PicoBlog

I recently wrote on the pros and cons of group work in class, which I stated that I highly prefer and mostly utilize group work over independent work. I stick with that statement, as I believe it makes the classroom more engaging and keeps majority of students involved in their work by working with each other. However, I also utilize independent work when needed.

Independent work is not a punishment, though I will admit I have used it as one in occasions. Students need to know how to work independently and practice working alone regularly. When students take any exam they can only depend on their own knowledge of the content (obviously). Having opportunities in class to create a practice testing environment can help students prepare themselves for these opportunities to showcase their knowledge.

Thus, let us explore the pros and cons of independent practice in the classroom.

The goal of independent practice is to have students only rely on themselves to solve problems. Many times in group work, one student will take on the majority of the more difficult work, which allows the lower ability students to slide on by. If we want students to benefit from the learning in group work, then all students need to be involved in the thinking. Therefore, independent practice makes sure all students are working on the problems at hand.

Independent practice also limits distractions in the classroom. Students will practice silently and by themselves, and if they are only focused on their work then there should be limited distractions to the class. As a teacher, it is much easier to keep a class quiet when the expectation is silently working than it is to keep a bunch of students talking on task.

Now, the pros seem limited, but there is a ton of power in independent practice. The end goal of learning content is that students are able to utilize it without outside assistance. If students really understand the topic, being able to complete it by themselves allows you to know if they really understand. Because at the end of the lesson, they will only have themselves to complete the problems on upcoming assessments.

Independent practice can seem easy to deliver. But just stating, “Ok start working by yourselves”, without any prompting beforehand can lead yourself to a difficult practice session. Just because the work is independent, does not mean that students can actually complete the work independently.

Thus, a con of independent practice is that some students may need a lot more help than others. Some students will be unable to even attempt the independent practice and solve any problems. Some students will need constant prompting and directing in order to start problems. And some students will zoom through all the problems and be bored. Therefore, we have to take into account these scenarios when we plan our independent practice. Having extra challenge problems and easier intro problems can alleviate some of the differentiation issues as well.

Of course, we can go through and help students with their work, but we can only help one students at a time in most cases. If you have 10 students who need help and you want to keep a quiet and calm classroom, then good luck. Furthermore, it can take a long time to prepare the materials in order to differentiate the content to allow each student to practice independently.

To add on top of it, some classes are just obnoxiously bad at independent practice. They will be quiet for a test since they don’t wanna fail or be given a zero, but for independent practice problems they could care less and will try anything to not do it. Therefore, group work may be more advantageous to engage these students, as some will at least participate if they are able to talk about the content.

Independent practice is necessary in all classes. Students have to practice material independently as they will be tested on it at some point. Therefore, it is good to have some rules and expectations in place around independent practice.

Be extremely strict that independent practice must be silent. The open invitation of talking will increase as soon as even one student begins whispering. You do not have to be mean about it, rather hold students accountable for talking. If students are consistently talking and not meeting expectations, use the appropriate consequences as needed.

Many times in independent practice, we find some quiet time to sit and complete some work. I am guilty of this and actually do advocate to do this when you have to. But when you are just starting or students are not meeting expectations, walk around the room and utilize proximity. Just standing next to a student will make them less likely to be off task

Students will only be able to work independently if they can complete the work. If they are unable to do the work, they can begin causing distractions or wasting time by sitting there. To mitigate this we can show an example problem or differentiate the work to make sure they know how to complete it. It is a bit more time consuming to differentiate the work, but it can be helpful for student performance.

I recommend this no matter the scenario, but especially in independent practice. Having easier problems at the beginning that progress into harder problems with specific case problems allows all students to begin building confidence in the skill they are practicing.

Never let students take classwork home and finish it as homework. If you state that the classwork will be homework if you do not finish it, students will use it as an opportunity to not do the work in class. Students are just beginning to learn time management, and many of them may act as if they will do it at home but will get stuck on Tik Tok for hours on end. Furthermore, class time is a sacred time and we are present to help students with content. Therefore, we want to maximize the time we have with students and make sure they are learning in our presence.

As I stated at the beginning, independent practice has to be done in the classroom, no exceptions. I have seen teachers only utilize independent practice and have great results in their classroom. It is a powerful way to make sure students internalize material and are able to complete it by themselves. And much like anything else in teaching, we have to prepare students and hold the accountable to norms and expectations that we set.

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