We recently talked with superstar teacher Brad Clarke (interview here) about his use of Albert in a discussion-centered classroom. We were so inspired, we created a guide to help you do the same!
An advantage of a discussion-centered classroom is that students can dig deep into the content, engage in enriching conversations, and learn from one another. One thing that’s not so great is that without formal lecture, it can be hard to ensure that the entire curriculum is covered. Regardless of how often you facilitate discussions, Albert is the perfect tool to supplement your classroom. Assigning work on Albert means students will never miss a beat — especially if the material is not covered fully in class.
Here’s how you can make the most of Albert in a discussion-centered classroom:
- Assign Albert as homework consistently.
- Perhaps a set of questions is due every Friday or every Monday.
- When engaging with rigorous questions becomes a habit for students, they’ll start to make connections between the content they interact with on Albert and the content discussed in class.
- Require students to make corrections on questions they get wrong.
- Ask students to share what they learned from Albert’s explanations the following day.
- Why did they get that question wrong? What did they misunderstand? How did the explanation provide more context? When students explain their thinking, they learn more effectively.
- Check out student data and pick a few tough questions to analyze in class.
- This can be a great place to spark debate! If 40% of the class chose A and 40% chose C, Why?
- What was enticing about the distractor? It can be fun (for you — torturous for the students) to withhold the correct answer until the class reaches a consensus 🙂
- Pro- tip: when making assignments, there is an option to hide explanations and correct answers until after a specific due date.