Evansdale Eagles
April 16-20
Please note...
GAM DATES
- 04/16 - MAKE-UP DAY
- 04/17 - Mathematics Sections 1 & 2
- 04/18 - Mathematics Sections 1 & 2
- 04/19 - Science Sections 1 & 2 (Grades 5 & 8)
- 04/20 - Social Studies Sections 1 & 2 (Grades 5 & 8)
- 04/23 - MAKE-UP DAY
- The last day for field trips is Thursday, May 24th. However, any field trips requested after April 15th using DCSD transportation must be paid in advance! Please contact Loann Conyers-Protho at 678-676-1500 with any questions or concerns.
- Mr. Clayton and I will be finishing up TKES observations in the next couple of weeks. End of the year conferences will begin 5/3 for all staff members. Please sign up in the teacher's lounge. We will not make any announcements about staffing for next year until conferences are complete.
Thank you...
April 16-20
Monday, 4/16
- GAM makeup day
- GAM
- GAM
Thursday, 4/19
- GAM
Friday, 4/20
- GAM
The Scourge of Low-Quality Worksheets and How We Can Do Better
In this Cult of Pedagogy article, Jennifer Gonzalez shares a video of an 18-year-old high-school sophomore going off on his teacher about the “packets” she has students doing. “Yes, this student was disrupting class and his behavior was disrespectful,” says Gonzalez. But she hears what he’s saying about packets of worksheets being one of the lowest forms of pedagogy. “I’ve seen classrooms where teachers deliver instruction overwhelmingly through worksheets, or packets of worksheets,” she says. “I have seen my own kids’ schoolwork come home, and I have asked friends, other parents with school-age kids, and colleagues who consult in lots of schools, and nearly all of them tell me that a lot of our students’ instructional time is being spent hunched over some kind of worksheet. That’s a problem.” Her observations:
• Not all worksheets are bad. There’s a continuum from what Gonzalez calls powersheets to busysheets. At the powersheet end of the spectrum are graphic organizers that serve as a tool for research, pre-writing, and note-taking. There are also original source documents for close study and annotation; data sheets for a lab; planning sheets for group projects; aids to data analysis and reflection; and helpful formative assessments. At the busysheet end are low-level filling in blanks, multiple-choice questions, labeling, word searches, word scrambles, and doing coloring where coloring doesn’t add to students’ understanding. Packets are a bunch of worksheets stapled together. “They could contain a lot of powersheets,” she says, “but when a student refers to them as frickin’ packets, it’s highly likely that they are mostly made up of busysheets.”
• Busysheets can be disguised in other formats. For example, they might be computer programs or apps that have students doing the same thing as busysheets.
• Busysheet teaching is not real teaching. That’s because a worksheet in which students answer several low-level multiple-choice or fill-in-the-blank questions on a short reading passage on Maya Angelou is disconnected from anything meaningful, isolating skills and knowledge from a broader context and higher-level thinking. Reading comprehension exercises like these don’t make students better readers and are no substitute for getting them reading a real book in search of evidence that supports a particular idea. The same is true of busysheets that ask students to label or identify various grammatical constructions; we’ve known for a long time that teaching grammar outside of a meaningful context doesn’t make students better writers, or even improve their test scores. The worst of all, she says, are word searches, word scrambles, and crossword puzzles, which might as well be a list of definitions with blanks next
to them. These are pure busywork, says Gonzalez, and have no instructional value. In addition, busysheets get students sitting still for too long and not interacting with each other or their teacher.
• Busysheets use a lot of paper and give teachers more stuff to correct. This is truly a double whammy! In addition, counting worksheet grades tells students that making mistakes and learning from classwork (assuming it’s meaningful) is not part of the learning process.
Why do teachers use busysheets? From her travels in schools, Gonzalez has a long list: We don’t have textbooks. Kids need skills practice. We have to differentiate. We’re required to do the same work across our grade. We need substitute packets. Crowd control. Some kids like worksheets. We need bell-ringers and morning work. Students need fine-motor practice.
What to do instead of packets? Gonzalez suggests doing a worksheet audit, asking hard questions about where material falls on the powersheet-to-busysheet spectrum: is it contributing to student learning or just something to keep them busy? If the latter, then consider these higher-level classroom activities:
- Class discussions: think-pair-shares, gallery walks, philosophical chairs;
- Interactive experiences: simulations, role-plays, labs, escape rooms;
- Thought-provoking lessons: concept attainment, inductive learning;
- Group learning: jigsaw, reciprocal learning, games, icebreakers, maker challenges;
- Reading and writing: self-selected reading, research projects, journal writing, short writing challenges, long-term writing;
- Long-term projects: genius hour, project-based learning, service learning;
- Personalized learning: hyperdocs, stations or centers, listening to podcasts, blended learning.
“Frickin’ Packets” by Jennifer Gonzalez in Cult of Pedagogy, March 26, 2018, https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/busysheets/