Q-TIPs

Quality Teaching in Practice

Today, I have decided to talk about some small practices that I do to provide differentiation. All of these tasks work with the City or any lesson in your class. Each day, I will add other items, comments are more than welcome.  Most of these I have borrowed from others or built-upon what I read or saw.

Tip 1: Group Work: Brainstorming

In a number of my classes whenever I engage in group work, it is the same students that brainstorm and put forth their ideas. So I saw this technique used in another class and adapted to mine. During the brainstorming phase, I give each student in the group and a number of paper clips (3-5) -- but you can use any item -- and in the center of each group I place a cup. Each student as they contribute an idea, places the paper clip in their group cup. When they're out of clips, you need to hold off any more ideas until others are finished. Only when all the paper clips are in the cup does the group start assessing their ideas. 

Try it