Today was the first lesson taught and while the class was small and consisted of two students it was very beneficial for everyone. Students were given the option to choose (based on when they arrived to class) which vegetable they would like to research in regards to their community garden. The options were Spinach, Lettuce, Kale, Rainbow chard, and Radishes. In front of them consisted of a sheet of paper with five pre determined questions that they needed to research about their specific vegetable.
One of the things that was done different with this is that computers were already set up randomly throughout the computer lab and preset on a specific kid friendly search engine website. The purpose of this was to move students away from one another to avoid disruptions of their time in the computer lab as well as to guide them away from the simple use of Google.
I believe that this lesson went really well. I could easily see the two student working diligently on their questions and asking when something did not make sense or when they could not find any results. When results were not found however, we sat together and discussed how we might reword our search in order to possibly find it another way without altering websites.
One student finished early and began using the desired website to create a digital poster (Glogster.edu).
From this lesson I did learn that it is important to word things as simple as possible. There was one predesigned question that confused students on what they should be researching. After discussing it and explaining what I was looking for, both understood. It really goes to show how easily our brains think in different ways. Something that makes sense to me will not always make sense to someone else, including my own students. Clarification is the key!
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