Organize Students to Interact with New Content (Marzano DQ7)

Organizing students to do various tasks is so second-nature to most educators that it might be surprising that organizing students to interact with content is actually a Marzano element.  But, like just about anything Marzano related, it's all about being intentional.  Why are you putting those students in that group?  What is the end goal? 

Below are some things you (or an administrator during an evaluation) could look for to see if you are implementing this element in your classroom.

Students Could Be...

• explaining how what they are doing is helping them learn.
  
• getting into or out of groups for a purpose.
• interacting with their group mates in a responsible way.
• asking and answering questions about the content.
• handling controversy and conflict in productive ways.

Teachers Could Be...

• putting students in specific groups to practice a skill or strategy.
• giving guidance on how to effectively interact within a group.

My classroom almost always operates in table groups of 4.  To help things move more quickly and to better manage my class, each student has a number between 1 - 4 at their table and is either an "A" or "B" partner.  It's easier for me to say, "Person 4 get books for your table while person 2 gets paper," or "Person 3 facilitate a quick discussion about..." than to list off each individual's task or responsibility every time there is a group related task.  They also work help facilitate the many variety of round robin group activities I use in class on an almost daily basis.

To keep it all straight, I use the FREE Table Mats found at the link below.  Click the link to take a look, and don't forget to check out the rest of my store for other great Marzano aligned Social Studies resources!

• FREE Cooperative Learning Table Mats and Activities
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