Autonomous Workshops in the Parrots Class (2nd Grade)
By Florian Le-Bris - French Teacher
1) The objective:
Since the first month of school, every Tuesday and Wednesday morning, the second grade Parrots class works in 3 workshops. The class is separated into three groups, each working on a different concept. One workshop works with Florian and the other two workshops are autonomous, that is to say that the students work without an adult. This makes it possible to work on several different concepts at the same time while developing mutual aid and autonomy among students. The students thus learn to work together, to help each other if help is needed, and to respect the work of others by whispering, for example.
The students are extremely engaged during these times and their progress in autonomy, cooperation, and mutual aid is incredible.
The objective, during the year, is to continue to develop all these precious qualities during autonomous workshop time in mathematics or visual arts.
2) The process:
As a whole class, we make up three groups together. In each group, students sign up for responsibilities. Currently there are three.
- The Teacher: He reads and re-explains all the instructions to his group before starting work.
- The material manager: His role is to distribute and store the center.
- The noise manager: His role is to manage the noise in the group, he can also come to see me if one of the students is in difficulty.
Once the groups and the tasks have been distributed, the students divide up in the class and the workshops begin. Each rotation lasts 15 minutes.
At the end of the independent workshop, students have the choice of reading or finishing work they have started.
Testimonials
from students
“The workshops are so good. We can work alone.”
“We work with others and that teaches us to help.”
“I like what we do in workshops, we help each other, and we learn a lot of things.”
“At the beginning of the year it was difficult, but now we manage to work in workshops for a long time.”