When you’re teaching more than one learner, independent work is necessary. In order to work one-on-one with a child or with small groups of learners, the other learners need to be doing something.
If independent work is not executed in a purposeful manner, it can become a necessary “evil”, serving to frustrate your learner(s) and you!
Do you ever find yourself saying to those little blessings, “You can do this by yourself…you don’t need my help!” {multiple times, I might add}? I hope I’m not the only one in this boat!
Here are a few suggestions in regards to independent work-and these apply not only to reading, but to any content area.
1. Independent Work should be used to review something you have already introduced to your learner(s).
Independent Work is not a time to introduce new material and then walk away. Learners should already possess the skills and strategies to tackle the assignment on their own; thus the word independent. Just be sure you’ve spent some time with guided practice before expecting independence.
Some ideas include:
- Independent work time is a great time to use activity pages and workbooks to review skills and strategies you’ve already learned together.
- Already done an activity together? Use independent time for learners to review that same activity (maybe in a different way). Meaningful repetition is an important component of learning.
- When learners are expected to independently read and comprehend a text, they need to be able to read 98% or more of the words on their own.
2. Create activities that are “self-checking.”
Self-checking means that the activity has a built-in checking system that will alert learners when they have made a mistake.
For example, you can write the answer on the back of each card so learners can flip over and check their answer. {Picture above: Free Phoneme Counting Cards.}
Or you can print cards front to back so the word is on the back. Learners can check that against what they’ve spelled or sorted. {Pictured above: Word Family Cards from Reading the Alphabet}
3. Establish a routine for getting help.
When I taught in the classroom, I had a little stuffed dog I would set out on the table if I was working one-on-one or with a small group. His presence meant do not disturb Mrs. Spence unless it’s an emergency!
When learners can’t get help from you, establish a back-up plan for getting help. There’s no need to have the plan figured out yourself. Before independent work, pose this question to your learner(s), “If I can’t help you, what are some other resources you can use?” Brainstorm some together, then decide on two or three so learners are armed with help strategies.
I like Carisa’s help card system concerning independent work. This is also an awesome post about workboxes. Scroll down through the post towards the bottom to see the “help” system.
4. Create a reward for accomplished work.
Our may learners still exclaim, “I just can’t do it!” Again, be sure you’ve provided enough guided practice so learners CAN apply the things they’ve learned to the learning activity.
Even with everything done “right,” certain activities, such as writing, may be a trigger for frustration or melt-downs. Plan ahead! Have something special waiting for them on the other side. {Keep these special things simple.}
Do you have any suggestions to share concerning independent work? I’d love to hear them!
Enjoy!
~Becky
[…] Mama: “You told me earlier that when a word has more syllables, it sounds like a longer word. And you were right! But, what do you notice about how long the word looks when it has more syllables?” On the back of each card, I had written the word and the number of syllables; a great way to make this activity self-checking (see yesterday’s post). […]