Do you think it's ok for me to...

have my 7th and 8th grade students help me brain storm some ideas for music history projects? At this point, I've been teaching them for five years straight. They have an extensive background in music history from me and I want them to actually use their knowledge and apply it to a project, maybe something that goes along with their social studies units, too. All in all, I'm talking 20 kids in total here, since we're a small private school. So it wouldn't be like a gazillion kids throwing ideas out there. It'd be really fabulous, hard-working, higher-level thinking kids coming up with the ideas. That's ok, right? I just feel like I'd like to see them utilize the information I've armed them with for some sort of long-term project and I'd like to get them to buy into it by coming up with the project themselves.

Re: Do you think it's ok for me to...

i think its always good to enlist the ideas of the students - you get to see what they are interested in as well!

Re: Do you think it's ok for me to...

i think that is a great idea! It can also give them a feeling of ownership over what they are working on

Re: Do you think it's ok for me to...

Absolutely. Actually, you can explain that you are using Joseph Renzulli's 3 tier model. Tier 1 is whole group involvement. Tier 2 is an activity for the remainding interested children and Tier 3 is for a select few who choose independently to do something with a benefit. You can say that your lessons were Tier 1 and now this is Tier 2.

Re: Do you think it's ok for me to...

That would be a great idea....since you are enlisting your students help....help me figure out what to do with 4th graders and music

Re: Do you think it's ok for me to...

thats a fabulous idea

Re: Do you think it's ok for me to...

absolutely... isnt that what education is supposed to be all aobut? guiding the students in learning that is meaningful to them that applies and utilizes their prior knowledge? sounds great to me!