Hot Seat

This activity is great for helping students with questioning. Students can use this activity to learn how to formulate questions. This activity can be done in two different ways, firstly, the teacher can be in the hot seat and secondly, a student can be in the hot seat. Once someone is put in the hot seat students sit in a circle around them and question them to find things out. Whether it be who that person is or facts about that person. This activity can be used to find out about early civilization settlers or different cultures around the world etc. Through questioning the students recieve facts about the person in the hot seat, building that particular schema. While at first it is best that the teacher take the hot seat, once students can follow routines and have basic knowledge of the subject the activity can be shifted to allow students to take the hot seat. I will use this activity in my future classroom to allow students to ask questions that they might have, much like a KWL chart this activity allows students to explore answers for their questions on a particular subject.

Voices in the Head

This is a great activity for students to explore thoughts and feelings of others. In this activity the teacher chooses a character that will be the main focus. This character has a problem and is listening in their head to what the other people around them would tell them to do. The students will then sit around in a circle as the voices in the characters head and one at a time will say what they feel the character should do from either the whole class as one character's point of view or students having different characters point of view. As a teacher this activity can be used to accomplish the language expectation of points of view as well as a great opportunity for students to look at moral dilemmas and problem solving.

Role on the Wall

This activity is another great integration with language in the way it allows students to use their vocabulary. It allows students to look deeper into characters from a book or person of study. The teacher chooses a character for the class to look into and then the class looks at that character in three different aspects; on the inside, outside and surroundings. To this the students look at the inside, what the persons feelings and emotions are like. The outside, what the person physically looks like and acts like. Surroundings, what the person is surrounded by for example family and friends. To give students a visual the teacher can use a graphic organizer like the one below to give students a simple visual organizer that answers the three questions. I would use this in my future class to look deeper into main characters in books to help students further comprehend the character and his/her actions within the book.

Organizer: cpwalker, March 1, 2011

Fill in the Blank Space

This activity is great for getting students up and moving. Allowing students to explore different types of movement this activity fits in both drama and physical education for movement. The great thing about this activity is that it can be used as both an activity as well as a transition tool. For example, to use it as an activity the class can do it as a class or in small groups, exploring natural objects like a thorn bush. Students will move around using creative movements to represent a thron bush. The teacher can point out to students main focus points such as height, direction and speed. While students move the teacher can clap or perform a signal to tell students to freeze into a tableaux. On the other hand the activity can be used as a transition tool by getting students to move in a certain way, example room is full of water, from one point to another like from the carpet to their desks. This gives students a more structured way to transition from one area to the next in the classroom. I like this activity best as a transition tool. I will use this tool in my future classrooms to create smoother transitions from one area to the next in the school day. I can also link this to other subject areas such as social studies by asking students to move to their desks like they are in the middle of the Pacific etc.

Writing in Role

Writing in role is a great tool that integrates into the language program. Teachers can use this tool to further student comprehension and allow students to dig deeper into a subject. This tool is done by giving students a role, for example a world traveller, and allowing the student to write in their journal from the point of view of his/her role. This is a great way for students to look deeper into a subject for example small details and feelings. This activity comes straight out of the langauge curriculum to write in certain points of view. This activity is also a great way to assess 'as' learning to find out what comprehension level students are at in their learning. I would use this activity in my future classroom on a regular basis during journal time to allow students to not only write what they themselves feel but rather look through the point of view of someone else, learning the actions, feelings and thoughts of others.

Writer: BioJobBlogger, July 6, 2010

Teacher in Role

Teaching in role is not an activity but rather a teaching tool. It can be used to hook students into a lesson, stimulate student learning or get students to reflect on what they have learned.

Teacher in role can be used at the beginning of a lesson to hook students into a lesson, getting students to use their imagination and helping teachers grab student attention. For example the teacher can come in the room as a scientist at the beginning of a science lesson. Another way to use this tool is during a lesson, to enhance student learning. Giving students not only knowledge but experience. For example the teacher can stay in role as a scientist during the whole lesson as if they were a professional sharing their knowledge with the class. This tool can also be used to get students to summarize what they have learned or read. The teacher comes into the room and acts like he/she knows nothing, relying on the students to tell them what has happened. For example the scientist/teacher comes into the room and is in a hurry because someone needs something quickly but they don’t know how to get it or how it works, giving student the opportunity to share their learned knowledge with the teacher/scientist.

I will use this great tool in my future classroom in all three aspects to promote, enhance and assess student learning. Making learning exciting is a great way to get students involved and this tool is a good way to add excitement to any lesson. I will also use teacher in role as an assessment tool by listening and later recording observational notes as students answer questions and tell me what they know. In the future I will practice this tool in all three aspects to enhance student learning in my classroom.

Scientist: BioJobBlogger, August 5, 2009

http://www.biojobblog.com/tags/scientists/