The presentations were pretty good. Most of the students did not go quite far enough with their descriptions of dissolution. I think that is my fault, so I “fixed” it today so they could do their homework. By “fixed” I mean that I tried to do a guided modeling.
Many of my students are extremely nervous about getting up in front of people. Almost all the presentations involved the students just reading the paragraph that the writer had written. Not what I had in mind. Next time, I will be more clear that the presenter should try to present and explain in their own words. Notes are fine, but reading someone else’s work is not the goal. With some of the students it was pretty clear that they did not understand what they were reading.
This was not a bad start. My students have told me that they sometimes work in pairs. It is possible they have never worked in groups of four since entering high school (or earlier). Their reflections were very interesting. There was a certain amount of “everything was perfect,” and “I hate group work,” but many people really reflected. I find that hopeful. They really know nothing about what a good presentation or a good group project means though, they think about it in very simplistic, middle school (by which I mean simple, low standard) terms.
