Today my Year 7 ICT Class were working on a hefty spreadsheet task. The task involved lots of formatting of cells, cell referencing, formulas and cloud based retrieval of work.
I was pretty sure that there would be a steady stream of questions (identical questions in many cases) so pupils had to write on the board if they had a problem. Everyone had to keep an eye on the board and if they knew an answer to one of the questions, they could go and help out, but only by advising what to do and not doing it for them. One condition, they could only go and help with a question if they had fully completed that one on their own spreadsheet!
The buzz in the room was amazing as they all squirrelled around trying to help the most people in order to grab the merits up for grabs! The productivity of the class was increased compared to doing this task alone and the spreadsheet help provided simply confirmed individuals own knowledge as they applied it with their peers!
See the pictures below of some pupils writing questions and rubbing off ones they had solved!