A group of my students sharing information with each other.

This week in social studies, my students have been studying major navigation systems of the world. We have looked at such rivers and canals as the Mississippi River, Amazon River, Panama Canal, etc. On Friday I introduced a new activity to my students to expand on our knowledge about navigation systems. We used an activity called “find someone who”, which is apart of the  Kagan Cooperative Learning Structures.

Each student was given a packet of information (three major rivers/canals) and a set of incomplete class notes over rivers and canals. It was the responsibility of the each student to acquire the information needed to complete the class notes. Once each student had their information,  I gave them 3 easy steps to follow to complete this exercise:

1. Find Someone – I would yell to the students “find someone who has….the Panama Canal”. Students then had to find their classmates that had the information on the Panama Canal.
2. Pair Up – Students that did not have the information would find the others that did.
3. Teach – Students would the desired information would then teach the information to the other student(s). I would allow 2-3 minutes for this step then rotate again.

This would go on until every student had completed their notes with the correct information. Below is a short video of me explaining a couple of quick reminders to my students to remember during this exercise.

This activity was very worthwhile and provided several positives for my students and myself. It provided a new way for my students to acquire information that did not involve lecturing. It also provided them with a  great opportunity to interact with their classmates while discussing classroom topics…..and it promoted learning through movement by moving about the room and acquiring information from fellow students.

Mr. McClung