The talk these days is about “increased rigor in instruction” and the like, so I’ve been doing more of what I’ve been doing all along: giving the students choice in relatively open-ended projects.
This week, for example, to apply their new found notes (I wouldn’t call it “knowledge,” yet) they are making posters about a subject of their choosing in the World Book volume I assign them. It’s rather simple, really: include five to ten interesting facts with six different text structures (bold face, headings, sidebars, etc.) plus an explanation of the encyclopedia writer’s organizational pattern (chronological order, cause and effect, concept/definition, etc.).
So far they’ve seemed to enjoy it:
“What’s an alcoholic beverage that begins with ‘T’?” asked WN.
“Tequila,” I said. “But your poster must be school appropriate.”
“Can I use this word on my poster about dogs?” KS asked, pointing to “bitch” on the encyclopedia’s list of dog terms.
“Use your best judgement,” I said.
“So I can, or I can’t?”
“Use your best judgement.”
“Can I do ‘Chicago’?” asked CB. “I can’t find it.”
“Sure,” I said. “If it’s in your encyclopedia.” I clapped him on the shoulder and kept meandering about the room while he said “Alright!” and continued looking through his volume, Ci-Cz.
Five minutes later he waved me over to say, “I figured out why I couldn’t find it.” I clapped him on the shoulder again.