I get this question a lot – How many work tasks should I have in my classroom? And while I am a big fan of a “the more, the merrier” response, I also don’t want anyone to lose their mind making thousands of work tasks. I have no magic number or perfect ratio of students to work tasks but these tips will help make sure you have roughly the right amount. You need enough that your students won’t get bored! Because we all know, a bored student is a naughty a student.
- Make sure you have enough tasks that are time consuming. We all have those kiddos that fly through work. If you have tasks that take longer than 3 seconds, you will need less tasks! So take a gander at your work boxes and pump them up! Adding more cards to sort, coins to match, and screws to assemble.
- Your students shouldn’t be doing the same tasks every day. Have a system (checking my foolproof system!) for rotating between tasks. My advice is to plan ahead which tasks students will be doing. If you leave it to the grab and go method – you will keep giving your students the same tasks unintentionally.
- While you are planning for all this task changing and rotation – at the same time – don’t be afraid of letting your students repeat tasks. The point of this work is to work independently and practice a previously mastered skills. It’s okay if it is a bit monotonous. That is kinda the point. Our jobs are monotonous at times too (hello – clicking boxes on IEPS…).
- Make tasks that many students can do. Think broad!
- If your students only have a few tasks they can do on their own – make different variations of the same task! Have students sort coins, buttons, clips, etc.
- Dollar store is your new best friend! If you make cheap tasks- you can make more tasks!
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