January 21, 2011

  • What if I built my entire class, or 85% of it even, on problem-solving? I was talking to another math teacher today about that very thing... in his class, students have math problems to figure out and they complained to him that they took too long to figure out. He just told them to write down what they knew based on what was given. Person A get 5% on his savings account while Person B get 7%, etc. etc.

    I think I could've done a bit of that for my project we'll complete on Monday in class. Taking the idea of the LIFE board game and adding something different in each class. For example, in my English 110 class, they have to add elements of the Writing Process. How would that LIFE board game look with those elements instead of the typical ones (career changes, marriage, babies, houses, etc.)? And with English 120, they are creating The Controversial LIFE board game. How can you make the typical LIFE board game more controversial?

    I could've just given them the questions above, but I added ideas and possibilities too. I may have to try, next semester, not giving them "samples" and see what happens. That makes me wonder if me overwhelming them with past student samples is that great of an idea...