On the previous day the students were asked to self-evaluate the two and three digit additions they had been doing by placing a coloured dot at the top of the page - Green (I get it, I don't need any help), Orange (I kind of get it but I am not very confident with it) or Red (I have no idea how to do this, it is confusing!).
Similar to this:
During today's lesson she asked the people with green dots to work independently at their desks. The orange dot people were asked to sit with me and do the first four questions (today's new questions, not yesterdays old ones) and the red dot people sat with the teacher. Any of the green dot people working independently who decided they needed help were to come to the orange dot group with me.
I found the students who had put the orange dots on their page could actually complete the activities, but they just lacked the confidence and needed a little reassurance. We did the first question together, the second question they did independently and the final two they finished then showed me. Once I could see they had got the hang of it I sent them back to finish the rest with the green dot people, as they had now become green dot people.
The teacher worked with the red dot people and I could see that her group quickly got smaller as they got the hang of it and moved back to their desks. I had two or three come over to me later in the lesson and sit with the remaining orange dot people until they became confident, and by the end of the lesson both myself and the teacher had all of the students finishing at their desks.
I had never seen self-evaluation work so well and so efficiently.
The organisation of the groups was over in a matter of a minute and the children were working busily within those groups right away. I was so impressed I thought I would share this idea