Class Marker

This was my first experience of creating a personalised quiz on line for my students. The steps were clear to navigate my way through to produce a test for a class I created. I was impressed with the options the program gave you regarding the "rules". Choosing if the students are allowed to go back to a question, if they can save it and return later or if you want to advise the pass mark etc. I designed a number facts quiz. To view the quiz go to www.classmarker.com and log on as gemma313, the password is mccarthy.

I recently did a lesson on note taking with a grade 5 class in which they were separated into 6 groups to each read a different piece of text on Satellites. The task was for them to write the key points of the text. After they did this I asked them individually to write a key point down, it had to be different from their peers. Half the class was then to stand in a circle facing outwards and the remainder of the class to form an outer circle facing a partner. The outer circle told their partner the fact and moved clockwise to tell each student in the inner circle the fact. The circles then swapped positions and repeated the activity. I then asked each student to tell the class a new fact they had learnt. In the future I would now like to add a class marker quiz to conclude the lesson. I would group them again but differently so each group had a wealth of different facts from the six pieces of text and collaboratively the students would answer the quiz. McInerney & McInerney, 2006 advocate collaborative learning as a constructivist method for fostering cognitive processes because peer discussions help the coding of information into memory through the need to explain, elaborate and summarise to group members. Additionally the mix of abilities, learning styles and view points towards the learning task within groups fosters divergent thinking. Shneiderman and Kearsley, 1999 also propose the Engagement theory is based upon the idea of creating successful collaborative teams. It emphasises collaboration among peers contributes to meaningful learning.