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Upper Elementary Teachers Chatboard

Worksheets - yes or no - curious

by Amanda

Apr 7, 2009

We have been talking about this situation across our grade levels at our school. It is becoming a huge issue.

We introduce the lesson, discuss it, work sample problems, analyze the ideas, organize our thoughts on graphic organizers, write about the situations/problems, use projects to investigate more deeply, construct models for greater understanding, develop games based on the concepts, and then the district's calendar tells us to move on to the next topic.

A month later, we go back to touch on the idea we drilled into earlier and many of the kids are like blank slates. They don't recall what a "theme" is, how to multiply fractions, or how to organize cause and effect essays. Basically, they recall practically nothing about whatever we covered.

We veered away from using workbooks, worksheets, and similar tools for rote practice. From what we are seeing, that was a bad idea. The kids seem to NEED repeated rote practice in order to retain a memory of what we ...See More

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Catahoula We use both ways. Means a LOT more work but it's needed. I put it as 'needing to write it down so we remember it'. Personally, I find that children need repetition. Goes back to Gardner's ideas of intelligence. Because I see it works with the learners, I go by "see it, hear, it experience it, write it, review it (often)." Our curriculum is designed...See More

Apr 7, 2009

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Leah I agree with Catahoula's excellent post.

Apr 7, 2009

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My 2 Cents I've worked only at low performing schools as my own children attend high performing schools.

Higher performing schools appear to have the worksheets in place nicely. They have students who understand the concept with a great deal of parent support and success. Worksheets worked well in this environment.

In my teaching environment...See MoreI've worked only at low performing schools as my own children attend high performing schools.

Higher performing schools appear to have the worksheets in place nicely. They have students who understand the concept with a great deal of parent support and success. Worksheets worked well in this environment.

In my teaching environment, we are the professionals who decide which students are capable of completing the worksheet which are few. Those students who cannot complete the worksheet after the initial lesson are not ready for independent practice with the concept. Therefore, they receive more manipulatives time(concrete objects), then pictoral time(drawing), and eventually abstract concept time (numbers, operations) in small groups. Each student falls somewhere along this path. My goal is to get them to understand the concept enough to work independently on worksheets which is what the state testing scenario will be. This involves small group time for reteaching. This is an extremely difficult balance to maintain. It's hard juggling it all.

On 4/07/09, Amanda wrote: > We have been talking about this situation across our grade > levels at our school. It is becoming a huge issue. > > We introduce the lesson, discuss it, work sample problems, > analyze the ideas, organize our thoughts on graphic > organizers, write about the situations/problems, use > projects to investigate more deeply, construct models for > greater understanding, develop games based on the concepts, > and then the district's calendar tells us to move on to the > next topic. > > A month later, we go back to touch on the idea we drilled > into earlier and many of the kids are like blank slates. > They don't recall what a "theme" is, how to multiply > fractions, or how to organize cause and effect essays. > Basically, they recall practically nothing about whatever we > covered. > > We veered away from using workbooks, worksheets, and similar > tools for rote practice. From what we are seeing, that was > a bad idea. The kids seem to NEED repeated rote practice in > order to retain a memory of what we did. Ten of us are > considering breaking away from the "richer/deeper" methods > and trying some drill and kill mixed in to see if this > improves retention. > > We're curious about your experiences with this situation.

Apr 10, 2009

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