So I had an AHA moment in my English 12 class yesterday. I had two students who would not stop talking in their groups while we were collaborating on a TChart on the whiteboard. I'd finally had enough of talking over them and telling them to be quiet so I handed one of the students a dry erase marker and told him to take over. As I sat down at my desk I was skeptical because of his cocky attitude. After a few minutes I noticed something. The students were more likely to throw out answers while he was writing on the board and facilitating vs. when I was up there doing it.
I'm not going to lie, I did it just to call the student out and possibly watch him struggle with it a little. It was meant to be an AHA moment for him, but it wasn't until later last night that I realized it was actually an big realization moment for me.
I realized that I need to start giving kids more control and teaching them how to lead/use these protocols for themselves. This is the third expectations protocol that we've done and rather than "training" them to take charge I've been facilitating. I realized that I need to start working on stepping out of the equation more so that they can start to lead and coach each other.
Having them writing things on the board rather than writing it myself may seem simple or like I'm being lazy, but I think it really engages not only the new facilitator but the other students as well. I'm going to try to step back into a role where I'm coaching on the sidelines.
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