My initial plan was to have each student stand in front of the class and read their essay:| I'm so glad the thought of using the process of Edcamp came to mind instead. Students were more engaged in listening to the presenters, there was more conversation taking place than I've seen in the past, and students were less anxious knowing they only had to present to a small group and not the whole class. Since students selected their own topics of interest for this essay the Edcamp process worked great for sharing.
A few take away for me were: 1. Direct instruction in accountable talk. Some groups had a difficult time keeping the conversation going the entire 15-20 minutes. Reviewing accountable talk and have the talking stems out may have helped with this. 2. Group topics of similar interests in the same session. Several students wrote about video games, so lumping them into one session didn't allow a student to spend the entire hour only discussing video games. They really had to choose which game that wanted to discuss. 3. I'm still thinking about what to do when no one picks a student's session to go to? For today's purposes moving students into a group with no students worked, but sort of defeats the purpose of selecting what they're interested in. However, at this age I think many students went were their friends were:/
Overall it went really well. I'm looking forward to our next Edcamp, the last week of school. Students will have the opportunity to share something they are truly passionate about.
A few take away for me were: 1. Direct instruction in accountable talk. Some groups had a difficult time keeping the conversation going the entire 15-20 minutes. Reviewing accountable talk and have the talking stems out may have helped with this. 2. Group topics of similar interests in the same session. Several students wrote about video games, so lumping them into one session didn't allow a student to spend the entire hour only discussing video games. They really had to choose which game that wanted to discuss. 3. I'm still thinking about what to do when no one picks a student's session to go to? For today's purposes moving students into a group with no students worked, but sort of defeats the purpose of selecting what they're interested in. However, at this age I think many students went were their friends were:/
Overall it went really well. I'm looking forward to our next Edcamp, the last week of school. Students will have the opportunity to share something they are truly passionate about.