Ensuring Meaningful Classroom Activities

Ensuring Meaningful Classroom Activities

Most educators believe that a curriculum should be interesting and educational with an end goal of producing lifelong learners who are equipped with the skills and experiences to succeed in life. If we want students to learn and practice the skills to succeed in life, we have to find a way to do so while we meet curriculum standards.

The tips offered this month give you an opportunity to review your classroom activities, and provide the criteria to enhance and improve upon your practices with a technique called SCORE. The SCORE technique ensures that your classroom activities teach lifelong skills, meet curriculum requirements, are well-organized, provide meaningful results, and ensure an effective method for evaluation.

As you design new activities or revisit current ones, apply the SCORE technique. SCORE is a list of criteria that you can use to develop a highly-effective, brain-compatible lesson or activity. Elements of the SCORE technique are included below and are taught in their entirety in PLS’s graduate course Meaningful Activities to Generate Interesting Classrooms®.

To get started, jot down an activity or lesson that you use or want to use in your classroom. Review each of the SCORE components below and note which ones you already do and which ones are missing. Decide how and where you can incorporate any that are missing. After you plan activities on paper a few times, you may be able to SCORE them in your own head to ensure they are brain-compatible and thus effective for and meaningful to all learners.

S—Skills

• What are the skills of life that will help prepare students for life beyond school?
• What opportunities are there for students to use critical thinking skills?

C—Curriculum

• How does this activity meet curriculum requirements?
• What is the compelling why to validate the knowledge learned?

O-Organization

• What size groups (whole class, triads, pairs, core groups, etc.) should I use for this activity?
• How much time do I need to allow for the activity?
• What directions do I need to give?
• How will the whole class be involved?
• How will students be held accountable?

R-Results

• What did we learn, practice, or review (curriculum)?
• What thought patterns were developed?
• What product was produced?
• What creative aspects were involved?
• What social/interpersonal skills were practiced?
• What learning styles were involved?

E-Evaluation

• Will students take a test at the end (teacher-made, district, or state test)?
• Will there be a portfolio, exhibit, peer assessment, group assessment, or self-assessment at the conclusion?

An Example
The example below models the SCORE process, including ideas the teacher considers when determining how to improve or modify the activity next time.

Activity: Lingo

Brief Description: I want to use Lingo (a game similar to Bingo) again this year. Students have fun with it and it assesses their knowledge of the material. (It could be a good exam review too.) Students make up Lingo sheets using a list of 40 terms I provide, and filling in only the 24 squares (plus one free space) on the Lingo sheet with terms of their choosing from my list. I want to make sure they understand the material and can define the terms we have covered. I need a piece of paper for each student and Lingo chips (cut pieces of construction paper or coins).

Terms might include: Plot, theme, monologue, setting, personification, and so on. I can come up with descriptions off the top of my head related to the readings, so I don’t need to plan that out in advance. I can even make this game story or novel specific, with character names, dates, events, and so on.

[Now the teacher will SCORE his Lingo activity. Notice how he thinks of ways to modify or improve the activity as he answers the SCORE questions.]

S-Skills

• What are the skills of life that will help prepare students for life beyond school? The main ones seem to be setting goals, listening, reading, self-assessment, and evaluating.
• What opportunities are there for students to use critical thinking skills? Deciding which terms to put on their Lingo boards, coming up with correct answers in a pattern, and light competition to be the first to do so.

C-Curriculum

• How does this activity meet curriculum requirements? Knowledge of reading and discussion/recollection of terms learned is required.
• What is the compelling why to validate the knowledge learned? Students will have fun playing the game, They gain a sense of belonging because it is light competition. Students are free to choose the terms from a list to put on their Lingo boards.

O-Organization

• What size groups (whole class, triads, pairs, core groups, etc.) should I use for this activity? I’ve always had students do it individually but maybe I can ramp up the challenge for groups or pairs. I could also have groups create different Lingo boards for different units of study, where they would have to come up with the list of terms and answers.
• How much time do I need to allow for the activity? It usually takes about 10 minutes for students to prepare their Lingo boards, and about 3 to 5 minutes per game.
• What directions do I need to give? How to create the boards, why I am handing out lists of terms, reminder of how to play the game.
• How will the whole class be involved? Each student has his or her own board. If I were to have them work in groups, I need to assign roles to each person: timekeeper, terminology brainstormers, definitions people, and so on.
• How will students be held accountable? I should be able to see who is playing and who chooses not to. In the past, the game has been fun and everyone participates. If I have them do this in groups, I think that assigning roles will make each person accountable and responsible.

R-Results

• What did we learn, practice, or review (curriculum)? Review of a story, novel, terms learned, etc.
• What thought patterns were developed? Quick recall of terms and definitions.
• What product was produced? The completed Lingo board. More importantly, students have a list of 40+ terms they may need to know for any additional assessments.
• What creative aspects were involved? Students get to design their own boards.
• What social/interpersonal skills were practiced? Competition and fun.
• What learning styles were involved? Visual, tactual, auditory. If I use this in groups, there would be a kinesthetic piece if each group came to the front and led a game or two. Group members could take turns walking around to verify classmates’ boards for correctness.

E-Evaluation

• Will students take a test at the end (teacher-made, district, or state test)? I’ve always used Lingo as a fun game, but I think it could be modified into a teacher-made test. There are ways to make it a district/state test too, with some minor tweaking.
• Will there be a portfolio, exhibit, peer assessment, group assessment, or self-assessment at the conclusion? Students can self-assess based on how many terms they knew in their own heads and whether they were able to put their chips on the Lingo board or not.

Conclusion: By following the teacher through the SCORE technique, you can see how the activity has meaning (a compelling why), how the teacher could modify it by having small groups lead different games, and how he could improve the existing practice by creating a test based on the activity. Even if you choose not to SCORE your own classroom activities, you can ask yourself some of the questions asked above to ensure that you are teaching lifelong skills, meeting curriculum requirements, and providing meaningful experiences.

Source: The tips above are based on ideas offered in the PLS course Meaningful Activities to Generate Interesting Classrooms®. For more information or to register, call toll-free (866) PLS-CLAS (866-757-2527) or go to our information page for Meaningful Activities to Generate Interesting Classrooms®.

References:
National Research Council (2004). Engaging schools: Fostering high school students’ motivation to learn. (Committee on Increasing High School Students’ Engagement and Motivation to Learn, Board on Children, Youth, and Families, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education). Washington, DC: National Academies Press.

Prensky, M. (2005). “Engage me or enrage me”: What today’s learners demand. Educause Review, 40(5). Retrieved August 20, 2007, from
www.educause.edu/apps/er/erm05/erm0553.asp

Stronge, J. H. (2002). Qualities of effective teachers. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

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