Cooperative Reading Square
We started the lesson with students creating question dice from a template. They really enjoyed this part!!
The students then listened while I read a section of When The Kehua Calls. They then rolled their dice in pairs and asked a question of the piece of text. They wrote this separately to the following activities.
Students were given a task each – in groups of four. These were doled out according to their birthdates. They seemed to enjoy this although lots of questions were asked. I told them to be brave. The instructions that came with the original activity said that students will need to be explicitly taught the skills required. In the next lesson I will take them through what is expected for each part. Perhaps come up with four 5 minute activities that we could do at the start of the lesson.
Generally they seemed to enjoy it…but when I asked for a show of hands I got mainly 2/3 out of 5 for enjoyment and a 4/5 out of 5 for understanding. Will go into more detail next time as to why they didnt enjoy it. I think splitting them up into different groups had an impact but it is good to get them working with students they might not otherwise work with.
