10 Weeks No Tests Update V

Here is how I've decided to work in Wallwisher into my daily lectures with Prezi instead of using daily quizzes or chapter tests. I use my Gatsby Prezis to lead the discussion while I have students open to a page of links to various Wall I created for specific questions.When I come to an important part of the presentation, I tell students to click on a certain question and respond to the question. Once everyone has responded, I call on students to read a response another student posted. Here are a couple of examples of what students put together.








The kids loved this. When I asked them what was good about taking notes this way, multiple kids from different classes said it was nice to "hear" from different people in the class instead of the same 4 or 5 students.  Another student said it was nice to be able to see some other ideas when he was stuck and trying to figure out the best way to start. many said they liked feeling apart of the note giving process. They were creators instead of copiers. If that is not a ringing endorsement of what I was trying to do, I'm not sure what is.

I've decided to create Wallwishers for each class so they can post questions and answers to help one another as they start to work on their final assessments. One students apologized for not reading today, but said she got the gist of some of it because she spent some time online looking up information for hr final project. Ha!

I teach three sections of American Literature, so I will need to create a separate wall for each class and for each lesson. Maybe I should have all three classes work on the same wall. Tell me what you think about that.

Lastly, I've noticed that the students are more relaxed when they don't have the looming threat of a test over their head. It's nice to have students that are a bit more calm when it comes to learning. It makes the process a bit smoother for everyone involved.

Thanks for reading and I welcome any tips or suggestions as I head into the final weeks of this experiment.

- @TheNerdyTeacher

10 Weeks No Tests Update III

It's been a few weeks and I have been very tempted to give tests to my students to make sure they keep up with their reading. I had to fight those urges and think of alternative ways to assess their reading in class. This was not a very easy process. I tossed out adding more discussion questions because I did not want to add to that work assignment load. I thought of something kind of neat that seemed to work in class.

I had each student write down one question they had about the chapters they read from The Great Gatsby and turn them in. I used the questions in class to lead discussion. It was nice to see that many students had the same questions. It allowed me to see what some of the big issues were and address them to the entire group. Also, it was good for students to see that they were not the only ones that had the same question.

After it the class was over, I could see that the students who did not do the reading still learned from the conversation that was had, instead of being lost in the discussion. Also, they will be motivated to do the reading, some of them at least, so they can have their questions answered if they have any.


Also, I see that Wallwisher would be great with this assignment. I could have everyone go to the blank Wall and post their question anonymously. This allows students to ask any question they want and they can actually see that others had similar questions.  It's a simple use of tech to keep kids engaged during a class discussion on any topic for any class. Think about using Wallwisher for your next class discussion. I'll let you know when I try it next.