(When I preview this it’s in large text with no explanation. Sorry!)
This started as a belated response to blogger Suz01 from one of my posts a while back. I figured I would post it here as well as it was one of those obvious, yet not so obvious ‘Ah-ha’ moments.
We’ve started a new year here and have a Grade 5 class that just didn’t know what to do when put into unfamiliar groups. They were given a task but everyone was intimidated by the simple task. We
* set up a fish-bowl (one group in the middle that volunteered to demonstrate interaction)
* gave some simple directions
* coached intensively, encouraged, supported and …
… failure. They were still intimidated.
Next, Michael, my co-grade-teacher, joined the fish bowl and started asking questions about what they had to do. We let it run for 4-5 minutes…
… success. The groups went away and immediately started talking about what they had to do. They needed the modelling to understand.
The task was simply a pre-assessment task that required them to brainstorm what they already knew about the unit of inquiry.
The difference was astounding.
2 responses so far ↓
1
suz
// Aug 31, 2008 at 3:41 pm
Ugh, the internet just ate my comment. *sigh*
That is a great example of the power of questioning as a learning/teaching tool. Glad to see you were able to turn the situation around.
2
leighnewton
// Sep 4, 2008 at 6:52 pm
We are persevering still in different ways. I just found a site http://www.intime.uni.edu/coop_learning/ch5/teaching.htm that gives further information on modelling behaviour. We’ll be using it a bit this year.
Leave a Comment