When you think of worksheets, what is the first thought that comes to your mind? Many people share divided opinions on the value of worksheets, and they often form these views from their own experiences with worksheets as a student. When I was a student, many of my teachers would frequently use worksheets to reinforce specific concepts that were being taught. I grew to dislike these worksheets because I found them to be repetitive and poorly crafted. Many of my teachers also heavily relied on pre-made worksheets from other educators. This meant that they did not always address the specific outcomes we were learning. These experiences led me to believe that worksheets inadequately support learning in the classroom.
Recently, I had an opportunity to re-evaluate my beliefs after reading several articles about using worksheets in the classroom. The first article I read was written by a Canadian teacher named Patti. In her article, Patti says that educators need to "assess if what is on the [worksheet] is the product of valuable learning." She also says that worksheets should "meet the needs of the students it is being used with." Patti outlined several different circumstances when it is appropriate and inappropriate to use worksheets in the classroom. She says that worksheets should not be used in the classroom if they act as a replacement for teaching, use low-level Bloom's Taxonomy skills, or are used as busy work with little educational value. Instead, she proposes that educators should utilize worksheets to scaffold learning, support differentiation, and reflect brainstorming and idea development.
Before reading this article, I never thought of using worksheets as a place for students to communicate their ideas. I always believed that worksheets had to be used as a summative assessment for student knowledge. After reading this article, there are several different ways I could envision myself implementing worksheets to reflect student observations and critical thinking skills. During science experiments, students could use worksheets to record and depict their observations during all three stages of the demonstration (before, during, and after). In social studies, students could use their critical thinking skills to link terms on a worksheet and create concept maps to reflect historical events. These are just a few examples, but there are countless other opportunities for these worksheets to be used to support student comprehension.
The second article that I had the opportunity to read was written by Farisa Zaki. In her article, she outlines the top ten benefits of using worksheets for kids. More specifically, Zaki describes how these worksheets can benefit student learning from three years old and up until they are seven years old. Zaki suggests that worksheets can be valuable for this age group because they support the understanding of fundamental concepts, motivate students to learn, and they reinforce development while accommodating the attention span of the child.
I never thought about using worksheets for children this young, but there seem to be some clear benefits of introducing worksheets to learning at this age. I especially agree with Zika's point about using worksheets to reinforce learning for students because of their inability to remain focused for long periods. Worksheets can be an effective and fun way to capture students' attention for a short time while encouraging them to practice fundamental skills. Some of the ways I could see myself using worksheets for students at this age would be for counting syllables in words, addition and subtraction skills, and constructing short sentences to describe visuals.
After reading both articles, it is clear that I am going to have to design several worksheets as an educator. However, it is important that I design these sheets to support quality learning. I recently had an opportunity to design a worksheet using Microsoft Word, and there are five components that are essential to making any worksheet powerful. They are space, function, clarity, aesthetics, and the ability to support learning. Some of these components are more valuable than others when constructing a worksheet.
When creating a worksheet, all five essential components are necessary to design a worksheet that is conducive to student learning. The most important quality is the ability to support learning. Worksheets should always be constructed to support the Program of Studies and curricular outcomes. They should encourage the students to use higher-level Bloom's thinking and should act as a scaffold for learning. The second most important quality is the function. Worksheets need to be designed in a way that supports learning instead of impeding it. This means that these sheets should designate enough space for students to adequately express themselves. If the worksheet is not designed to cater to the demands of the task, then it will become detrimental to the students' learning. The third most important quality is clarity. Worksheets need to provide clear directions to the learners and clearly indicate what they are supposed to respond to, where they are supposed to respond, and how they are supposed to respond. These directions provide necessary scaffolding for the students and empower them to take ownership of their work. The fourth most important quality is space. Worksheets should maximize the space available to further learning and minimize the amount of "dead space." Using space effectively will also help keep tasks and questions grouped together on a single page, and this should ultimately lead to an increase in clarity. The last most important quality is aesthetics. Worksheets should be appealing and inviting. They should look well-constructed and thoughtful. An aesthetically appealing worksheet gives students more motivation to learn in comparison to a drab and dull sheet. Using all these components on every worksheet will ensure that every student has the tools necessary to advance their understanding and represent their learning.
Photo Credit: Unsplash (Annie Spratt)
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