Summary
The lesson was built to have the students design and create a way to teach the comma rules to another person or a group of people. Students brainstormed project ideas as a class. Students grouped themselves based off of their project preferences. After groups formed, students assigned roles to each group member. The class then created a rubric together to best represent the common skills and requirements that should be evaluated for each group. Groups synthesized the information they found and knew about the comma rules and teaching to build their projects. Once complete, students reflected on their group collaboration, their role as a critical thinker and teacher, and their creativity throughout the process. The goal was to have students focus on the process and stretch themselves to reach others in a beneficial way.
TIPC Ratings
Students had to research the comma rules beyond my initial instruction in order to create a project that would be able to teach and explain. The students used a variety of sources – text books, class notes, the internet – to find the information they needed. The students also researched ideas and content to help inform their videos, posters, and murals. The students had to determine which information to use and how to best incorporate it into their project.
Students self-selected groups based on project preferences and created their own group roles. They had to choose a project format and tools that would best benefit a collaborative environment. The students had to reflect on their group’s collaboration and their contribution to the collaborative environment in order to create norms for future group projects.
Students were given the task to find a way to teach someone the grammar rules involving comma usage. The students had to first determine how they would teach someone. They then had to determine the best teaching strategies for their chosen format. The students had to reflect on their role as a critical thinker and teacher in order to inform future “teaching” projects and opportunities.
Students had to synthesize the information they knew about comma usage and the information they discovered about comma usage to design a project to teach others about the comma rules. The students had to reflect on their creativity and its effectiveness in order to inform future “teaching” projects.
