This year I had the opportunity to teach a math class with out a PLC. It is kinda exciting. I decided that I am going to try the Harkness method of teaching where students workshop problems together all class hour - every class hour. The problems are carefully scaffolded to allow them to be successful. I was really encouraged by a presentation I saw at Exeter from Johnothon Sauer and finally got the courage to do it this year.
I did a fair amount of norm building before hand and talked about expectations. But WHOA, has it been rough. I am getting silence from students across the board. Even when I ask them to turn to their partner and talk... I get nothing. I don't know if I need to give sentence starters but this communication should be authentic. I don't even think the content is really the problem, yet. This is all stuff students have seen before (intentionally) since I wanted to focus on the communication - NOT the content. But right now neither are happening.
HOWEVER, I did have one win last week. A student was working on a problem and they asked me about a previous problem that we had done the day prior. This was significant because it meant that at least ONE student was thinking about connections and seeing similarities. This tells me that the problems and philosophy are solid. I just need to break down this communication barrier between students.
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