I am trying to have students teach and present more and more. I can read books about Mesopotamia, but if they can learn it themselves, then I feel I have done them an even better service. We did expert group research, with a graphic organizer, see previous days, and then students had to prepare a one minute presentation for their groups. The task expectations were that we listened actively, asked questions afterward and tried to learn from each other.
All sorts of things happen with this kind of task: lack of information, varying preparation from each individual member, and vary skill levels of these mini presentations. What talked about today as a class was what worked, and what needed tweaking. I love the focus on the positive (what can we improve or tweak) rather than what we did poorly, and students were able to articulate quite well, what achieved at (what was working). I look forward to seeing how these presentations improve.
All sorts of things happen with this kind of task: lack of information, varying preparation from each individual member, and vary skill levels of these mini presentations. What talked about today as a class was what worked, and what needed tweaking. I love the focus on the positive (what can we improve or tweak) rather than what we did poorly, and students were able to articulate quite well, what achieved at (what was working). I look forward to seeing how these presentations improve.