Task 8
Read this cooperative activity of a teacher and try it out with your young learners and decide what colours and words you would teach while making the children participate.
Today I paired up my class and we drew each other's shadows.
My class has been pretty wild this week and the end of yesterday was absolute chaos so I did not have very high hopes for this activity. Surprise! It was so beautiful. They were amazed,
enthused, engaged, and didn't want to stop.
I let the leader for each group (remember my five colours?) choose their own partner and then I paired up the rest randomly. Somehow, this worked: it seemed fair to everyone that the leaders got to choose, and I only had to make six more pairs to finish off.
Each person took turns tracing the other's shadow, and then they switched. Next they filled in the outlines with details. When it was over, they had a terrific time walking around trying to guess whose was whose.[1]
Peer review toolkit
Peer review is an active learning approach and an important element of co-operative learning.
Research has shown that learners at all levels can provide valid and accurate reviews.
- It enables learners to improve their work products;
- develops skills in giving and receiving feedback;
- helps learners understand quality standards and assessment criteria;
- builds learners’ confidence to present their ideas and answer questions about them;
- helps learners value interpersonal skills;
- helps learners to become expert in their own learning; and
- increases learners’ motivation and persistence.
Effective questioning toolkit
It supports teachers to get answers.
- What to ask questions about
- When to ask questions
- How to ask questions
- Responding to answers
It can be a tool for
- reflective practice
- a record of your professional development for your portfolio
- ideas that you can customise if you are planning sessions for colleagues.
This toolkit provides a framework to help you to:
- explore why, when and how to ask questions to promote learning
- plan experiments in using different techniques and approaches
- record the outcomes and reflect on what you will do differently next time.