Strategies
One of the simplest and most elegant teaching strategies that never fails for me is having students work in pairs. Though the necessary classroom chemistry and subtle pairings are often difficult to achieve, nothing is more effective in my Latin class than allowing students to work together to translate a passage. (I suspect the same is true for most subjects/classes.) Paraphrasing Seneca, there is no better way to learn than to teach; through my own experiences as a teacher and student and what I have observed in my classroom I can testify to the wonders this works for the high-achieving student. Even if such a student does not thoroughly understand certain material, being forced to explain it is often the self-motivating tool needed for him or her to think it through to the breakthrough point. The low-achieving student likewise benefits from a different perspective on the material and the relieved pressure of working with a teacher who is not the 'real' teacher. Though some educators bemoan the inevitable socializing, I do not mind a certain amount so long as the students generally stay on task, since I firmly believe in the social aspects of community schooling. This is why I allow pairs but not larger groups unless specifically necessary: a pair provides the perfect blend of focused teaching and learning time combined with a certain level of comfort.
I like to think of this as a suitable if imperfect example of the main idea of the Meno dialogue discussed in the Philosophy --> Theory section of this website. The low-achieving student in the pair acts plays the part of the slave character, a sort of blank canvas with which the higher-achieving student playing the part of Socrates can lead to recollect the material. I, humbly, play the part of the invisible god (if I may invent a character not found in Plato) who watches over the assortment of Socrates in the classroom to ensure their own knowledge is true and correct. Very simple, very effective.
The buttons below links to .pdf files that contain samples of student work. The assignment was to translate a very difficult set of practice sentences - notice how this particular pair worked together, erasing and correcting their own mistakes as they made various insights while working together, then were able to polish it one last time after I had circled their remaining mistakes.
David Jones's Professional Portfolio
dlmjones@gmail.com
