2010-J-Chad

=Journal=

Instructions

 * For your first entry, double-click the text below and replace it with your content
 * Place each new entry at the top (in reverse chronological order)
 * Begin each entry with the day's date

=Entries=

January 29, 2011

At the beginning of the year, my students were anxious about the video projects I was asking them to complete, but now that they have some informal experience with video equipment, they are thrilled. Every week, I ask students to take part in a "Documentary Station" activity. They work with a group of classmates to prepare and record a 1-2 minute speech related to their educational experiences this year. My end goal will be for students to create a short documentary that chronicles and analyzes their learning styles, preferences, and achievements. In the meanwhile, however, Documentary Stations are a valuable time management tool in my classroom. While groups of students are working on their weekly documentary videos, I use the time to meet with small groups of students in guided reading activities. Because students at the stations are highly engaged and motivated to film, I've been able to provide daily, small group reading instruction to each student enrolled in my Reading class. My current students are receiving twice as much small group reading instruction when compared to the students I taught last year.