Cosmas Noticing Blog

Lately in my classroom I have been noticing the repetition in scheduling and activities that occurs.  We follow the same schedule of subjects everyday which I can’t deny is beneficial for both my sanity and for the students to have a comfortable and familiar daily experience.  I do believe that having the same schedule day to day greatly impacts the ease of teaching and transitions.  However, I do think that too much repetition in the activities that occur during the day is not always the best thing.  For example, every morning during our morning meeting and calendar we cover the same topics.  There are an overwhelming amount of educational moments during this time, but it has become so routine that I find myself even getting bored at times.  I struggle though to decide whether the repetition in a task such as this is beneficial to help concrete some concepts, or if it is just boring my students into a predictable stupor.  I often add small new activities to spark student interest and that seems to help ease away the mounting predictability.  However, I also think that some topics are very necessary for students to master so why not review them daily.

This struggle gets complicated (as usual) by the fact that I have both 1^st and 2^nd grade.  I do differentiate my instruction during this time by asking some more challenging questions of my 2^nd graders.  I do also have differing expectations for student responses depending on their levels, but it doesn’t seem like this is enough to me.  I have some students who really benefit from hearing, for example, place value examples every morning.  While I have some others who look at me as if this was the easiest task in the world.  I know that this is the case in any classroom within any school, but I still do notice it day to day.  So, once again I am left to question: Is repetition beneficial or boring?

Besides morning calendar, I often feel this repetition in activities during writer’s workshop time.  Typically we use the Lucky Calkin’s texts on writer’s workshop daily.  This includes a mini-lesson together, guided practice, and individual practice.  Though I do NOT doubt the positive outcome of this type of scaffolding “I do, we do, you do” type of learning, I just think it becomes a little dry for students.  I don’t doubt that they say to themselves, “Now I have to listen on the carpet and then go write something” when it’s time for writer’s workshop.  Here’s the catch though, my students perform the best during this time of day.  They are focused during our mini-lesson, active participant in the learning process, and produce great pieces of writing.  Therefore I am left to wonder, is it just me that is bored with the repetition in this type of lesson? Or are my students bored as well?  Then I also think of the saying, “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it” and I am tempted to just keep going as usual.  I think this intuition about when to add something more exciting, and when to keep things as is will grow within me with time.