Lit Trips

I plan to use this project again with book clubs where each group will be working on a different place based novel.

This is a great project that I originally saw done by Tara Oswald at Fossil Ridge High School in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Children's Books

We have completed a fun project with my 10th grade EAL class. We read children's books to the kindergarten class on the other side of the fort. First, however, my students recorded themselves reading the books as a screencast with the pages visible. This worked great because students could hear their own voices and listen to see where there were words they didn't pronounce correctly or understand.

My students then wrote a reflective piece on the experience and included that along with the videos on a webpage.

Imagine the Possibilities

Data collected on students at schools can create a profile from kindergarten through college. See the story on Marketplace, or listen here:

Empowering Students - Scott McLeod

After struggling to allow students the space and freedom to make choices both about what they read and about how they respond to or represent what they have learned from their reading, I know that this type of learning is much more sustained, powerful, and realistic for today's student's. I also know that students at all levels are much more engaged with this approach.

Are students meeting the standards when these techniques are used? I believe students who are actually reading are definitely meeting more of the standards than students who are not reading.

Can their achievements accurately be measured? Well, in my experience, students taught in many diverse ways have consistently performed as expected on standardized tests and on departmental aligned testing.