New Activity

We were going to be studying the political responses to the Depression and I am in the midst of this activity:

1. Use the Jot Thoughts thinking structure first. Have the kids cut a piece of notepaper into 16 equal rectangles (I walked them through some simple folding to give them guidelines). Once all of them have their pile of paper, tell them that you are going to give them a concept and they will have exactly a minute to write down the first 16 things that come to mind (many won't be able to get 16). They cannot discuss or look at their team's answers (they are in teams of 3 or 4 by the way but this can work for pairs). After the minute is up, they lay out their cards. For the next 4 minutes, the team must sort their ideas into piles/categories. Make sure everyone places their own cards into the piles. I had some kids give their cards to others to sort. At the end of the four minutes, teams must be ready to identify how many categories and to name the categories. Use numbered heads to increase individual accountability when selecting reporters. I gave them the concept of "political parties" for this one. Results were excellent without exception.
2. Students are given the fourth learning portfolio activity of the unit: Creating a report card to evaluate King and Bennett.
3. To prepare them for the portfolio activity, students are given the team challenge to create a political party that is able to solve the problems of the Depression. They must complete a worksheet first to get some background knowledge. The activitiy will take 2 classes and the learning portfolio activity is due next week.