Let them work as they wanted
25-October-2006
permalink comments (1) forum (1) email thisTonight went quite well I thought. Had got some recipes printed with the names of the dish deleted. As a starter, students had to try and work out which country they came from.
The point was I just told them they could work on their own or in pairs or any size group - I didn’t really mind. That felt kinda strange because I usually say split into equal groups or with a partner or into 3’s or something.
Right at the beginning of the course J had said that teachers do this almost out of habit (I definitely do) but unless there is a pedagogic reason for doing it, was probably more use letting students identify whether they worked better alone or in a small or large group as that’s part of their learning too.
It’s all back to letting students take as many decisions as possible rather than expect them to make their first contribution at evaluation stage.
Only thought about it because Magda and I were talking about facilitator styles on Monday and it came up. So I thought I’d have a go at doing it tonight. And I did. And it was fine. And the sky didn’t fall down. And some people worked in quite a big noisy group of about 8 and one or two worked on their own then joined up and there was another little group of about 4 and another of 3 and they all seemed quite happy.
Only I felt a bit out of control – letting the reins go is quite hard.
The other reason it was a good night was a) 2 more signed up for Italy b) found out that WRU rugby coaching class now meet on Wednesday and they were all there in the pub afterwards – there was wall-to-wall fitted muscle and a waft of wintergreen. Ended up squashed between a neck-less second row who grunted pleasantly and a vaguely familiar 40-something fly half, gone to seed as all number 10s do. Herr Heinemann, eat your heart out!
1 Replies (comments)
1 Working in groups
Do you divide students into groups or do you let them organise it themselves?
Have a try at getting them to organise their own working methods. Does it work? do you feel a loss of control? Are the students confused by being expected to organise themselves?
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