The Handbook for Poor Students, Rich Teaching. Eric Jensen
where they need help, or something that was important to them while growing up. Then provide them with it again the next day or week and have them tackle the next question.
These question activities help students build trust with others and give them a moment to exchange likes and dislikes. Additionally, pairing this activity helps with communication and conflict-resolution skills. Changing partners won’t solve the problem if a student doesn’t have the social skills to work with a partner. I provide further conflict-resolution strategies in Poor Students, Rich Teaching, Revised Edition (Jensen, 2019).
Student Mentors
Student mentors are also powerful. Every student can benefit from receiving guidance, encouragement, and leadership from someone who has more experience. Fourth graders can mentor second graders, eighth graders can mentor sixth graders, and eleventh graders can mentor ninth or tenth graders. Have students use the worksheet in figure 2.6 (page 24) to have them reflect on how a mentor guided, encouraged, and helped them.
For secondary students, set up a partnership with local colleges or universities for undergraduates to mentor (or tutor) juniors and seniors. For example, undergraduates can tutor students for forty-five minutes after school. High-poverty schools in Los Angeles used collegiate mentors for fourth and fifth graders with solid success (Coller & Kuo, 2014), noting that mentoring programs appear to be useful in promoting social relationships (with parents, mentors, or peers) and reducing conflict. Other mentoring programs have shown significant positive changes in youths’ relationships with parents and teachers and were significantly associated with better youth outcomes, including self-esteem, academic attitudes, prosocial behaviors, and less misconduct (Chan et al., 2013).
Directions: Fill out each other’s name over a column, and then take turns having your partner tell you his or her answer to each question. Write down your partner’s answer in the column under his or her name.
Figure 2.5: Relationship-building tool.
Visit go.SolutionTree.com/instruction for a free reproducible version of this figure.
Figure 2.6: Mentoring reflection sheet.
Visit go.SolutionTree.com/instruction for a free reproducible version of this figure.
Temporary Partners
Even well-managed teams and partners can get stale, so to freshen up the learning and social experience, teachers can use temporary partners. One way to effect this is to engage elementary or secondary students in a simple walk-and-talk activity.
Oh! I’ve got a great idea that should only take a minute. Please stand up. Great! Now, when the music begins, and I say, “Go,” please touch three walls and four chairs that are not your own. Once you get to the spot, wait for further directions. Ready, set, go!
Now that you’re in a new spot, look around, point to the person nearest you, and say, “You’re it!” If you still need a partner, raise your hand. That new person will be your temporary neighbor for the next sixty seconds. Now that you have a partner, here’s your challenge. Earlier we were discussing __________, and it’s time to finish that.
You can then introduce the activity, such as students acting out a pro-and-con role, summarizing key points of the lesson, creating deeper and more interesting questions, or sharing what they know and need to learn. Once students finish the activity, they raise their hands. When all students have finished, ask them to thank their partners, using their first names, and head back to their seats. To further engage students, you can use music as a cue to end the activity and move forward. Use figure 2.7 to brainstorm and plan your temporary-partnership activities.
Figure 2.7: Activity planning for temporary partners.
Visit go.SolutionTree.com/instruction for a free reproducible version of this figure.
Quick Consolidation: Connect Everyone for Success
As we’ve seen, many forms of interdependency can work to allow students to connect everyone for success. I have found interdependency to be one of the best tools for classroom success. Whatever strategies you adopt, no one method is perfect, because ultimately, students will crave a bit of novelty when they get tired of a social structure. The idea is to develop multiple sources that allow students to work with others in which the stakes are high for the common goals. Answer the following reflection questions as you consider your next steps on the journey to making learning more collaborative in your classroom.
1. What did you learn about the importance of collaborative-learning activities that you didn’t know when you started this chapter? How is your outlook on group work changing?
2. Given the importance of splitting classroom time (over the course of a week) between individual and collaborative study time, what changes do you need to make to get closer to an even split between the two?
3. How will you approach using collaborative time with your class that ensures it creates effective (and not wasted) time?
4. If conflict arises between group members, study buddies, or temporary partners, what strategies will you use to achieve a productive outcome that allows the group or partnership to function better in the future?
5. What is your plan for observing the benefits of student collaboration? What will you look for to know these collaborative activities are benefitting students?
The Handbook for Poor Students, Rich Teaching © 2019 Solution Tree Press • SolutionTree.com
Visit go.SolutionTree.com/instruction to download this free reproducible.
CHAPTER 3
SHOW EMPATHY
Many teachers struggle with providing students with what they need the most—someone who cares about their personal life as much as their school progress. As we know, bad things happen to everyone. However, students from poverty may not have the cognitive skills, emotional support, or coping skills necessary to deal with adversity. Use the survey in figure 3.1 to think about what you understand empathy to be and its importance to your teaching practices.
Figure 3.1: Consider how you value empathy.
Visit go.SolutionTree.com/instruction for a free reproducible version of this figure.
In figure 3.1, the reason I asked you to define empathy and what it means to you is that I’ve found that people define empathy differently. So, it’s important to understand what we mean here when we talk about empathy, because empathy and sympathy are not the same thing. Sympathy is the ability to understand another with feelings of sorrow for their misfortune. Empathy is a bit different; it is the ability to understand and share the same feelings. The key to this aspect of the relational mindset isn’t to be sympathetic but to show empathy and provide tools. The good news is, empathy is something you can learn (Schumann, Zaki, & Dweck, 2014). Knowing this, does it change how you answered any of the questions in figure 3.1?
This chapter offers strategies to help you understand the need for empathy, tools for offering students empathic responses, and three