Two or more heads are better than one!

This morning, during a lesson in our CEALL workshop, we were engaged in a lesson on alternative energy sources. A participant asked why we were using INSERT with the normal signs [check, plus, question mark] and wondered if we could have used W for "how this works"; A for advantage; and D for disadvantage. DUH! Of course! the I-chart was designed to focus the readers on how each alaternative energy source worked, the advantages and disadvantages of each one. Once Jaye suggested this, it seemed obvious that using the adapted coding would have been easier and would have further focused readers on the important information. However, another participant said that perhaps we needed to look at more than just that information . . . perhaps once students had read and coded their notes, they could go back and recode using the new codes -- what brilliant teachers we have in CEALL! The adaptations they suggested were right on target - and next time I use this lesson, I'll have readers code the text using a different set of codes. Truly, this shows how great it is to have colleagues to collaborate with!