Mr Hickox came to my AP Psychology class last week and observed the lesson on Personality Disorders. Here is his write-up:
That was a good class for him to drop-in on; it was far more student-centered than most classes. Breaking the class up into small groups for the presentations was a far better strategy than having students present to the whole class. Generally, students do a poor job presenting to a whole class (in large part because they understand that I’m the one assessing them, and so they present to me) and being an audience for a whole-class presentation. But by breaking the class up into small teams to whom students presented, they felt more accountable to the group. Further, by following the presentations with a quiz on Personality Disorders, students were better audience members. All in all, I really liked the lesson plan and felt the class went quite well.