Videos of “Tell Tale Heart” Mock Trial
Great Job,
Until Next Time,
Mrs. Ritchie
The “Tell Tale Heart” Mock Trial occurred on November 2nd. Roles were selected a week before the trial which consisted of: Defense Team, Prosecution Team, Witnesses- Detectives & Neighbors, and the Jury. Group members were selected based on interests and ability level. A week prior to the trial date, all groups worked hard in preparation for the big day! Defense, Witnesses and Prosecution prepared opening statements, questions, summaries, and closing statements by citing textual evidence for the jury. While they were working, the jury helped the other groups by researching and developing a presentation of important courtroom rules & terminology. This presentation allowed the other groups to practice trial flow and learn about courtroom basics to assist them at “trial”. The honorable Judge Jason Curran presided over this court session and asssisted the students with trial flow. I was the bailiff who helped answer questions, assisted with witnesses & jury while the court was in “recess”. Grace A. (8R) and Mari C.(8H) were the court reporters and filmed the Mock Trial! Every student had an important role that assisted their group to be successful at the Mock Trial. Without the effort of the whole class, this would not have been as effective as it was! For Teachers: Think of this as a “Jigsaw” within a “Jigsaw”! No matter how hard you prepare, sometimes there are things that do not go as expected. One concept that was challenging during the trial was the direct examination & cross examination of witnesses. The students practiced hard in class, but nerves can get the best of us. Even though students recognized this as the weakest portion of the Mock Trial, they still prepared for it very well (even though that concept didn’t transfer as well as we hoped it would in the moment). Videos of “Tell Tale Heart” Mock TrialAll in All, both juries resulted in a guilty verdict due to reasons of insanity. The kids had a blast and I had multiple requests to do another Mock Trial again this year!
Great Job, Until Next Time, Mrs. Ritchie
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Over the last year, educational escape rooms have been growing more popular and I have been dying for an opportunity to bring this concept into my classroom. Halloween was the perfect time to introduce this! I decided to adapt this concept and modify an escape room created by “Taylor Teaches 7th” (a fellow teacher I met online) who is just as passionate as I am in creating an engaging learning environment! The ‘Transitions Escape Room’ was a perfect blend of digital and physical which made my 7th & 8th graders develop key skills in problem solving, critical thinking, collaboration, character and social skills. Students were divided into heterogenous cooperative learning groups. Each group was given an envelope of different tasks to complete. These tasks ranged from categorizing, ordering, and identifying transitional words and phrases. Every task had an embedded number codes that these groups needed to correctly find and input on a google form link! Once all codes were entered, the group “escaped” and won a special prize in celebration of Halloween! Muhahaha! These tasks were not as easy as described! Limits were tested... frustrations were had... but great teamwork and perseverance occurred! It was even more amazing when I told the kids they needed to rely on group members only, and took a step back, did I realize just how valuable “failure” can be! All in all, the kids and I enjoyed taking part in this Breakout Edu game! We definitely enjoyed ourselves and without knowing, the kids learned some valuable lessons as well! I hope to implement another 'escape room' soon!
Until Next Time, Ritchie |
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