This is a post I was asked to write many weeks ago and have finally gotten around to doing it. In a prior #sschat on Twitter there was a conversation about groups and how to organize groups in classes. I shared a way in which I do a “creative” grouping activity in conjunction with introducing some early forms of Ancient Greek government. I tried to write it out, but was struggling to have it make sense in writing…so, I made a screen cast instead. Enjoy!
Josh:
ReplyDeleteExcellent! Thanks for sharing this!
I do something a 'bit' similar to teach the Electoral College. I give students cards with numbers on them and then we vote on something (Pizza or Ice Cream for tomorrow's class). As each cast their hand vote, I ask them for the number on their cards and use that as the vote total.
It almost always comes out that the less 'popular' vote wins due to having an overwhelming number of electoral votes (from the cards).
[Of course, I do help things along by 'randomly' giving big numbers to the students who will likely vote against the flow..]
They quickly get the concept that a few heavy hitters tip the scale quickly.
Josh:
ReplyDeleteExcellent! Thanks for sharing this!
I do something a 'bit' similar to teach the Electoral College. I give students cards with numbers on them and then we vote on something (Pizza or Ice Cream for tomorrow's class). As each cast their hand vote, I ask them for the number on their cards and use that as the vote total.
It almost always comes out that the less 'popular' vote wins due to having an overwhelming number of electoral votes (from the cards).
[Of course, I do help things along by 'randomly' giving big numbers to the students who will likely vote against the flow..]
They quickly get the concept that a few heavy hitters tip the scale quickly.