Mini Think Tanks and Crazy Big Tanks

What-what-what is a mini think tank?! Today we divided up into mini think tanks to work on a Technology-based lesson by Ms. Williams. I think there were 5 or so groups, and each group had a different author to research. Basically, each group member had a different role and contributed to the assignment in some way. There was a researcher (the person who researched as much information about the author as possible), a synthesizer (this person who went through the research to choose the most relevant and interesting information), and a designer (the person who gathered and organized all the information chosen and designed the slides for the Power Point presentation). Our group had Arthur Miller, and I think the whole "think tank" idea was perfect for this sort of activity! I liked having set roles, but I guess I would still be worried that one student would end up doing the majority of the work or something. If I used this activity in my classroom, I would definitely walk around the room to check how much progress is taking place and to give verbal cues on how much time is still left for the assignment. I also liked that the groups presented their Power Point at the end of class. This would be extremely beneficial in classes where students tend to be distracted or off-task. There is no other choice but to work as quickly as possible -That is, of course, if you want your full participation grade! :-)