One of my goals this year in the community was to share student work that I thought might be helpful to other teachers. We could reflect together, share our experiences, and think about ways on how to improve or modify our instruction. That being said, part of that goal was to share examples of impressive work and some that weren't that good. I have over 50 WHP students this year (10th graders) and another 60 BHP students (9th graders) - some students are going to impress me and some will need some more encouragement next time.
These are some examples from Draw Your History, which I did during the first week of school in September. I think this is an important activity to do with students. It allows them to think creatively and it helps me learn more about my students (even the "bad" ones were revealing). I love observing the interesting models students come up with: timelines, paths to today, web designs, artistic depictions, etc. Some share about their family history, culture, religion, while others include important events and as you'll see, some odd or even funny events ("January 2014 -my grandma gets a new dog"). I'm able to learn about serious things that my students might be dealing with like deaths in the family, health issues, friendship problems, questions about sexuality, etc. Sometimes I forget how tough it is to be a teenager. When students are willing to share, this activity typically develops into some interesting conversations.
I'm curious about other experiences with this activity. Do your students produce similar pieces? Do you modify the activity? Are the weaker submissions still helpful as a teacher getting to know your students during the first few days of school?
