To begin with, I rearranged the room and all the student desks and lab tables to make a total of six massive tables, with chairs and stools around each. One of the table was designated \u201cbelongings,\u201d and students were asked to place all of their bags, books, etc. on the belongings table at the beginning of class, keeping only a pencil or pen with them.<\/p>\n
At each of the remaining tables I placed a formula sheet, a few calculators, and a problem set of about 15 problems. Each of the five tables had a problem set from a different unit (Kinematics, Dynamics, UCM & Gravity, Impulse and Momentum, and Work\/Energy\/Power). I also placed an answer key at each table.<\/p>\n
Once everyone had huddled up, I provided each student with a blank sheet of paper and asked them to rank the topics we\u2019d covered so far this year from strongest to weakest (we\u2019ve been working on building meta-cognition skills sporadically throughout the year). Once that was completed, detailed Students in need of help had two options\u2026 they could ask their cohorts at the same station, or come to the \u201chelp desk\u201d (aka teacher), who would provide help, but only by asking more questions. Out of 100 students, only two came to the help desk all day. Instead, they taught each other.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Results<\/strong><\/p>\n Our goal was to complete all five stations in our 42-minute period. Many students succeeded in the goal, and a small contingent made it through several extra stations. More importantly, I had students working diligently on problems for a solid 90% of our class time. I saw students teaching each other patiently, explaining concepts and notation in detail, and checking for understanding as they went. And as they left the class, a number of students mentioned how helpful an exercise this had been as they prepared for their mid-term.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t know what was so magical about the lesson. We\u2019ve done practice problems with answers before, individually and in groups. We\u2019ve rotated through stations before. We\u2019ve re-arranged the room. Maybe it was the M&M\u2019s \u2013 I\u2019m not usually a fan of external motivations, especially something so simple and benign as a single M&M for each five-problem set done correctly. Whatever the reason, it appears the combination of changes did the trick, and not only did the students get extra practice in their areas of greatest need, I also gained valuable feedback by watching which stations had the greatest \u201cpile-ups\u201d during the lesson, allowing me to focus our next class on the areas of greatest need.<\/p>\n So simple, yet so effective\u2026 I\u2019ll have to ask the kids why they thought the lesson worked so well!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If you\u2019re like me, you absolutely abhor \u201creview\u201d time. I\u2019m not saying review of key material isn\u2019t important, but trying to differentiate instructions to meet the needs of individual learners in large classes, while also differentiating across a fairly wide Continue reading Mid-Term Review with High Engagement<\/span>![\"M&Mgroup\"](\"http:\/\/aplusphysics.com\/flux\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/MMgroup.jpg\" "\\"M&Mgroup\\"")
<\/a>instructions were given. Students were to travel to each \u201cstation\u201d and complete five problems on the blank sheets of paper, showing all work as demonstrated in class, and checking their answers using the solution sheets as they went. Once five problems were successfully completed, they could come to the front of the room, grab an M&M reward, and move on to the next topic. <\/p>\n