Barnes Response 4.1

I like that the students are able to try and define the words on their own because this will encourage them to really internalize the meaning. However, I worry that they will spend a lot of time creating an incorrect definition of the words and will internalize the wrong definition. This could happen in any student led discussion/lesson though and we have learned about the advantages of student led class time so I think it would depend if the students have enough background knowledge to create correct definitions. Another option could be to give students definitions and then have them create the context and/or sentences that the word would fit with. Even better, you could have the students work with an adult to create the definitions so the adult can help lead the students in the right direction but students still need to interact with the words by adding in their own parts of the definitions and then creating sentences.

I really like that you allow students to use dictionaries/thesauruses. I think this is teaching students to use their resources. However, they can only use these if students are disagreeing on the definition so they are not solely relying on the dictionary and only copying down definitions. You would have to monitor the use of these resources so the students don’t write the definition word for word because this would defeat the purpose of them working towards creating a definition in their own words.