Preparing for our Guest Speaker

Both classes sticky notes full of info about
what we had already learned. 

After NJASK, we were able wrap up our learning stage with a guest speaker from the gaming industry. To prepare for our conversation with Phil, my students brainstormed everything they had learned over the past two months. Students worked in pairs to jot down what they learned on sticky notes.

After we shared out I asked the students to work in groups to come up with three questions they wanted to ask Phil. Students came up with a range of questions for him, including what games he likes to play to why his company includes violence in video games. We had each group share out and as a class we voted on one question from each group that we wanted to ask Phil. In total between the two classes we came up with ten questions.

 I picked sticks to give fair chance for students to determine if they wanted to ask one of the questions. I told students they could pass if they didn't want to ask a question. I could have just as easily picked the students I knew would be more comfortable speaking up, but it was great to see particular students rise to the challenge of using strong voices to ask Phil our questions. And they certainly did surprise me and therefore I was glad I didn't choose them myself.

One class' questions for Phil. 

The other class' questions.