Numbers, Units and Mechanics/Timing Guide
This guide complements the final worksheets (and PowerPoint version), but please have a look at these so you know when you should display certain slides.
Activity 1 (work alone or together, 10 min)
You should allow a total of 10 minutes for students to complete Activity 1.
Activity 2 (work alone or together, 10 min + 5-10 min for instructor to show/discuss answers, total time elapsed = 25 - 30 min)
You should allow 10 minutes for students to complete Activity 2, before spending a further 5 to 10 minutes flashing the solutions up to Activities 1 and 2 (PowerPoint) so that they can all see what the correct answers were (and some examples of re-written sentences). If you are running short on time, parts of Activity 2 can be skipped; there are four multiple-choice questions, so you could simply ask students to consider the first two if you are in a hurry. They can always complete the others outside of class if they are interested in doing so.
Activity 3 (work together, 10 min, total time elapsed = 35 - 40 min)
You should allow 10 minutes (or however much time you have remaining) for students to complete Activity 3. They must write a short story (100-150 words) comprising all the mechanics in Table 2 on their worksheets. There is a similar activity on the post-class assignment, so it is a good idea for them to have a go at this. As above, if you are running short on time, you can ask students to complete this activity outside of class. However, try to leave enough time so that their partners can critique the parts of their work that they have completed (even if this is just a few sentences of their short story). This will allow them to tackle Activity 4 (a very short assignment to complete outside of class).
Final Slide (~30 sec)
Before students leave, you should show the final slide in the PowerPoint, which shows an example of a short story comprising just two sentences that incorporates all the mechanics required of ‘Partner B’ in Table 2 (Activity 3). Stress that this is just an example, but it might give some inspiration to anyone struggling a little bit, and who wants to complete the activities outside of class.
Activity 4 (take home, ~ 5 min)
You should encourage students to tackle the ‘homework’, which will not take long to complete. It is designed to make them think about editing their work based on peer feedback (from both a mechanics and content-based angle). They are asked to improve the quality of the short story they wrote and received feedback on in Activity 3.