Children can work differently at school. They can work independently but also collaborate. What is that and when do you use what? And how can you tell whether your class is working well independently? You can check this with a chick list when working independently.
What is the difference between working independently and working individually?
When working individually, the children work for themselves. They do exactly what they are told and when they encounter a problem they don’t know how to solve it on their own, so they need you. Then they are not working independently.
When working independently, the children can also engage in an activity individually. The difference is that this activity does not have to be the same for all children.
What is the relationship between collaboration and working independently?
Working independently and collaborating belong together. After all, working independently does not mean that a child has to solve everything on his own, but that he relies as little as possible on you or the group teacher. Especially when children can work well together, they can work better independently. Two know more than one. Together children can solve the problems they encounter.
What is the GIP model?
GIP stands for Group and Individually Oriented Pedagogical and Didactic Action. It is a didactic model of action that promotes independent work. Children can work at their own level, alone or in groups, and receive instruction when they need it. There is an instruction table for children who need instruction. Children with a question place a red dot on the table and then continue working until someone comes to help.
Checklist for independent work, behavior of the teacher and teaching assistant:
1. Prepare
- Is the material ready for use?
- Is the material located in fixed locations?
- Is there enough space to play and work?
2. Course material and materials
- Does the difficulty of the assignments match the level of the children?
- Are the different materials for extra work sufficiently suitable for the level of the children?
- Is there enough material for additional work?
3. Moment
- Is the time suitable for working independently?
- Announce changes to the schedule regarding independent work in a timely manner. Preferably at the beginning of the morning.
4. Rules and procedures
- Are there fixed rules for independent work and the places where children are allowed to work?
- To what extent is talking allowed?
- To what extent is walking around the classroom allowed?
- During what period are children allowed to work together?
- What requirements must the children’s work meet?
- Where can the children hand in their work?
- Where and from whom can the children ask for help?
- How can the children express that they need help?
- At what times can children call on the teacher or teaching assistant?
5. Collaborate
- Do the children know how to help each other?
6. Behavior of the children
- Are the children responsible for their own learning?
- Do they receive targeted instructions about activities to be carried out?
- Is the work checked quickly?
- Are the children involved in questions and answers from classmates?
7. Clean up
- Is cleaning up between times encouraged?
- Is it announced in good time when it is time to clean up?
- Is there a clear signal when the time for cleaning up has arrived?
- Are activities that require a lot of clean-up finished earlier?
- Are the children responsible for tidying up (or does the teaching assistant tidy up everything)?
8. Discussion
- During the debriefing, is a distinction made between types of problems: material problems, task problems, problems with correcting errors, problems with helping each other?
- Is attention paid to outliers (which problem was successfully solved and which problem remained)?
- Are children encouraged to think about solutions to unsolved problems?
Opinion about working independently:
- What can be improved?
- How can that be tackled?