At our last PPC meeting, we discussed formulating a plan to provide professional development on the Charlotte County expectations. (Marzano) We decided that we would offer a few informal afterschool sessions to discuss the expectations. Several teachers selected element #7 Organizing students to interact with new knowledge as their deliberate practice.
Organizing students for learning is a powerful instructional strategy that focuses on facilitating small-group discussions in which students use academic vocabulary to talk about content with each other. This strategy can be formal organization of students or informal conversations with small groups or partners. This strategy does not encompass whole-class discussions. While there is a time and place during instruction for teachers to lead whole-class dialogue, this strategy is focused on smaller groups of students interacting with each other rather that the teacher.
It is important to note that there must be a stated purpose for interaction when you organize students to work together. Some examples include processing new content, revise thinking, or practice a procedure. Organizing for learning almost always goes hand and hand with other instructional strategies such as processing new information, practicing skills or processes, examining errors in reasoning, or elaborating on content. Students are able to interact in two ways: collaboratively and cooperatively. Collaborative learning is interaction in which students share ideas and consider others perspectives as they are learning. There is low interdependence with this learning interaction. Their success in completing a task is not immediately ties to their productivity during collaboration. There should be structures in place to ensure that all students participate and that groups remain focused. Cooperative learning is interaction to facilitate the accomplishment of a specific end product or goal through students working together. This type of grouping has higher accountability levels. There is usually a task or a product that the group is expected to produce.
Positive interdependence results when students recognize that their success is linked to the success of the members of their group and is an essential prerequisite for effective student interaction. As you organize your students for learning you should create conditions and set the stage for positive interdependence. The following teacher behaviors are essential to the effective implementation of organizing for learning:
• Identify critical information (#6)
• Plan meaningful tasks
• Structure intentional interactions
• Organize students into groups
• Establish routines
• Teach and reinforce skills
It is important to avoid the following common mistakes with organizing students for learning.
• The teacher fails to identify the critical content or information
• The teacher fails to structure purposeful student interaction
• The teacher fails to prepare students to interact in groups
• The teacher fails to stay out of the conversation
Teachers should intentionally monitor their students to make sure they are enhancing their understanding of the critical information during their interactions. Here are some ways that teachers can monitor the effectiveness of the strategy:
• Students use academic language to talk about content with each other
• Students share perspectives about critical content
• Students know their responsibilities during group work
• Students share the workload equally
• Students use small-group interaction to enhance their learning
While researching information related to this strategy, I am reminded of content that I learned during the Kagan Summer Academy. I am excited that we will all get to participate in the day 1 training in February. Please visit the links below for a video and resources related to this Marzano strategy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eL8qK0PXuOo
https://graniteschools.instructure.com/courses/1118234/pages/organizing-students-to-interact
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