Great Day In Room 314!

Today must have been one of the BEST days I have had yet this year with my students! It might be one of the first days all year that I ended the day with a HUGE smile.  I typically do mixed ability groups when I do group work but today I decided to switch it up and do leveled grouping.  I am usually hesitant to do leveled grouping because I find my students off task more often.  I think this may come from having to put more of my focus on the low group to keep them moving (allowing the other groups to get off task).  I anticipated a wide range of abilities when I introduced order of operations.  Although students were aware of order of operations they are now expected to do them with more complicated grouping symbols and negative numbers.  Yesterday I gave an exit slip asking students to solve a med/hard order of operations problem and rate themselves (1-3)  on how they felt about order of operations.  Looking through the ratings I felt students were pretty honest so I grouped them according to their ratings. 

Red Group: I feel confused

Purple Group: I feel OK

Green Group: I feel great

I wrote the problems that all three groups were doing on colored index cards.  The green and purple groups did different problems provided by the text book and red did simpler problems I found on a worksheet.  

I downloaded these participation slips a long time ago and finally remembered to use them. 

I told the students they had one verbal warning before I started ripping off 10% each time they were off task.  The slip was worth 5 points in the grade book making each piece worth 0.5 points.   I do a lot of positive reinforcement for group work engagement with my golden groups and since they were working in groups (not their golden group) each student earned a puzzle piece for their group.  

I don't know if it was the groupings, the problems, or participation slips but students were VERY engaged.  I only ripped a handful of students sheets and only 2 students scored below a 90%.  The students even noticed a difference asking if they could stay in these groups for the next book! 

I don't think grouping should always be homogenous but this activity had shown me I shouldn't be afraid to group by ability level (I have had TERRIBLE experiences in the past).  The participation sheets will also be making an appearance again soon - maybe partner work? 

Today is a day that reminds me why I love teaching.  I hope I can share another day like today soon :)

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