Open Mic: A Balancing Act - Optimal Engagement versus Overwhelmed

One challenge I continue to face with my planning and management is finding the "sweet spot" in providing engaging and meaningful work that keeps all students plugged in while also avoiding overwhelming students who work at a slower pace or need more support. As I am sure is true for you all as well, my classes are an extremely diverse mix of abilities levels as a rule.

The way I structure my daily lessons and units provides opportunities where students are able to work at their own pace through various assignments and activities. Assignments are posted with resource links and instructions on Google classroom. We use "anchor" activities and lessons (such as think pair shares, hands on labs, and/or short lectures) to pull everyone together nearly everyday before allowing students to return to their individually paced work. My struggle is creating enough work opportunities available for my high performing students in a way that doesn't make my slower-paced students feel buried in work. I also really want to avoid the use of "busy" work with my high performers, lest they feel they are being punished for getting their work done quickly.

Some strategies I have used before are having fast workers write review questions for the study guide or create a Kahoot quiz to use as a class. However, I still have a hard time finding the happy medium I am looking for.

Do you all face this struggle, too? How do you handle it?

Thanks!!

Jessica