How to balance workloads for different mock trial roles
Building a project from the ground up requires defining rubrics, prep, and research for every distinct part to ensure a balanced workload. This often leaves teachers unsure if they are over-complicating the activity, especially when trying to assign enough basic research to passive roles like jurors.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
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How to balance workloads for different mock trial roles
- 1Requiring jurors to write out the reasoning for their voteDid this help you?
- 2Having witnesses write deposed affidavits so they have a deliverableDid this help you?
- 3Switching to more open-ended debates instead of formal mock trialsDid this help you?
- 4Acting as the judge to maintain order and explain proceduresDid this help you?
- 5working evenings and saturdaysDid this help you?
- 6cramming testing at the end of the projectDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I'm trying to think through everything from the ground up, what kind of research to lead them to, what I'll be looking for on the rubrics, how to make it a balanced amount of work for each role, what I should have them do for prep, etc., etc.”source ↗
“Like, with the kids being jurors, I still want them to do enough basic research to understand the facts of what happened, and am considering like, having them pick a "character" ("I am a French merchant" or whatever) to play, but I'm not sure if that's over-complicating or biting off too much.”source ↗
“Asking because I keep seeing kickoff plans that say the core team will "support the project part-time" and then nothing on their calendar changes, so the project ends up getting evenings and saturdays and testing gets crammed at the end.”source ↗
“tbh I think the person who has to give the work away is the leader, since the team member can't just decide to stop doing half their job.”source ↗
Where this came up
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