Yesterday I started a short unit on persuasion, and frankly with all the review and state testing this quarter, we're all ready to move on, and I should try to conjure up some inspirational teaching.
Only...I'm half sick and half tired. Floating.
I borrowed from ReadWriteThink a good activity that could be used at any level. I divided the students into groups and gave them the task to convince me that they deserved forgiveness on a missing assignment. Forgiveness means that I simply excuse them from the assignment so it doesn't count for or against them. To add a little motivation, I printed off their most recent grades. Very motivating! The groups were random and mixed, so there were students from each group who desperately desired forgiveness and students who had turned in every single assignment. (I offered extra credit for students who didn't need forgiveness. I rarely offer extra credit.)
After all the exhausting testing, it was a great activity to get the kids up and collaborating on a no-brainer task. Well, for some it was a no-brainer.
Some simply could not figure out how in the world they could persuade me to do anything.
(insert wicked laugh here)
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