A quick add-on to yesterday’s post about timely interventions during student-led projects.
It’s worth mentioning that some of my colleagues have been experimenting with what Paul Ginnis calls ‘observer servers’, but one what one of the SMART team christened ‘Mini-Nick and Margaret’ – students who leave their groups and whose job it is to go and observe the workings of the different groups. They then deliver their verdict during a plenary session.
Feedback from those who used it is that is very effective both in focussing students during the task (‘they all shut up when X appeared with his clipboard’) and during the plenary, being a lot more direct than many teachers would (or could?) be.