5 Simple & Strategic Ways to Determine if You are Using Worksh*ts or Worksheets In Your Classroom

All right.

So the very first thing that I want us to think about to determine a worksheet versus a worksheet is the quantity at which we are using them.

And I want to look at quantity in actually two different ways, like how often you hand out worksheets and also the quantity of problems or questions on the worksheets.

One thing that I definitely believe in is that it doesn't take.

27 problems in math for a student to prove proficiency.

OK, if you are learning double digit multiplication, there is no reason why our students need 20 attempts at that.

Right.

I think that we can chunk things differently and we can chunk things better.

If we give a student five double digit multiplication problems and they get all five of them correct, I think that they have proven that they are proficient at that.

So there would be no reason for a student to do 15 more.

With that said, if you give a student five double digit multiplication problems and they miss four out of the five, they definitely need more practice.

But before more practice happens, they likely need a reteaching because they have not understood the concepts.

And that doesn't make you a bad teacher, right? If a student is struggling with a concept, it doesn't make you a bad teacher.

It makes you a good teacher because you are pausing for people and saying, oh, let me check out what's happening.

So I think when it comes to quantity of things, we just have to chunk things differently and then determine, OK, how many more problems does the student need? And I'm obviously using a math example for this situation right here, but this applies to all subject areas, right? Like, do our students actually need 35 different vocabulary words over cells or over weather, okay? Now, right now I am using things like cells, which is like a middle school or a high school biology thing, but this concept applies to elementary classrooms as well our elementary students don't need 25 single digit addition problems they I think need five and then we chunk and we assess and we move forward I also want to talk about quantity not just with the number of problems or the number of questions on the worksheet but how often are we doing them If you are a social studies teacher, are you giving out a worksheet every single day? Or are we creating a variety of learning opportunities? If you are a third grade teacher, are you doing a math worksheet that day and a science worksheet that day and an ELA worksheet that day? Like, is that really the only mode that you are using? Variety, as Martha Stewart says, I actually don't know if it's Martha Stewart, but variety is the spice of life.

And I think that we have to analyze that on a daily and weekly basis in our classrooms.

Because guess who else gets bored? Us as teachers, as humans, we get bored.

And so over the years, I've taught science, I've taught math, I've taught SEL.

But if I'm using science as an example, like when I'm planning my week, I want to make sure that I am not giving out some sort of worksheet, something on paper.

That is like, let's get serious.

We can call it a PDF.

We can call it a learning guide.

We can call it an individualized activity.

Those are all just fancy 20, 25, 20, 26 words for worksheets.

So I love it.