Playing Catch Up
Objective
Big Idea
Do Now: Gather Materials
Today's Do Now asks students to gather all the materials needed to put together their portfolios:
- binder
- 7 pieces of loose paper, hole-punched
- 4 sticky notes, halved
- all course paperwork from the week
Using the Do Now to gather these materials will save time for class.
Portfolio Set-up
Class content? No. Necessary for success? Yes.
Students typically do not keep notes or assignments, despite strong suggestions to do so. Now that my final exam is a presentation of growth, it is more important than ever that students DO keep all their course materials. My solution is to set aside class time to create portfolios. This sets the tone that these portfolios are serious and ensures that they are done correctly from the start.
We read through the portfolio assignment sheet together and then take time to put all materials together in their proper order.
Metaphor Voting
Thanks (or lack thereof) to the technological crises of the week (iPad fails, iPad fixes, no bell schedule, wrong bell schedule--you name it, it went wrong), we ended up 20 minutes behind. Thus, today's lesson concludes with the evaluation of visual metaphors from the previous day.
Of course, students need time for review before presenting work done on previous days. I give 5 minutes to review and practice anytime there is a gap. Then students complete the visual metaphor activity as planned--group showdown followed by final, whole class voting.
Students meet with one other group first; they present their metaphor and then listen to the other group's presentation. Then, they vote as to who will go on the showdown, looking for the most logical metaphor.
In the showdown, I again emphasize logic before groups present. Check out some winners in the resources section. These groups made sometimes humorous connections which just made sense.
