- I have half as many people to call on (I have 10 groups instead of 20 students).
- I can listen is while they are whispering with partners so that I know which students in each pair are understanding and which students are not.
- Students are able to help each other.
- Shy students only have to whisper to one student instead of speaking up in front of the whole class.
- Students get to know each other. I change partners about once every six weeks so students get to know a number of different classmates throughout the year.
Monday, September 22, 2008
How will your study influence your future practice?
Even though I am not teaching kindergarten this year I will still use some of the techniques that I used during my action research. The most important is that I will continue using partners. I learned that partners help my teaching in a number of ways:
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3 comments:
I agree with all of the reasons your listed for using partners and I like that you assign and then rotate partners during the year. That's an organized approach to partnering that I have not yet developed. What do you do when a pair is just not working well together? Do they stick it out? Or do you make changes as needed?
If I have students who are not working well together I encourage them to work through it. I also offer prizes at the end of the six-week period to partners who work well together and I remind students of this. I have not yet reassigned partners but I think that if students are really not getting along then I might change sooner than planned.
I am intrigued by your pairing of students. No time is lost “finding” a partner and they grow familiar and comfortable with one person. What a nice way for students to engage in dialogue with each other -I think this is lost in many classrooms nowadays. I also like your six week rotation schedule. You are meeting students’ academic and social needs.
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