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Identify one or two ways you can, as Dr. Black says, “build a structure [in your classroom] that also has a level of flexibility.”
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I believe the first ten minutes of course time is crucial to establish a regular pattern. This give the students the peaceful confidence that comes with a predictable structured lesson. After that, we can do one of a variety of activities, which gives them structure yet it’s not so rigid. Then, they can choose which activity to do for the last half of the classroom. That could be a Friday, end of the week casual day.
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One way that I have seen structure and flexibility go hand in hand in the classroom is with flexible seating. The teacher may have an assignment for the course to work on, but each student can determine where they do that assignment from. This gives the students a little bit of choice while completing the task set forth. I have also seen classrooms that have contractual agreements that are drawn up with student insight as to what classroom rules should look like.
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I love structure and have found that most children thrive on knowing what is expected and growing in that. I also love to have the flexibility of giving the students the ability to think for themselves and guide them in critical thinking skills within a broader boundary I have given them in course. For instance, with a Bible project we do in course, not all students need to do the same type of thing. Some may want to build a model house, others may want to create pottery, while others may want to create a slideshow to show off the learned information. This is a small example of how the individual child may pick something that is of interest to them to show understanding of the guided lesson we are learning in course.
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Often times, when needing to break up the regular routine of worksheets, I will post math problems around the room so that students are up and moving around the room. I do this alongside having timer so that students know they have so much time at each station to work on the 2 or 3 problems. I do this in the cases where students need more practice on particular skills.
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One way that our online program has structure but also flexibility is that each week we give a written assessment that has a deadline. Because we teach homeschool students all over the country with different family dynamics and schedules, we allow the parent to request an extension on an assessment when needed.
