Putting Together the Pieces!

This week we shared our Native American tribes using the Jigsaw strategy.  What a cool strategy this is and one I will definitely use in my classroom!  The idea behind jigsaw is putting students in small groups and assigning each member a role or task.  That student now becomes the expert in their group.


Before the students present the information to their own groups, they first confer with their fellow experts in the other groups
Each student in the group has a chance to educate the entire group on his/her specialty.  Each student is viewed as an integral part of the group with unique and important information for all members.  This teaches students that they are working together to accomplish a common goal.  This also teaches camaraderie because no student can succeed completely unless everyone works together as a team.  This leads to students valuing each other as integral members of the class.

Engaging our students is key!

Last time we met in class, we discussed ways to engage our students and make them active participants in the learning process.  We learned a great tool called PIGS


We also learned all about the jigsaw strategy.  This strategy encourages listening, engagement, and empathy by giving each member of the group an essential part to play in the academic activity. Group members must
work together as a team to accomplish a common goal; each person depends on all the others. No
student can succeed completely unless everyone works well together as a team.

For our next class, we will be completing our own jigsaw activity within our group.  We have each been assigned a Native American tribe.  We will all find out the different pieces about our tribe and teach our team members about our tribe for the next class.  These hands on activities really make the activities come alive!

So many choices!!!

Last week in class we created a banking test for our students.  I felt prepared because I have some knowledge on the topic of banking and economics. 

I also read the 3 chapters that Dr. Smirnova gave us on the different types of questions and how to write effective test questions.  Well.... reading about test questions and writing test questions are completely different!!!  I had such a difficult time writing the multiple choice questions.
 

I did not have trouble coming up with the question, or even coming up with the correct response.  Those incorrect answers had me STUMPED!  I did not want to make them too easy because then the student would not have to think about the incorrect answers because they would be too obvious.  I am still not sure if my answers were too easy.  I never thought writing questions would be so challenging.

Dr. Smirnova also showed me another great tool in Google docs.  You can actually write the test questions, choose the format, pick a theme..... and....magic, you have a test!!!  I am always learning about a new tool or website in this class.  Love it!!

Here is the link to our banking test!
Banking Test