Student Teachers

Categories: Urban, Rivers
Had a decent lesson with S3 this morning, where we started looking at river features in detail. I talked the class through both diagrams and explanation for the formation of a v-shaped valley. In an attempt to move away from relying on powerpoint and teacher talk too much, I then split up a number of river features among the class from upper course to lower and set a Student as Teacher activity. Students were given 15 minutes to research their given feature, and afterwards had to teach the class how to explain the formation. Certain rules were outlined. No group would be allowed to read directly from their notes. If any notes were taken to use during presentation, they had to be simple prompts. The groups would be given 3 minutes to present, 2 minutes to prep diagrams at the board, and one minute where they would be talking to the class. We then set up a random group picker to sort the order. Groups may or may not have to present. Although we never managed to hear the presentations, this is our starter for next period. Some groups were very worried about speaking to the class, and others about the time. I equated it to the exam, where students will only have a short time to organise their thoughts and will have a set time to get through the paper. We will be giving two stars and a wish after each group. I think some groups really seem to have grasped it, while others are naturally taking a little longer, but the class worked purposefully throughout and I'm looking forward to hearing their efforts.
With s4 (here in a few minutes, I'm planning a quick word association starter using classtools (all settlement topic terms/themes), looking at out of town developments, but might sneak Charley in New Town into the lesson, both the video above and a text version of the transcript. It will also help students re-examine reasons for inner city change as well as the reasons for new towns themselves.