Variety Vs. Boredom

During my interviews with students regarding best classroom climate management methods, I gained interesting insights on teaching methods. Students indicated they are desperate for instructional variety. Kids are bored with more bookwork. They want teachers to use methods that go beyond the vocabulary and reading comprehension quizzes outlined in their textbooks. Students indicated they were more likely to exhibit disruptive behavior when they were bored. Back in my sixth grade practicum classroom, I realized variety in instructional strategies is especially important during review sessions. Students are prone to tune the teacher out, thinking they have heard all the material before. My lesson entitled “North African Perspectives by Pen" took students into entirely new territory as I engaged them in writing their first RAFT 


This “North African Perspective by Pen” lesson provided ample opportunity to assess students’ progress as well as my own instructional effectiveness. Their RAFTs were to include at least three specific facts from chapter seventeen. Reading their creative writing gave me the opportunity to assess students’ ability to identify key facts and internalized them through the creative writing activity. Using the data from this formative assessment, I evaluated my own instructional practice. Were my methods clear and on target? From my reflection I deduced that in the future, I would require students to incorporate at least five specific facts from the chapter since many students demonstrated they are ready for a greater challenge. Furthermore, since several students missed the target, next time not only give an example of a “good RAFT”, I would compare and contrast it to a “bad RAFT” – one that does not make clear, creative connections to relevant chapter facts. 


By the way, I am grateful to report the students were extremely well behaved that day. Seems like variety works. :-)