Semester Project 2

Title: Group Co-teaching


Purpose:

This activity is designed to help students experience performance-based assessment and collaborative learning. Students will also have an opportunity to teach a mini lesson to their own peers.

Objectives:

• Engage in collaborative project-based learning
• Experience the preparation and delivery of instruction
• Develop habits for reflection on your own teaching

Student Activity:

Form groups of two to three individuals. Each group will be responsible to prepare and teach a thirty-minute lesson based on one of the chapter topics from the textbook. The instructor will assign groups to their topics. Each group will be responsible for the following: (1) present an overview of the main themes introduced in the chapter, (2) create an activity that would demonstrate your topic to the class, (3) introduce relevant field observation experiences, and (4) create handout materials.

Once the instructor assigns your group to a topic, conduct your first meeting. By the end of this meeting you should have a timeline and division of team roles. E-mail this information to your instructor. Each group will be given two weeks to prepare their lesson.

Additionally, each individual with the group will be responsible to write a four- to five-page reflection paper on: (1) what concepts you learned from this project were personally meaningful, (2) what you learned about working in groups, (3) how these learning experiences will affect your future teaching, and (4) peer evaluation of how much effort each individual put in the project on a scale of 1 to 5, 1 being the lowest effort and 5 being the highest. Your reflection paper is due a week after you conduct the lesson.

Your teaching performance, prepared materials, and reflection paper will be assessed according to the following rubrics.

Rubrics:

Teaching Performance

	A lot			None
Clarity of Presentation Represented By: Organization of material	4	3	2	1	0
Evidence of Understanding of Material Represented By: Clarity of explanations of terms introduced in presentation	4	3	2	1	0
Professionalism Related to Teaching Represented By: Appropriate use of visual aids, engagement of audience, and assessment strategies	4	3	2	1	0
Relevancy of Activity Introduced Represented By: the activities introduced during class hour	4	3	2	1	0

Reflection Paper

	A lot		None
Clarity for articulating concepts learned	2		0
Clarity for articulating learning from groups	2	1	0
Affect future teaching	2	1	0

Assessment:

What were the strengths and weaknesses of your paper according to the rubrics provided above?

Variations:

1. After the lesson presentations, discuss and analyze the instructional approaches chosen by each group. Also discuss how you might use the approaches presented in your own future teaching.
2. Instead of thirty-minute lessons at any point in the semester, present near the end of the semester for ten to fifteen minutes, on topics or concepts that are mentioned or alluded to only briefly (e.g., home schooling, Montessori schools, accelerated schools).