I'm at a new school this year and experiencing some management issues that are new to me, even after 12 years in the classroom. I have a particularly needy class, with whom I can't do a lot of the whole class oral questioning I have done in the past. Here is my solution. STEP 1: CHANGE THE SEATING CHART To start, I broke up the seating chart by ability level. Rather than my normal mixed-ability groups where they all help each other, I put the more motivated students together on one side of the room. I could tell they instantly felt better. As much as I wish I could have their behavior and motivation rub off on the other half, it isn't fair to them to have to go so slowly when other kids at their table still can't find a pencil 5 minutes into the activity. STEP 2: FROM WHOLE CLASS TO SMALL GROUPS I created these supplemental presentations for each unit. Normally, I just project them and we go through the activities as a whole class, while I toss a ball to students to answer questions. With this group, I shared the presentation in Google Classroom. This let the struggling students click through and read the questions at their own pace and take all the time they needed to answer with a partner. This way they had to participate, rather than wait for the kids who always raise their hands quickly to answer for them. My students sit in tables of 4, so I asked them to rotate answering until they finish the slide. At the high-achieving tables, I had them work in partners and trade off every other question, but at the struggling tables, they worked in groups of 4.
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