Activities

Activities / Teaching Strategies
There's a strategy that my AT has that is really interesting. It's for language, but I can imagine ways that it's easily adaptable to other subjects. He basically puts a relatively strong statement on the board (for instance, "Dogs are WAY better than cats.") and student have to articulate on a piece of paper why they disagree or agree with him (providing justification for their ideas). They then have a group discussion with the guidelines that everyone is respectful. A couple things about this: It's dangerous since it could lead to bickering instead of debate / discussion; it would be awesome if he choses students who are on the opposite ends of the spectrum to pair up and present the other student's opinion (I suggested this... he might do it on Monday when the debate is scheduled to occur); I really like that it tries to teach young teenagers how to articulate their ideas when they disagree with someone, and to try to discuss this disagreement in respectful ways. I think personally, I would have benefited a lot if I had learned these skills before high school! So yes, a risky, interesting activity that I think we could adapt to be an awesome, useful Minds ON / teaching life skill activity!
 * Argue with the Teacher! (Nathan)**

AT put up 6 different pieces of art around the room and students had to go around and pick which one related to their summer and why, discussing with the other students who picked the same picture. This got students to share something about their summer and the students seemed to really like it as they got a chance to talk to each other!
 * Comparing a random art picture to your summer: (Jess)**

During my first day of placement my AT did a very interesting activity with four different sized bowls and a box of cereal.
 * Showing the Difference between Equality and Fairness (Julian)**

She chose three volunteers, one of which had a younger sibling of about 2-3 years old, another a sibling of about 8 years old, and lastly a sibling of about 16 years old that plays a lot of sports. She asked the first volunteer to chose a bowl and fill it with the amount of cereal that their sibling of 2-3 years old would take for a snack.

The first volunteer took the smallest plastic bowl and filled it with about two hand fulls. The class discussed this and said it was fair that a child that young would not eat much more than that. The second volunteer was asked the same question but now regarding their sibling of 8 years old. This volunteer took a larger bowl and filled it about half full or roughly 4 times more than the bowl for the 2-3 year old child. The class again discussed that this is about how much you would eat as a snack coming home from school if you were about 8 years old. The class then compared the first bowl to the second bowl and discussed that for each person, even though the bowls were not equal in the amount of cereal, the amount of cereal was fair. The third volunteer repeated the exercise for their sibling of 16 years old and the bowl was about 2 times larger than that of the child who is 8 years old. Again the class discussed that each person had a fair amount for his or her situation while not having an equal amount of cereal.

The AT then brought it back to the class by saying that equality is NOT the same as fairness. She will be using different strategies to help each student in her class to succeed. For instance if an assignment asked the students not to use a calculator, but then allowed 2 or 3 students to use them, it is fair because they may need extra help in mathematics.

I thought this was an interesting activity which allowed the teacher to avoid confrontation later in the year and avoid embarrassing the students who may need extra resources.

This one started as a pretty straight forward task. Sentences were put on the board to the effect of, "This summer, I did...", "This summer I visited/was visited by...", "I wish this summer I could have..." The students were asked to complete the sentences. Then we broke off into groups (this was decided by birthdays: all spring birthdays in one group, etc. My AT used best judgment in splitting up the groups further because there were an strangely high number of summer birthdays). They shared summer stories. At the end, my AT told the kids to keep those in their agendas safely. However, he did not mention that we were going to use this in Language to discuss grammar, story-telling techniques, communication, and proof-reading strategies.
 * Fill in the Blanks: My summer [Language] (Steve H)**

This activity was a great way for students to create a story about their summer without using words, but drawing what they did. The students were expected to use different colours and be creative. The AT provided class time for students to work on this activity and then the students could hand it to the teacher using their 'IN' box. Once the students are finished with the drawing, the students are then asked to present their summer circle to the class during a designated presentation time. I liked this activity because the students have different strengths, some students are great artists, while there are other students who are good public speakers and others who are great at writing their thoughts on paper. This activity also gets the students to practice writing 'details' and giving more information than just what is expected. // So, weren't the ones that are great at writing their thoughts on paper at a disadvantage, given that they were not supposed to use words? (Doina) //
 * Summer Circle: (Mala)**