Presentation. Date: 11th February

Ana Escribano's reflection:

LOS MINIONS

The subject they decided to develop is Music, specifically the topic relating to orchestra. They used the “Jigsaw” technique and divided the lessons into 3 sessions.

In the first session, the students listened to Vivaldi’s classic “The four seasons”; even though this is a beautiful piece, it would have been a good idea to use a more contemporaneous song that the kids may recognize. This would prove that the exercise is relevant to their daily lives.

After forming the base groups, the students separate again to form the expert groups, as the “Jigsaw” technique describes. There, each group specializes in one family of instruments. In my opinion, the activities designed for each part of the process could have been more specified, it was not clear enough or I do not remember it.

The conceptual map activity in the second session is a good idea because each expert group will have to work together to do it their best; and it is an efficient way of summarizing great amount of information. 

I think that in the third session, when they return to the base groups, they do not do enough cooperative work, but the game idea is interesting.

Finally, an important part of the project was doing an individual diary, which is a good tool to encourage students to be conscious of their work and reflect upon it. However, I think that this should not be a central point of the project, since it was intended to teach students how to work cooperatively, so I would not have made the individual self-reflection a priority.