Class time is devoted to allowing students an occasional period to work in the computer lab or in the library on their Internet research and to monitoring individual progress. On those days when the computer lab is not available for class use, the teacher can obtain feedback from several students on how they are progressing with their individual research. Oral reports on the research projects may be scheduled in one of several ways. For students planning to attend college, the outside research project will obviously be valuable. Also, the class as a whole will benefit from the oral reports on a variety of topics.
Many middle schools have at least four Internet-connected computer clusters in classrooms.
The Group Determined Content is very appropriate for such classrooms. The only difference between this format and the previous one is that students work in small groups, rather than individually, on an outside research project, as well as on the classroom exercises using the teacher-selected content topic. By this time in the course, teachers are very familiar with the different ability levels in the class, and should make heterogeneous group assignments so that weaker students can be assisted by more advanced students. In addition to the advantages mentioned for the previous format, this approach fosters peer learning.