Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Logic macho...

Today I tried something different in logic...

I divided the class into groups -- with at least one A student per group -- and an even distribution of so-so students and poor students.

I assigned each group a problem to do and told them to write a legible proof.

I put the proofs on the data projector and we talked about them.

I did this instead of doing much of a 'lecture' -- about the new rules. I briefly discussed the rules and then had them work with the rules and ask questions as they came up.

The results were pleasing -- we discussed many more problems than we would have using other methods. Students discussed what to do and how to do it -- and helped one another pretty well.

I like this method enough to do it again -- and next semester!

1 comment:

julie said...

Yep, I do stuff like this, too: get the students to do the work and then talk about what they discover.

Yesterday, the "problem" was reading an essay that used APA citation style and changing the citations (both in-text and end) to MLA style, which is what we're required to teach in FYC (which I hate, personally).

The students ask TONS of questions, they look up the resources they need to use in order to do citations correctly, and they argue with me and each other: always good!