Co-teaching Stations - Walnut

New Co-teaching Partnership - Jesse Yentes and Nichole Hollister - at Walnut Middle School demonstrated an excellent example of station teaching recently.  The topic was text structures.  Nichole played Jeopardy at her station, asking questions and probing for further clarification from students.  Jesse monitored engagement at other stations where students were to read a passage, discuss and decide the type of structure - and then apply an appropriate organizer.

Watch the video clip:

American History Flip-Flopped!

Mr. Fyfe and Mrs. Luther at GI Senior High participate in the Flip-Flop co-teaching structure several times per week.  You can see a video example below.  The class was split heterogeneously.

I asked several students about learning in this type of environment....responses I got included:

"It's easier to understand."

"It's nice because they teach on 2 different topics and we get 2 different perspectives."

"The class seems to go faster."

Project Checklist

While observing in an 11th grade Language Arts class yesterday, I observed a chart posted on the wall where students recorded their progress toward completing a major task (Marzano Element 2) - a Speaking Assessment .  The teacher had identified the critical information (Marzano Element 6) that would be necessary to complete a project and placed that information into chunks on a timeline  so that it was less overwhelming with regards to completing the entire project.

Laura McQuinn had come up with this idea and shared it with the teacher I was observed.  In Laura's class, students designated completion of each chunk on time with a sticker.  They designated completion of each chunk that was late but done with an "X".  And finally, if a chunk was not completed, the box was left blank.  The chunks were identified with an abbreviation such as "RD" for "Rough Draft."

If you are interested in viewing more about expected teacher evidence and student evidence with regards to the Marzano Elements mentioned above, click on their links and you will find this information, as well as a rubric for that element.  

See Laura's Project Checklist below:

The Great Gatsby - Flip-Flopped!

I had the pleasure of observing Kirby Wells (special education) and Paula Poppe (language arts) using a "Flip-Flop" co-teaching model yesterday.  Kirby worked with half of the class in the back of the room, reading and discussing the novel, The Great Gatsby.  Paula worked with the other half of the class in the front of the room, helping them with an organizer of key events and details of the story, as well as providing an AWESOME visual of the setting of the story in order for the students to better "see" what was happening!

Paula's Visual:

This first video shows the students participating in their respective small groups.

This second video shows the students "flip-flopping" and getting into their new respective small groups for instruction.  I was impressed with the lack of instructional time it took to have students gets up and move.  You will also notice the the two small groups were left together in the same classroom (no one was pulled out) and students were on-task and involved.

6th Grade Egg Fractions!

Walnut 6th Grade Math Co-teacher, Holly Love and Mikayla Kostbahn recently used plastic eggs and egg carton to demonstrate simplification of fractions.  The students then had their own "eggs" and "carton" to draw and demonstrate fractions, as well as to visualize the simplification.  After using Duet Teaching to provide the instruction, the teachers split the room in half and monitored/provided instruction to table groups on whichever side of the room they had identified as their own.

Great visuals for students to "see" the math!!!

6th Grade Language Arts Flip-Flop (Organizational Patterns)

Walnut 6th Grade Co-teachers Ms. Farlee and Ms. Mlinar were teaching Organizational Patterns for Nonfiction this week.  Ms. Farlee taught Sequential to half of the students while Ms. Mlinar taught Compare/Contract to the other half.  Then the students "flip-flopped" and the group that began with Ms. Farlee moved to work with Ms. Mlinar....and the students that began with Ms. Mlinar moved to work with Ms. Farlee.

This was a nice example of engaged students participating in conversation and small group instruction.  Additionally, this type of structure can be done by splitting students heterogeneously or homogeneously.  Ms. Farlee and Ms. Mlinar chose to split students by ability and the content was presented differently based on the students and their needs.

For the lower group, some of the strategies that Ms. Mlinar used included use of a lower lexile passage, as well as color coding text information to help students compare and contrast.  Ms. Farlee used repetition of information, checks for understanding, and using questions to facilitate students' understanding of the content.

Cooperative Learning Activity

Ms. Gilmore and Mrs. Correll (8th grade Math Co-teachers) had students participate in a tactile activator related to proportions and it was done in partnerships.  The students were very engaged in the task.  Also, it was a good use of both teachers as they split the room and each observed half of the students.  Additonally, after one teacher provided instructions, the other teacher followed up with reinforcement which was a good use of both teachers.  Enjoy.