Students need to help in managing the classroom structure. Read how this writer facilitated a lesson using a simple graph generator.
An activity I remember having a great deal of success with in a one-computer classroom was one in which students smoothly and successfully turn keyed. This was a middle school, special education math class, with its share of behavior problems. We were learning about bar graphs, and the students were to create one by hand and then go to the computer to input the information and see if the graph they generated matched the one they drew themselves. The website we used, by the way, was Create a Graph. There was also a follow-up worksheet to complete.
I took the most computer-savvy of my students to the computer first and explained how to complete the graph step by step. By then, the other students were complaining that they wanted to use the computer too, and they were reassured that they would each get a turn, but they had to complete the graph by hand as well, and the worksheet. By the time a student was finished with the hand-made graph, the student at the computer was printing out his graph. We had the student that had just completed his graph join us at the computer, while the student who had just finished the computer graph explained the process to the other one, walking him through it. The process took 5 to ten minutes, and from that point on to the end of the activity, my role in the classroom was that of facilitator—I was able to walk around, help with random difficulties, and the students caught on quickly that they were taking turns working at the computer, then explaining to the next student how to complete the graph, then returning to their seats to complete the worksheet. If they made mistakes, it was okay, because they could preview the graph to see if it matched the others, and then backtrack if necessary. They also enjoyed picking out the colors of the graph and the font for the words and numbers. All of the graphs were hung up side by side with the hand-made ones.
Why did this activity work? I feel it is because 1) there were varied activities 2) students enjoy, just like anyone else, showing their knowledge 3) there were hands-on activities 4) everyone had a finished product, even students who were not good artists 5) students had a hand in providing the structure, not just being part of the structure.
