differentiation
Claymation Characterization:
While learning about writing and describing strong characters our Short Story unit, students were asked to think about an existing character in a book, movie or TV show and write a paragraph describing that character, without actually naming the character, paying close attention to detail. They traded their paragraph with another student, who created a likeness out of modeling clay based on the information from the paragraph. After creating their masterpiece, students discussed whether they had given enough information for their partner to create the appropriate likeness of the character they wrote about. This led to a great discussion of descriptive writing and how to give details.
Not only was this a great learning experience, students were completely engaged the entire time. The kinesthetic link really helped to interest and excite the students!
The photos to the left are student exemplars from my LA 7 class.
Social Studies 10 Gandhi Eulogy Assessment:
During my PSII practicum, I taught a Social Studies 10-1/10-2 combined class. This was a great experience, learning to adapt assessments and curriculum to be able to teach all of the students at the same time, while ensuring each group got what they needed to be successful.
Click the links to the right to see how I adapted assessments in that classroom.
Independent Novel Study:
During my PSIII, Grade 7 students were given an at-home assignment of reading a book of their choice and creating either a diary, brochure or postcard to demonstrate the important themes and ideas of their book.
When I taught Grade 7 at R.I. Baker Middle School, this idea was developed further, working with the Grade 8 LA teacher. Together, we created the Book Talk Blog for students to write blog posts about the books they were reading.
Click the links to the right to see how students were assessed for this project.