over to Kindergarten Kindergarten to download a free copy and wreak havoc to your heart's content.

Here's my handiwork of the day:


















Have Fun!