Gallery Walk

Hey, it's Tuesday already. The days are flying by. Today students completed their vocabulary Running Word Walls. By the way, we cut them into poster size so I'm not really sure what they would be called. Anyway, they are poster like with the term, a definition, a sentence, and an illustration representing one of the eight vocabulary terms for the Greece government section of our study. Tomorrow they will walk around and gather information from their class mate's posters to help them complete a vocabulary graphic organizer. We also viewed a CNN Student News report on current events and talked very briefly about 9/11. We pushed out a video clip called The Man Who Walked Between The Towers. I have included it below if you are interested.

Focus Sheet Explained

Each unit or major area of study Mrs. Cobb and I put together a tool we call a Focus Sheet. This tool is designed to be student friendly and student useful. A few years ago we offered a Study Guide and over the years student feedback led us to trim down and shape up our study guide into a more useful tool. It had become just another piece of "homework" students had to labor over and our goal was for it to be useful in preparation for assessments and for students to be able to self assess their own learning. Thus, the reasoning behind displaying the Learning Targets section with self assessment "sliders" included. We also wanted a place to display vocabulary terms that would be needed for the area of study. Lastly, we included some study strategies that we would use and teach students along the way. After we teach a few of them, students may pick and choose the one that works best for them giving them ownership and choice. I have included a video ShowMe screen cast that explains the Focus Sheet. This entire concept has been fluent and a work in progress.