For years, I’ve tried to assist teachers with setting up Independent Work Time in their classrooms. Independent Work Time goes by many names—workshop, universal access time, centers, small-group time. IWT is simply a time of day when teachers allow students to work independently while the teacher has a chance to meet with small groups to preteach, reteach, challenge advanced learners, and otherwise differentiate instruction.
I’ve always operated under the assumption that teachers want to set up some time during their day when they are able to meet with small groups to differentiate instruction. However, lately it’s come to my attention that there are teachers who simply do not believe that working with small groups would improve their teaching.
In truth, I know several excellent teachers who never meet with small groups. These teachers, however, find ways to differentiate instruction by providing different entry points into lessons for students with different needs and by doing hit-and-run style conferences with students on the go. While they might not be providing Tier 2 interventions, their styles do create challenging environments for all learners and allow almost all students to be successful. But I still think they’re missing something.
As someone currently working as a full-time reading intervention teacher, I certainly believe in the importance of providing students with needed interventions in the classroom before they’re pulled out to work in a program like mine. However, these students are a minority in most classrooms. The other travesty of not providing any independent work time is what happens for the majority of students who need a time to apply what they’ve been learning through independent exploration, writing, researching, and working with peers.
I was struck by an article, Where Will the Next Steve Jobs Come From? which argues that typical teacher-centered classrooms will not produce the kind of creative thinking that true visionaries need. While the few super geniuses will probably succeed in spite of what their teachers do, what about the many students who have a spark inside of them they never find even while they’re learning to sit up, face forward, and listen to what their teacher says?
I don’t suggest that simply by providing Independent Work Time we will create a new Steve Jobs. However, we teachers have five and a half hours to lead teacher directed lessons, can’t we just give students thirty minutes to explore on their own and cement their own learning?
Thanks Mathew. As an “older” teacher who remembers the days before differentiated instruction I cannot reiterate enough the importance of allowing students independent time to think and apply both academic and social stratregies. May I also add one thought that is NOT administrator sanctioned but has allowed me to keep my sanity. Once a week I do an independent learning time with just me, myself and I. During this time I can observe without interruption how my kids are working independently. It also allows me a few minutes of planning time.
You are right Mathew. There is power in group lessons as students are able to express their points of view openly and with that their learning becomes more practical that they won’t forget. I think we have so many geniuses only that they are lacking support for their ideas and/or inventions or they fear disapproval. We need independent learning for us to discover the junior Steve Jobs.