Category Archives: groups

Popsicle Sticks

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Most apps are about as exciting as furnace cleaning ads. It was with little hope that I searched for an app that would instantly and randomly create student teams. That was until I stumbled across Popsicle Sticks. Before I get into it, let me provide a little historical information for those of you who are in younger generations, the ones who are still under 60. In my old elementary school teaching days I would keep a can of popsicle sticks on my desk. Each stick had a student’s name on it. Whenever I wanted to randomly call on students to answer questions or randomly create teams I would pull popsicle sticks out of the can. It was simple and completely fair. It also got the student’s attention because they never knew whose stick would be pulled next.

You get the idea. So let’s move beyond the good old days. When I saw a random selection app called Popsicle Sticks after the memories came flooding back I gave it a close look. This program is even cooler than the original popsicle sticks in a can. Class and student names can be typed in or imported via a cvs file. The second method is quick and easy. Once the names are imported the app will randomly call student names each time the teacher pushes a button. It does this with a synthesized voice connected to your classroom speaker system. Not even you know which name is coming up next. How’s that for cool! It can also setup a scored discussion. The teacher can track every time a student gives a good or bad response during a discussion. And finally, the best for last, it randomly creates teams of any size you wish. What a great way to mix students for quick activities and projects. Never a dull moment, and everyone gets to meet everyone! Below is a screenshot of a set of teams I created with one click of a button. Let me know if you would like to know more about the awesome app.

Hot Seat Discussions, Part 2

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Remember my post on hot seat discussions? During my last round I added a new twist. It was such a big hit with my students I have decided to share the process. To recap, students are divided into teams of five. A topic is proposed. In this case we chose to discuss the place of transgender students in sports. This fit our study of 14th Amendment rights to equality.

The essential question we came up with was “Should transgender athletes be allowed to compete against cisgender athletes?” Keying on the essential question the class developed five supporting questions. The supporting questions are:

  1. Are male athletes, as a group, biologically superior to female athletes?
  2. Should there be separate competitions for male and female athletes?
  3. Should some sports be gender neutral?
  4. What defines a person as being transgender?
  5. How do we balance the concepts of competition and fairness in athletic competition?

One student in each team selected a supporting question to research. After completing the research we set up a day (or two in this case) for the discussion.

Beginning with the first supporting question, each student who researched the question took her or his place in the hot seat. Hot seat students then took turns volunteering to speak on their topic. Students were given a maximum of 30 seconds to speak in each round. Rounds continued until all hot seat students were finished adding new information. Other students were then given the an opportunity to ask questions. This process was repeated with new students for each question.

After the supporting questions were discussed the essential question was opened to the entire class for discussion. By this time many in the class were eager to discuss the essential question. Much information from the supporting questions was brought up during the discussion of the essential question.

Grading was rather simple. I gave students a check mark each time each time they spoke and crossed the check mark when they added new information. I added this to their research score for the final grade.

Student comments reflect the success of this assignment. Here are just a few.
” Listening to everyones different research and opinions opened my eyes to different outlooks and thought processes behind the topic.”
“I really enjoyed our discussion on transgender athletes and working to solve a difficult problem.”
“I thought researching and presenting an argument allowed me to be creative and stand up for what I believe in.”
“I thought the sub-questions were an effective way to tackle the question.”