The 50-50 Classroom Bryan Harms

The analogy that guides my teaching is mathematics as a musical instrument. Like an instrument it requires practice. Much like an instrument dexterity and speed are often accomplished through drill and repetition. But also like an instrument, practice is the means and playing is the end. Playing collaboratively, being able to apply skills creatively and improvisationally is the end goal of our practice in mathematics.

This year I am taking a new approach to teaching and integrating mathematics into my curriculum. I am moving away from a classroom what was formerly weighted towards practice to one that balances practice and play. To accomplish this transition I have adopted a model where on a given day, half the classroom is practicing and half the classroom is playing. I call it the 50/50 classroom because the two halves of the classroom are working on two distinctive types of activities.

What I Did

Figure 1- 50-50 classroom setup

Everyday my classroom is split into two groups, there is an inner partial rectangle that face a large white board and then a row of tables facing the opposite direction. See figure 1.

The group in the inner rectangle works on what I call holistic problems, they are the holistic group. They are the group that is playing. The types of problems discussed in this setting can vary but include one or more of the following characteristics: The problems are descaffolded; the problems do not walk students through each step of the solution, instead identifying the steps becomes part of the creative part of the process.

They problems are applied; they build on understanding from our current project and help serve the project in meaningful ways.

The skills that are necessary to solve the problems are not forecasted. I might have ideas of mathematical areas that I want to focus on but I do not list those topics in or near the problem. The idea is that students will be practicing choosing the appropriate skills to use to solve the problems.

The holistic group works together with the teacher acting as facilitator. My job is to draw students out, to key in on important understandings and to notice opportunities for learning. The holistic sessions are spent presenting problems and discussing them or working in small collaborative groups to solve problems.

The group on the outside faces away from this group. Rather than playing, this group is practicing. They work independently on procedural skills. The ability to have students work independently on procedural shift resulted is facilitates using Khan academy. Khan Academy is an online website that contains videos and practice modules that allow students to view a short topic and then practice that topic until they can master it. Each student creates an account and I can monitor their progress through the use of a teachers account. The software allows me to differentiate over a wide range of abilities and skill levels. In previous years I have had some success doing this without such aids but the management was arduous, complicated and too often felt inefficient and perhaps ineffective. Additionally, it left little time to play with the mathematics.

Each student switches between the classes on a daily basis - so if you are practicing today you are playing tomorrow. The groups change every month or so. Sometimes groupings are based on project groups and sometimes they are just mixed up randomly to give everyone a chance to work with everyone else.

What I Learned At the end of the first semester I gave students a survey and asked them about what they liked and what they would change about the 50/50 classroom. From their responses I got a better idea of what is and is not working about the structure.

Many students reported that they appreciated working in smaller groups because it allowed them to get more personalized help. This is a key feature of the holistic group, the smaller class size allows time and space for more students to have their voices heard and get clarity on things that they might be confused about.

Many students also appreciated the opportunity to work at their own speed in the practice groups. This is a key feature of the practice group - each students practice session is tailored specifically to their speed and current ability. Assessment in this group is based on how much time a student spends practicing; there is no pressure to learn at a someone elses rate of speed.

Some students appreciated the variety that the groups provided. They like having two types of different activities that changed from day to day. I had not thought that this

would be something that students appreciated about the approach. The need to do different things on different days was just a consequence of how I wanted to manage the groups.

Some students reported that for more difficult topics, they were not able to get they help they needed in the practice groups. One way to address this is to allow the practice group to form study groups and work outside the classroom. I tried study groups several times and this is something that students reported liking.

Several students reported that they still felt inhibited or shy when they had to share their answers with the holistic group. I recognize this is a hurdle for some students. My approach so far has been to try to make the holistic group a safe place for sharing. We focus on evidence of effort and not whether an answer is correct or not.

Some students do not like doing problems on the computer. This is not true of all students but enough of them that I am paying attention to it. Digging deeper into this complaint, I think some of the discontent is that the practice also requires mastery before moving on. Students seem to have a tendency to guess or rush through problems on the computer and this can significantly increase the time necessary for them to reach the bar of mastery.

Overall, on the plus side, I find the smaller student to teacher ratio very effective. The conversations that take place in the holistic class are some of the best I have ever had

during class. Students are becoming more comfortable with solving complex problems. My math class is more integrated into my projects. I have separated the practice of mathematics from the play. Practice is effectively tailored to the ability of my students.

The practice group still needs some work. I need to address students needs for more help on challenging topics. Additionally, I think it would be useful to incorporate some more external motivators to the practice sessions. The practice is used to make the play more enjoyable, but that connection is not always obvious and I think it is okay to use external motivators to help kids see their progress with the practice and help them feel proud of their work.

What Now As a result of the response I received from the end of the semester survey and my own reflection on how the new class setup worked during the first semester, I am going to address and improve upon one shortcoming from each group. In the practice group I am going to use study groups more frequently to address the need some students have for additional help with some of the practice skills. These study groups can be very effective. The challenge will be to keep those groups accountable for what they are working on in a class. These groups will be largely unsupervised and it will be important to find ways to make sure that these sessions stay productive.

On of the biggest struggles with the 50/50 classroom is keeping it relevant to the projects we are working on. It is often difficult to stick to a daily schedule because the pressure of finishing projects on time and preparing for exhibitions of takes priority. My goal for this semester is most or all of the math in the play group related to the current project. If I can keep it related and even necessary to finish the project then it will become a part of our project work rather than something that exists outside our projects.