Mount St. Mary's College Follow Up How to build interactive activities

1. Building Interactive Activities Jill A. Aguilar, PhD Mount St. Mary’s College September 17, 2010 Adapted from http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/coopcollab/exploration.html

2. Steps to Building Interactive Activities Form a question. Identify goals. Create Rubrics. Assign a specific assessment task. Reflect to adjust.

3. Form a Question Excellent questions form the bedrock for motivating small groups. A good question motivates students to ask, wonder, and discover in order to know. A quick checklist for small-group questions can help you get started. Good group questions should:

4. Checklist for Small-Group Questions Work from the known to the unknown. Allow for distinctive roles for each student. Encourage additional queries. Vary the techniques used for moving toward answers. Allow students create visuals such as charts, boards, overheads, and diagrams to present their ideas.

5. Identify Goals Foggy goals mean wasted time and poor motivation to learn. Group objectives, clearly stated, motivate students and offer precise directions to progress through the activity. Identify one or two significant objectives for any group task. Time spent in identifying clear objectives is time saved from reteachingcontent.

6. Create Rubrics Rubrics provide a tool to guide students' expression of knowledge as they solve problems. They also help students and teachers to assess the group work accurately.

7. Assign Specific Assessment Task Match related learning approaches. Engage with desired content. Enable students to develop their interests and abilities. Involve authentic events. Create meaningful challenges for students.

8. Reflect to adjust Reflect on questions about content: What main goal did the group address today? What knowledge did each member contribute? How? What did the group not learn about the topic? Why? What can the group do differently to accomplish more? What content did members find interesting? Did members possess enough background knowledge? What will future group goals be to ensure completion of its goals?

9. Reflect to adjust Reflect on questions about process: How much time did each member spend talking? Who talked most? Why? Did members question each other and wait for responses? How do members motivate each other to participate? Did motivation efforts work? Why or why not?

10. Reflect to adjust Reflect on questions about attitude: What was I particularly good at during group work? How did I improve over the time we worked together? What do I still need to work on?

11. Reflect to adjust Reflect on questions about work habits: How would I describe my work and cooperation? Did I contribute regularly as we worked together? What learning goals did I set and which ones did I achieve during this time together?

12. Reflect to adjust Reflect on questions about growth: What three areas still need development most? What areas do I need help to improve? What advice would (or did) other group members give me?