Teamwork without the technology

Categories: Writing and Assessment, Rural Land Resources

I have been reading a lot lately about Google Apps for Educators, and it looks a really good way of allowing you to assess each other's work. There are several things which I'd need to run by the appropriate people in the school and the authority, but the basic idea behind it reminded me of something significantly lo-tech that I haven't done for a while in class. I used to quite often create small groups for revision through past papers where pupils would mark each others work before I then returned my mark. I think I'll do this tomorrow with s4 as we begin the run in to the human NAB. I think four in a group would be ideal, as this means I will be able to cover all four topics (Urban, Rural, Industry and Population), with each of you doing a question on a different one. There are some important things to remember when you are working on this:-

1) You are being assessed and assessing- Even when you mark each others work, I will then be checking your understanding of the topic through the marks you have given

2) Be constructive-don't just mark the question, give advice on how the response could be improved.

3)Use the exercise as a building block- This should help you and your group recognise your own revision needs for the NAB.

I intend to give the groups feedback time during a forthcoming lesson, where we can use the whiteboard to highlight strengths and development needs, and would love to see this exercise leading to a little more collaboration in your study. Think about how you can help each other address your revision needs-could it be a game, a small task, some wiki work? I also think that this is something that I could use with Higher soon in preparation for your first RLR past paper, something which requires an extended response unlike any of the exam style questions that you have been used to. We'll look at this at some point this week.

If Advanced Higher happen to be up late reading this post, I'll remind you that Ardentinny fieldwork, including stats testing must be handed in tomorrow. Mail it to my school account if you wish.

This post has taken forever to write- 'g' and 'm' are a bit hit and miss on my keyboard, so apologies if there are some strange looking words-I think I've checked and changed them all.