Chapter Three- Establishing a Structure in the Classroom

Structure and organization help students to become self-directed learners. But this does not come naturally to most students. Teachers must explicitly teach the structure of the classroom. Try to envision this classroom that the authors give as an example:

"When you enter the classroom, you hear a steady hum of activity. At first you don't see the teacher; she is sitting and talking with one of several small groups of children working on a variety of math activities at tables arranged in different areas of the room. Each group has three to four children and they seem intent on the materials they are using together. Children are talking in lively voices about what they are doing, explaining their ideas, giving directions, asking questions, challenging one another, and laughing. You sit down near one group of four children using geoboards and rubber bands. "Tell me something about what you are doing," you say. One child immediately volunteers: "We are finding out how many ways we can make different shapes. Look, we've made triangles, squares, and diamonds," he says, pointing to each one. Another child adds, "and I've made a hexagon. I know because it has six angles and six sides." you then ask, "How did you know what to do?" A third child explains, " We had a meeting and talked about different shapes we knew. Then each group got different things to use. We got the geoboards, that group got popsicle sticks, over there they have tangrams. Look around and you'll see." Just before you leave, the teacher calls the children together in the meeting area so each group can report on what they have did and what they learned."

So, what would we see and hear in your classroom? To some, this classroom might seem noise and not have structure.... but what do you think? Are the kids on task? Do they have a predictable routine? Are they learning? SURE!!!