While reading chapter 10 in Tompkins, I came across an interesting idea: cubing. When cubing, the students pick a science or social studies topic. The class is then divided into six groups. Each group write about the topic with a different purpose. There are six categories to write about- description, comparison, association, analysis, application, and argumentation. After the students have had an opportunity to write about the topic from their angle, they share with the class, and then revise and edit their work together. The final copies are attached to a cube or box, which is then displayed.
I thought this was a really interesting and fun activity. I have never seen or heard of anything like this before. Has any one seen this used in a classroom? If so, what are the students' reactions to the idea?
4 comments:
I have never seen anything like this done before but I feel that it is a great way to get different areas of one topic covered. All the groups will be taking a different points of view and will be sharing with the class. When it all comes together it will be a full report about one topic. The students are able to pick the topic which will keep them motivated and will have other students to work with which will help if any student has questions. I feel that this would be a great way to tie to together a longer unit of study.
How would you use this idea in your furture classroom?
WOW! This is very interesting. What a great find Barbara. No, I have never heard or seen anything like this. Do you think that you will use this in your future classroom? What age group is this aimed towards?
I think alicia and christina's questions are really good so i will be interested to see what your responses are to them. I have never seen this before but it does sound engaging. I would be interested to see the students reactions to it and to see if they really like it. This would be an activity I would try in my classroom and then get feedback from the students on whether they enjoyed the activity or not.
I tried to think of a few ways in which this activity could be used in my Tuesday Experience classroom. The first thing I thought of was their Social Studies unit on Colonial America. Cubes could be made to compare and contrast different colonies. In science they are learning about electricity and magnetism. They could take six of the topics within their unit of study to put on the cube. It could even be used by one student, instead of groups of students. This class (5th grade) has to complete a science project, basically to summarize and show what they have learned in the unit, and they could do something like make one of these cubes for their project.
In Language Arts, the class is reading "The Sign of the Beaver" by Elizabeth George Speare. I am currently working on a lesson for this Friday based on the book. I am looking at doing some sort of activity as part of a character study. This cube is definitely one of my options.
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