Article Review 2

I read the article that was titled “The Big Class” was written in the Scholastic Instructor. I found this article to be very interesting because it talks about the ever growing class size in American classrooms. The current economic recession has pinched budgets and forced states to cut education thus raising the size of classrooms. This article gives teachers who have never experienced large classes’ ideas to help create a successful learning environment. Main talking points are “Setting the tone, making space, Forge a Community, Being prepared, using groups, and rethinking homework. Throughout the semester several of the ideas talked about in this writing went with different things we learned in classes. I also have witnessed teachers putting several of these methods into place throughout PHM schools. While a lot of classes are not nearly as large as the instructor in this article is talking about these ideas can be used for any class size. The main point of the article is to help teachers realize that if they can simplify their classroom procedures and workload then it makes things easier on you the teacher and the students in the classroom. Students play off of the teacher and if the teacher is getting overwhelmed and frustrated then the students will too. I like the idea of working with the entire class to develop the rules of the classroom. This gives students ownership of their actions and consequences. The article reminds teachers to be creative in setting up their classroom and to make it work smoothly especially when class sizes are large. Group work and centers can help the teacher reach out to all students in the classroom on a more personal level. Groups of 5 with different stations can allow the teacher to walk around and talk to each group or it can allow the teacher to have a station that students come to him or her to get more detailed lesson. Homework was another talking point that encouraged teachers to not take too much time to grade homework every day but to allow homework to be based on a system of checking if it was done or not done. Teachers can assign homework and check to see if it is complete for the grade and then go over answers together as a class for students to check their own work and understand that they will not be punished for incorrect answers, but that they should ask questions for any missed answers.

I enjoyed this article a lot and I know I will use many of the methods talked about in my own classroom. I was familiar with many of the methods and ideas because we have talked about them a lot throughout the semester of classes.  The articles mostly encourage teachers to be creative while finding new ways to actively engage students especially while in a large classroom settings.