You know what it's like, you have given students a task to do and hands shoot up quicker than you can get round to help them. Well I have a solution that will help manage this situation and will even encourage students to help you out too! All you need are paper cups.
Get yourself a set of traffic light paper cups, enough for each student to have 3 cups each - one of each colour. Explain to students that they are to keep these cups on their desk at all times and instead of raising their hand or calling out in lesson, they are simply to change the colour of their cup:
Red = "I need help urgently!"
Yellow = "I'm OK right now."
Green = "I'm really confident in what I am doing and can help others."
The green students could also be encouraged to be the "class experts" who can be helping others who have their red cups out! This is a fantastic tool in promoting independence in your students and saves having lots of hands up and calling out in class. It also allows you to monitor the progress of your students in one quick glance and helps those "invisible students" who might not be as vocal in asking for help.
Just be sure to explain that these are not for playing cup stacking though, as it is tempting...!
Red = "I need help urgently!"
Yellow = "I'm OK right now."
Green = "I'm really confident in what I am doing and can help others."
The green students could also be encouraged to be the "class experts" who can be helping others who have their red cups out! This is a fantastic tool in promoting independence in your students and saves having lots of hands up and calling out in class. It also allows you to monitor the progress of your students in one quick glance and helps those "invisible students" who might not be as vocal in asking for help.
Just be sure to explain that these are not for playing cup stacking though, as it is tempting...!
