Tutorial+Designers

Tutorial Designers

Tutorial Designers are students who record their problem solving as they are solving a problem and explaining what they are doing as they solve the problem. It can relate to any subject, not just math. For example, in Social Studies, students could record their group acting out a role from some part of history and have it shared with other students. These recordings would be put on a website for all to view.

Students at Spring Garden can become tutorial designers by being given a task to record that reflects a need in greater student achievement for the school population. For example if students are having difficulty with the concept of regrouping, a recording and explanation by different students can be created and shared with struggling students. Learning from other students, and having explanations put in "kid terms" can help other children learn.

Recording conversations of hypothesis in science can be helpful for other students. It can trigger other thoughts from other students.

Using Camtasia ([|www.techsmith.com]) to allow students to record the actions being preformed on their computer screens while also recording their explanations about how to solve each problem is a great tool to allow the students to orally rehearse their thinking when being asked to communicate in writing about their thinking (BCRs). Children find it extremely difficult to put their thoughts into writing and need so much practitice to do so, this allows practice without having to do the written piece.

Using the site (www.mathtrain.tv) empowers the students to troubleshoot their own problems on their own and also allows the students to show their learning in a different fashion than is typically found in the classroom.

Students at Spring Graden Elementary can become tutorial designers by finding students using/demonstrating proper use of skills, teamwork, cooperation etc. Students can be given a camcorder to video record students during class then use the videos at the end of class to review.