Building Interactive Activities

Jill A. Aguilar, PhD

Mount St. Mary’s College

September 17, 2010

Adapted fromhttp://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/coopcollab/exploration.html

Steps to Building Interactive Activities

• Form a question.

• Identify goals.

• Create Rubrics.

• Assign a specific assessment task.

• Reflect to adjust.

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:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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?

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?

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?

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?