Three years ago, I was struggling with students that moved through the content much quicker than the rest of the class. These students became disengaged and disruptive. I had activities for them to work on if they finished early, but they did not always interest the students or keep them busy for as long as I needed them to be. Basically, the students didn't see the value of the activities.
As a result, I created a 4 Quadrant System that allowed students to work at their own pace and stay engaged with the content. It takes some planning upfront, but once you start the unit, there is virtually no time spent on lesson plans. The best part of this system is that it empowers students to own the learning.
Here's what I do:
1) Gather Materials
I begin by checking the standards and collecting all of the activities, student handouts, manipulatives, and videos for a given unit.
2) Organize
Next, I divide all materials into 4-5 main topics. These topics would all fall into categories based on 1-2 related "I can" statements. I'm a tactile person, so I like to physically make piles. You may already have this done if you keep an organized file cabinet at, binder or Google drive (and I am very jealous of you!).
3) Determine DOK or level of complexity.
Once my materials are divided into topics, I decide which activities are used to learn, practice or deepen knowledge. These materials help me arrange the quadrants. I put all learning and/or basic skill practice materials in Quadrant 1 (Q1), basic problem solving materials in Quadrant 2 (Q2), and Performance based assessments in Quadrant 3 (Q3). I typically only put 1-2 materials in each quadrant, usually a video lesson and practice materials in Q1 and Q2. Q3 is usually reserved for a more time consuming activity and therefore usually only has 1 task.
Don't worry if you have more materials you like to use, stay tuned I will get to those soon. Nothing needs to be thrown out. However, keep in mind when we say "yes" to one thing, we often have to say "no" to something else. As a teacher, I often lament eliminating somethings that I love.
4) Choose Whole Group Activities (if you have them)
There are some activities or lessons that are best presented as a whole group. Often, these tasks require a jigsaw activity, compare/contrast lesson, introduction of a skill or process, or 4-2-1 summarizer. Just because you are allowing students to work at their own pace doesn't mean you can't have whole group time. There are still many benefits to this teaching as long as it is not your only method. Please these materials with the appropriate topic.
5) Find Related Extension Activities
What activities did you leave out because they are too challenging for the majority of your students? Which ones extend beyond the required standards? Do any of your activities introduce related topics your students will learn next year? Those are the perfect tasks for Quadrant 4. These activities are the ones for your fast workers, gifted learners, or students seeking extension. Try to make these tasks challenging, but not impossible, and preferably tasks the students can work on independently with little instruction from you. A short video can be used to introduce or explain the instructions to help these students work more autonomously.
6) Make All Materials Accessible to your Students
I place all of my materials in order that I'd like my students to complete them in a list of links in a shared Google doc check out this example of my integers unit.
I also copy and paste the work we I'd like my students to complete and deadlines on Blackboard. A colleague of mine has started using the quadrant system to teach science and places all materials in her Google classroom. Choose what works best for you and what your students are most comfortable with.
7) Print ALL Materials for the Unit
This takes some time, but the system works best if students have access to all hard copies when they need them. This just helps the unit run seamlessly and eliminates down time that often leads to behavior problems. I like to arrange each set of quadrants in packets of Q1-Q3.
I place Q4 in a folder on my board in the appropriate set of quadrants. This is because not everyone student will complete these tasks and therefore do not need copies. It also eliminated the belief that they must complete the task especially if they are struggling with the content at grade level.
I have detailed how I run this system in an earlier post and create keys for all quadrant work for easy checking in class. Check out this post for more information.
I also add a set of extension quadrants at the end of each unit. This allows the very fast processers to extend beyond the current standards. The extension quadrants introduce topics that are not in the 6th grade standards. They are always taken from related 7th grade standards. Check out the set of extension quadrants I have set up for my students that complete our integers unit early. (You are probably expecting computations with integers, but those have been added to previous units.) I place these extension tasks at the bottom of the page along with any extra web resources or games to help the students study or get extra practice as needed.
So that's it!
This whole process probably take less time than it took to write this post. (Of course, I am a very slow writer, I'm working on it.) Each year when I plan to begin my units, I spend 1-2 planning periods making adjustments (I also make notes on the documents throughout the unit as reminders of changes I'd like to make or make changes immediately after each unit for next year) and printing materials. With the exception of printing quizzes or tests, I typically don't visit the copier until I begin the next unit. This super planning also reduces the stress of needing materials only to find the printer is broken. Does this sound familiar to you?
Because my unit is already to go, I can focus time on working with students, organizing future units, or grading. I haven't found a way to eliminate this task, but I'm working on it! I will say that I spend far less time grading than ever since introducing Quadrants to my teaching.
How do you streamline planning and save time? Comment below. As always, thanks for taking the time to read about my journey! Come back soon!
No comments:
Post a Comment