I had to chuckle when my 6th period class left for their break between class sessions (they get a five-minute break between 6th and 7th periods because we are together for both).
Usually, one or two students stay behind; however, every single one of them left the room.
They were tired. They had been working hard on our unit’s summative assessment…a summary paragraph of an article we read…one in which they were being required to cite evidence from the text.
As I looked at their tables, I was blown away by the work displayed…
I walked around and took pictures of individual assignments in progress…
If you look closely, you can see that we used a variety of strategies to closely examine one piece of text. They had to go into the text so many times that I’d be willing to bet that they can repeat, verbatim, much of it.
This is Common Core at its heart…using evidence to support conclusions.
It’s a tough thing for students to do, but I am excited as I watch students begin to make connections, and I trust that this will get easier every time we do it throughout the year.
Next week, I will have them reflect on how the various strategies helped them. Here’s a snapshot of the reflection sheet…a two-column graphic organizer I adapted for this purpose…
See what I mean about things getting exciting?! Good stuff, I’m telling you!!!!
Filed under: Teaching | Tagged: education, student reflection, teaching | Leave a comment »
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