Before the break, I tried using one of the strategies that Don shared with us in our Y2G PD sessions – Listen Right. This structure is designed so that the teachers reads a text passage, while students listen with pens down. Then, students are given 30 seconds to record key points. Then, using the Round Robin and Instant Star cooperative learning techniques for sharing ideas, students share what they have recorded.
I used this structure for conveying some key content at the beginning of our Urban Agriculture unit. Students learned about factors that affect plant growth. I found that this was an effective way to keep students focused on the task at hand, and even the students who have difficulty with working memory were able to find success in this activity (even more so than they would have if I had them read this or had delivered the content in a lecture).
I designed this unit to be front loaded with content, so that students had the key content knowledge that was required in order to undertake the project-based, hand-on portion of the unit. However, I belive that the timing of the unit should be changed for next year. Much of the content that I front-loaded was delivered before the holiday break, with the hands-on activity starting in January. Although this structure that I used for delivering content was effective at the time, when students were prompted to recall this information during their projects, many of them were not able to explain the factors that affect plant growth.
For next year, I will use this same structure, however instead of front loading content all at once at the start of the unit, I plan to integrate small lessons into the day-to-day work of the projects.
To view the worksheet for the Listen Right! activity, click here.
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