Description: A Parking Lot is a place to keep student ideas/questions that are not relevant to the current discussion or model but have the potential of becoming relevant later on. It can be a poster, a designated place on a white board, or a special place on a classroom wall. Students write their ideas/questions on sticky notes and “park” them in the lot. These may be questions students ask orally that you decide to postpone answering, or questions students put directly into the Parking Lot without asking them in front of the class. “Off-task” questions of curious students and questions that simply get ahead of the current discussion are examples of typical parking lot entries. The teacher then monitors the parking lot frequently to be sure questions are addressed at the appropriate time.
Rationale: Student thinking and student questions are central to an MBR classroom. We encourage students to ask questions and be curious, yet sometimes lessons get bogged down if we take too many “side-trips”. The parking lot serves in holding the interest of students whose minds jump ahead of the rest of the class and honors these student voices while allowing us to keep lessons moving forward in a coherent way. It also provides a safe place for asking question -students can write their questions anonymously without having to ask out loud. To honor student participation it is important to come back to all parking lot questions. Parking lot questions often provide beautiful natural segues from one model or topic to another and can motivate exploring other topics.
