Try one out in class if you can and tell us what you did and how it worked.
If you can't fit one in this week, explain how you could use one in an upcoming unit.
Post a response by Friday January 23rd and respond to one or two of your colleagues posts by Monday January 26th.
Also, if you need to catch up on posting/commenting from previous weeks, please continue to do so.
Thanks,
Carrie
I tried FACT #40 Partner Speaks this week after students took notes from the video Biomes: Our Earth's Major Life Zones and made a color coded "major biomes of the world" map. The student notes document posed the question "Which biome would you most like to visit and why?". Fact #40 built upon this question. Each partner was given time to record and then share their choice with their partner. I projected additional questions for them to record and share, such as the clothes they should pack, exciting recreational activities they could do, unique animals or plants they hope to see, and roughly how far they will need to travel to get there. My hope was to get feel for how well students digested the notes... and that students would accurately connect facts (from notes) with prior knowledge/experiences to bring more learning opportunities for peers listening in during the discussion. I also hoped to discover areas of confusion or misconceptions that need to be addressed prior to the biome brochure project. I was disappointed that time constraints only permitted selected students to share their partners thoughts. I tried to find at least one volunteer to share for each biome represented.
ReplyDeleteI was challenged to participate in a partner speak as a student last summer during a workshop. Doing so really made me focus on listening skills as well as the content I would be responsible for sharing to the whole group. Even though the class was mid-June, I still remember the guys wife's name, the sport he coaches, the district he teaches at. If he simply introduced this information verbally to the whole class in the traditional way, with me as a passive listener, my retention would have faded to zero by the end of the week. Pretty powerful.
What a great way to use this FACT--with a sheet that had a built-in question already involved! I would like to try this next year.
DeleteI think you are absolutely right--that this really encourages our listening skills. I am VERY bad at listening--I am the type of person who forgets a person's name the minute after they introduce themselves to me. I have also done this in a workshop and I had to take notes about the person's answer (terrible memory too!).
Last week, on Friday, after a week of studying biomes, I challenged my students to do FACT #39: Paint the Picture. They had to try to use learning target #2 (Explain how abiotic factors (topography, soil types, precipitation, solar radiation and temperature) influence biomes. For Paint the Picture they had to draw a picture of their assigned biome, and try to show, without using any words, how these 5 abiotic factors influenced their biome. We did brainstorm together how to visually show that it is "hot" in an environment without writing the word "hot." For the most part, these were pretty good, but students definitely wanted to rely on plants and animals to show their biomes. Due to the special schedule on Friday I was only able to get these done with 4th and 5th bell so today I had the rest of my bells do it after they began their research on their biome. These seemed to come out much better and it was a good way to show me that they had done the research I told them they should have gotten through today.
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