Table Tournaments

I just have to say - I LOVE THIS ARTICLE!!!!!!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/10/24/teacher-spends-two-days-as-a-student-and-is-shocked-at-what-she-learned/

  I discussed the article with my 15 year old son (10^th grade) and he said he TOTALLY agrees with what this teacher did!!!  “Just walk around most classrooms and see how boring it is, mom,” he said.  I hate to think my classes are boring!!!!  I will stand on MY HEAD to keep them from being boring!!!  However, I decided to come up with a plan to go along with this quote from the article: 

If I could go back and change my classes now, I would immediately:

•Offer brief, blitzkrieg-like mini-lessons with engaging, assessment-for-learning-type activities following directly on their heels (e.g. a ten-minute lecture on Whitman’s life and poetry, followed by small-group work in which teams scour new poems of his for the very themes and notions expressed in the lecture, and then share out or perform some of them to the whole group while everyone takes notes on the findings.)

This is what I decided to do.  FYI -  I already use (AND LOVE) an interactive notebook.  My students know after just a few weeks just how valuable it is!!!!!  So I decided to begin the “blitzkrieg-like mini-lessons” in their INB and then have what I’m calling……

Table Tournaments

My students sit at tables with between two and four students per table.  They have assigned seats which were chosen based on test scores from last year’s formative assessment.  I have four classes per day in which I teach the same lessons.  Here’s the Table Tournament procedure:

1.  Teach the “blitzkrieg-like mini-lessons” and allow students to place the foldable in their INB. 

2.  Read aloud the text for the day.  It can be anything - nonfiction, informational science or social studies text, short story, poem, table/graph - anything - but it needs to contain a reference in some way to the mini-lesson for that day.

3.  Have your first class staple 3 pieces of notebook paper together and label each page Question 1, Question 2, Question 3..........Question 6.

4.  Have your first class divide each paper into four segments (or however many classes you have.)

5.  Display a question on the promethean board and give each table a certain amount of minutes to discuss and agree on the correct answer to the question.  They may use each other’s brains and their INB to determine the correct answer - but not me.  I’ve done my part (of course, I answer questions within reason.) Write the answer in their class period’s segment of the paper.

6.  When your next class comes in, require them to answer the same question on the same sheet of paper - only you force them to read the previous class’s answer before they can write their own.  They may totally think they are wrong,  or they may now have guidance on how they will answer their own. 

7.  Continue to the end of the day until all four segments are filled.

SUPPLIES NEEDED:  A copy of the text for each student.  Notebook paper.  INB. 

NEXT DAY: 

1.  Reread the text to students and then have them read it aloud to each other.  Have them review ALL answers to the questions from the day before.  They are responsible to make sure the entire table understands the different answers and cite proof for the correct one (in their opinion)

2.  I rotate the room during the discussion  and stop at each table requiring them to share one answer they KNOW is correct and how they know it.

3.  Following this discussion, give a short multiple choice quiz with only 5-10 questions - make it easy on you!!!

Average ALL SCORES TOGETHER for that table for the entire day and post a weekly spreadsheet declaring the table winner for that text.  At the end of the nine weeks - you have a TABLE TOURNAMENT WINNER!!!!!

Here’s what I consider the benefits -

1.  ALL students have buy-in because they want to score high so their table will win.

2.  Students will actually meet OUTSIDE of the classroom in the hallway or lunch room and MAKE SURE OTHERS THAT SIT AT THAT TABLE DURING THE DAY UNDERSTAND WHAT THE COMMA RULES ARE AND WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES IN TEXT STRUCTURE ARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You can do this once a week or daily - your choice.  All my questions have reference material in their INB for THEM to research and find the answer.  IT IS A SOURCE OF CONSTANT REVIEW.   If you taught commas during week one - then ask a question - "Why is the comma in line three?" and have them CITE THEIR PROOF FROM THEIR INB!!!!!

Essential question for the day - taught and learned.  Done!!!