During the second weekend in February, I got the chance to see how effective lesson planning can drastically impact and improve classroom management issues. For some background, I have a 9th grade Standard Biology class which includes several students who consistently disrupt and derail the class during instruction. On top of that, a large percentage of the class regularly has trouble engaging with the content and as a result, performance is often low on assessments. My mentor teacher and I had been trying a variety of strategies to keep students on task and focused on the work that they were given.
During this particular week, there was a day which was shortened due to inclement weather. Because the lesson that we had planned would not work with a shortened class period, the students were given a back-up activity where they were allowed to use computers to complete an online scavenger hunt about African American scientists for Black History Month. Once the activity began, the students were noticeably quieter, and even the students who typically provided the most disruptions were on task.
It was clear that something about this activity hit the sweet spot for these kids by getting the interested in the work we were asking them to do. It wasn't initially clear if it was the content of the activity or the mode through which the activity was completed, but something was working. Most likely, it was both.
In the following weeks, we continued to try different activities using computers which had varying degrees of success, but nearly every time students were given the opportunity to complete an assignment on the computer, they were more engaged than if we gave them a paper worksheet. This has helped me as I continue to plan lessons for this class.
As a final thought, I've noticed that it can be tempting with a class that is difficult to not want to give them much freedom in the fear that they will be even more disruptive. However, for this class, it seems that when we allow them to take charge of their own learning, especially when computers are involved, they are more successful than when we plan lessons with less freedom.
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