MadameTechie's posterous

My students need LOTS of repetition to master a concept, yet when I'm grading it is I who sees the material most. Each kid sees a question once, and I see it up to 33 times (when grading). I don't need this exposure...the kids do! I am a project-based educator, but in order to lay the foundation, there are certain basic skills that have to be aquired first by drill-and-practice (which the kids claim is "soooo boring"). My level 3 students are working on a travel unit, and we began a discussion on the various prepositions used in travel: in a place, to a place, from a place. The French prepositions aren't consistent with those used in English, so practice is important. So I began asking myself, "How can I flip the system so the students see it 33 times?" I began to envision a project with VoiceThread.com...here's what we've got so far:

Each student was tasked with finding an interesting picture of at least one person traveling abroad. We used flickr and several other photo sharing sites. From there, each student created their own VoiceThread with that photo. Yes, you read correctly. I DID NOT set up the VoiceThread - the kids did. Then we shared the links on our edmodo site. Each student will record a brief audio for every VoiceThread (they'll state where the people are, where they are from, and one creative comment). The maker of the VoiceThread will moderate the comments and provide feedback on the pronunciation, syntax, grammar, etc of the audio. The class agreed on a simple rubric.

My hope is that as the students assess each other's audio, they'll challenge one another (and I'll be floating around the room making sure this is constructive and not damaging). They'll really be listening to each other to verify that the correct prepositions were used. This experience alone is productive, but I also hope that the feedback from every classmate will help kids identify their area of improvement. Each student will record thirty-two comments (they won't comment on their own), but he/she will also listen to and assess the thirty-two comments on his/her photo! Then, at the end of the process, each student will have 32 rubrics with feedback to consider. Throughout the process, I'll listen to comments based on student request (to help them assess), but it will be the students who are exposed repetitively without feeling like a typical drill-and-practice environment.

It sounds so exciting...let's see how this goes on Monday!