Designing Creative Learning Activities to Differentiate Instruction & Assessment
Want to design lessons that get them begging for more? Interested in trying to incorporate more cooperative learning activities into your lessons? What if you could assess student learning in a way that's fun for both you and them? Designing and using games in the classroom can not only help keep students interested but also can be a creative instructional and evaluation tool. In this class, we will investigate the value of games and other student-centered activities as avenues of differentiated instruction and assessment. Within an exploration of cooperative learning structures, we will design new and innovative lessons to bring back to your classroom.
Teachers enrolled in this course will...
Know
- The 4 basic principles of a cooperative learning activity.
- What a cooperative learning “structure” is.
- How to use cooperative learning to introduce new content, review learned material and evaluate of student learning.
- What a base group is and how it can be a valuable teambuilding tool in the classroom.
- The advantages of using a small group cooperative game rather than a whole class review game
Understand
- The academic and social benefits of using cooperative learning structures & games in the classroom.
- How the basic principles of differentiation can be addressed through using cooperative learning in the classroom.
- The difference between heterogeneous & homogeneous grouping in cooperative activities and when it is appropriate to use them
and Be Able To
- Use Blind Sequencing, Roundtable, Numbered Heads, Fact or Fiction and several other cooperative learning structures in their classrooms.
- Evaluate whether or not an activity is structured to encourage cooperation in the classroom.
- To create small group cooperative games of their own that will work in all subjects and grade levels without too much effort and expense
Teacher: Dawn Nachtigall