Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Turning the Tables

     This entry is a little different from previous entries because I haven't done anything yet. This entry is to set up what is going to happen over the course of the next week or two. Since I've been lying all semester I thought I would turn the tables on myself and give the students a chance to lie to me.Everyday my students come into the classroom under the impression they must have all the answers, or many of them (if that were the case I wouldn't have a job). Today, I will be introducing the research project for this unit. The topic is spices and the project is to do a comprehensive look at the spice of choice. The class will be doing the same project like in previous classes with a twist, they must put in one lie. My rational for this is pretty simply, its hard to find and develop lies, in fact, it takes a great deal of research to find material which isn't obvious to the learner (in this case will be me).


     With the experience I have in this realm I figure, I'm setting myself and the class up for the best set of presentations I've had from them all semester. Since, I've been doing this project for years(or at least a variation of the project) and have heard almost everything there is to hear on the subject they will be presenting. Obviously, I plan on introducing the project to the students today by telling them about my extensive knowledge in this area and the difficulty they could have in stumping me. I think if I introduce it this way they will see my words as a challenge and encourage them to one up me. Now this is the plan but only time will tell how well they learned the material for making a great lie.

     One last twist to this is if they get the lie past me I will award them bonus points for stumping the self proclaimed “expert.” Now anyone who has been following this blog knows I make no pretenses of beingan expert but to them I do. I figure it will make the challenge of finding and/or creating good lies more rewarding. However, knowing the nature of kids, I fear they will talk to their friends about their projects and what they are doing inadvertently leaving the cat out of the bag. So, one last perk will be I'll give to give additional points if they can get the lie past their classmates. If the class figures out the lie they get the points otherwise the bonus goes to the group who presented. If anything this should be an interesting set of presentations in the coming week. This entry won't be complete for a few weeks so I will revisit it after the presentations.

Lesson: When this is all done I hope the students, through their own research learn a lot about the topics being presented.

Next entry: ?

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