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Posts from the ‘Classroom Snapshot’ Category

Aug 27

An easy strategy to kick start student collaboration

Want to get your students talking? Hand them a clipboard and get them on their feet. Early in the semester, I like to pose a simple question: What do you need to know about someone to know you’ll work well together? After a few minutes of brainstorming, I give each student a clipboard with a blank chart, and we head to the hallway.

Students line up facing each other, and with a 90-second timer running, they talk. The clipboard gives them something to look at, and the questions give them something to focus on. While these elements make the conversations feel low-stakes, they often lead to high-reward connections.

Conversations don’t always stick to the prompt—but honestly, those off-track moments are often the best ones. When the timer goes off, one row of students shifts down to new partners, and the process starts again. Before students leave for the day, I ask them to jot down the names of classmates they think they could work well with.

This quick activity gives me useful input for seating arrangements and helps students see that effective collaboration doesn’t always depend on sitting next to a friend.

Kelly Virgin is a WCWP teacher leader who teaches high school English for the Kennett Consolidated School District.

Jul 16

Classroom Library Refresh

by Kelly Virgin

As the school year came to a close, I took a moment to look around my empty classroom—and something caught my eye: a thick layer of dust on many of the books in my lending library. After 20 years of teaching high school English, I’ve built quite the collection… maybe too big, if I’m being honest. While offering choice is essential, too much choice can actually overwhelm students.

So I rolled up my sleeves and started weeding out books. Channeling my inner Marie Kondo, I asked myself, “Does this book spark joy in my student readers?” Most of the process was instinctual, but here’s a general breakdown of what stayed—and what didn’t—for my student population:

Stays (joy-sparking titles):

  • Dust-free titles (any books that were routinely borrowed)
  • Quick reads (graphic novels, novels in verse, etc.)
  • Relatable stories with diverse, teen protagonists navigating real-life challenges
  • Readable content at or below students’ reading levels

Goes (joyless titles):

  • Dusty titles (books that hadn’t been borrowed in years)
  • Doorstop-sized classics
  • Obscure or overly complex fantasy/sci-fi
  • Outdated publications
  • Books above students’ current reading levels

With help from a few awesome student volunteers, I gave many of the castoff books a second life in a new hallway community library. As a bonus, each volunteer walked away with a few titles they discovered while sorting—books they were actually excited to read.

Kelly Virgin is a WCWP teacher leader who teaches high school English for the Kennett Consolidated School District.

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