Man, those snow days threw me for a loop! Not too happy about having to make those days up at the end of the year. However, with the coming week being a short week too before Mid-Winter Break, it gives me a little bit of time to extend the new strategy that was planned for this week.
This week I started the strategy of collecting "pod points" when focusing on transitions. I again have decided to keep my line-up order. Students have responded really well to it and it has cut down our line transitions drastically. This is something I will keep until the end of the year for sure!
I have student desks grouped into pods of 4, so there are 5 "pods." *I call them pods because my classroom is ocean-themed, and whales/dolphins swim in pods. :) * On the board, I wrote 1-5 so students could see how many points they were collecting. I focused strictly on transitions in the classroom. In the future, I could add points for working quietly, quickly, etc., but for the purpose of this research, I only gave out points for transitions. If pods were able to get to 5 points by the end of the week, they got to pick something out of the treasure box. I was originally going to do 10 points, but with the shortened week, I made the goal 5 to encourage/motivate them. I had 2 out of 5 pods make it by the end of the day on Friday, which was a good eye opener for the groups that didn't make it. I am going to try that strategy again this week, but have them start over and see if they can get to 5 again. After we return from break, I will give my students a survey about which strategies they liked and why. I want their buy-in, so it is important for me to get their feedback!
I like your "pod" connection :) And a cool idea to give points for small groups! This is something I'd like to figure out how to do with my classes (row points, etc) but because of a different time frame I would need a slightly different approach. Did you read any research about use of group points in contexts with less continuous time than the full-day classroom?
ReplyDeleteI bet your class is having a "whale" of a time competing for points (see what I did there). Its sounds like you interventions are helping and its cool to see one work and that you can use it long term. Do you ever have one student who can never transition quickly? Sometime in PE I have student who is just slow (no IEP or 504) just slow. I wonder if students ever get mad or if it's ever embarrassing for that student to be last all the time?
ReplyDeleteI really like how you gave points based on small groups and not just the entire class. I think this is something I will try to implement as well in my class. I currently use tally marks for whole group transitions and quiet work but I think, as you found, the competition with smaller groups does give more incentive to help your table group transition quickest versus having to hope the entire class is able to to receive the points. I am interested to hear which strategy your students liked the best and if it is consistent with the one you found to be the most successful at reducing transition times.
ReplyDeleteI feel like table points are such a good motivator! Especially, because the kids see them on the board, its a constant behavior reminder. I know you've shared that your transitions are really improving, but is there a couple of students your strategy isn't helping? I feel like the majority of my students are improving, but there is still those few that each strategy didn't reach. Doing a survey will be great! Especially because second graders have the capability to reflect on what was helpful/not helpful. I am excited to see your results!
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