Movement in the Classroom

If an outsider were to walk into my classroom it is quite possible they would think it was chaos. And they might be correct to a certain extent. The catch is that generally it is organized chaos. In my mind a noisy classroom is a productive classroom. Of course this means structured noise and chaos. It does not mean a free for all for the students. The easiest way to create structured movement is to use cooperative learning. There are thousands of cooperative learning structures out there that help you to manage learning in a way that allows for movement and noise. My favorite structure that I use almost every day in my class is called Stand Up, Hand Up, Pair Up. This is Kagan Cooperative Learning structure. If you ever have a chance to attend a Kagan Cooperative Learning workshop I would strongly encourage you. It provides you with valuable structures that you can take back to your classroom and apply right away with very little preparation. The most common way that I implement stand up,hand up, pair up is simple. I lecture or give information for about 10 minutes. Then I have the students stand up, I make them walk at least 5 steps away from their table and find a partner. They give their partner a high five, and then I ask a question and one partner answers. I ask another question and the opposite partner answers. Then they thank each other and find a new partner. I do use this method in lots of different ways. Pretty much any time I am having the students find a partner I make them high five. When they put their hand up it shows that they need a partner. And then I can tell what students are working and what students are not. I do this after a few minutes of a video, I use this for review for a test, I use it with flashcards. Sometimes I make the students come up with their own questions. It is a valuable tool to get the students moving around and talking about what they learned. The more they repeat something the better chance it will stick with them.

Another big way I use movement is by having the students write on big post it sticky notes. I love the big post its! They are a little bit expensive but worth it! Here's an example of what I did to review in biology. I divided the class into six groups. This was the number of main topics I wanted to review. I had each group get a big post it and one specific colored marker. Each group had a different color. I had them label an assigned topic. In this case we were reviewing ecology so my topics were; Levels or ecology organization, Food chains and webs, community interactions, climate, Ecological succession, and Nutrient Cycles. The students were allowed to use their notes and the textbook. They lined up in front of their post it. I timed them for two minutes and they did a relay. One student would write or draw something, pass the marker, and go to the end of the line. After two minutes the group rotated to another post it. We did this until they had gone through all the topics. When we were done it was really incredible to see all of the information that they recorded. I think they were impressed with themselves. And it looks cool on the wall.

Those are just a few ways I use movement. If your students sit a lot, get them up, I guarantee you will start to see improvement in recall and also a change in attitude. The more activities the faster class seems to go and the less complaints of boredom I get! Embrace the chaos!