At Lincoln School, we are committed to teaching students the skills they need to both function in, and lead, small groups. We’re doing this both as an “end” and a “means,” meaning we see these skills as an important part of the student-centered learning and teaching process AND as essential to their ability to succeed in college and career. So, we’re making small-group cooperative learning strategies our focus for the month of October. Like September, when we focused on Exit Passes, we will hold a workshop session during our monthly faculty meeting to introduce our focus for the month. We will then hold ongoing discussions and sharing sessions during our team and grade-level meetings, and we will share our learning school-wide through our digital platforms and an eventual teacher showcase.
There are literally (I haven’t counted, but I’ll hazard the hyperbole) thousands of small-group strategies and protocols teachers could choose from. Our teacher-leaders will choose a few to focus on during the faculty meeting (which they are leading) and I’ll choose a few others to share with teachers in our weekly newsletter. Each teacher may choose from those presented or utilize either an old favorite or something different they’ve learned and want to try for themselves. Regardless of which strategy they choose or where they get it from, every teacher at Lincoln will be using small-group cooperative learning strategies in October and sharing their experiences with their peers. Students (and their parents) can expect to see small-group cooperative learning strategies used in each of their classes this month and can probably also expect their teachers to debrief those strategies with them to get their feedback.
What do I mean by “small group?” Some of the strategies we’ll be reviewing can be used with groups as small as two students. An obvious and well-worn example is a “think-pair-share” in which two students pause to consider their learning before sharing their thoughts with a partner. It’s an easy, short, and effective method for helping students to process their learning and store it more effectively in memory, but while think-pair-share is an effective tool, it can’t be the only one we draw upon as we construct our classrooms. So, we’ll be examining other ways to pair students and to create groups that are larger and more complex.
There’s other important work happing this October. We’re coming up on interim reports and workshops with parents on topics like Entrepreneurial Learning and the Entrepreneurship Academy. We’re using data from our recently administered MAP assessments to create individual and group learning plans for students and to identify and address curricular gaps. October marks a peak in our college admissions processes for students applying to schools in the United States, and in another blog post I wrote about the work we’re doing with teachers on assessment standardization and moderation. Oh, and we’re in the middle of our 5-year IBDP Accreditation process. So, October is shaping up to be a busy month for everyone here at Lincoln School.
Garrenteed Learning 