dear concerned

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dear concerned
By Melissa S.

I teach 7th grade. We use class meetings. They are a wonderful tool for creating a unified class as well as teaching the kids problem solving skills and social skills. They also give the kids ownership of the class policies,
procedures and consequences. We do a lot of cooperative group work where each student has a certain role to do. There are many strategies to use with these kinds of groups. Ex: One student reads the question, each person in the group says one possible answer, one person writes the answers down and one reports when the teacher calls on that group.(just one example!!) This is a great way

to introduce new material, practice and review material. There is not as much need for practice worksheets when the teacher can quickly assess student understanding in class. An ideal lesson would include 1/3 teacher directed teaching, 1/3 cooperative group work and 1/3 independent work. We also keep portfolios for language arts, math and a comprehensive portfolio of all subjects. Hope this has been of some help!