Sometimes in order to find success, small changes can be just as effective as big changes. I learned this in my Grade 10 locally developed classroom this week when we worked on character charts. We are studying the novel HOLES and even though in some ways it is a simple novel, the large cast of characters makes it a challenge for some students. In order to help them in this area, I created blank charts where they fill in the character name and then information about that character that will help them remember who they are. Last year, students were responsible to do this on their own and I found that they quickly got bored or frustrated and then they abandoned the exercise. This year I decided to shake things up a bit by adding variety to the task. The first time we worked on the character chart, students individually filled in information for five characters that they were interested in from the first five chapters on the novel. Then, I put them in pairs and each student had to share their information with their partner and then the partner had to add the information to their own chart. Students seemed to enjoy the opportunity to share their info and also to be able to add more info to their own chart. I switched up the pairings a few times and by the end of the exercise students had very thorough charts.
Today I asked my peer helper to write down character names and 3 traits on chart paper. This information was based on chapters 6-10 of the novel so it was "new" to the students. My peer helper put up the "posters" around the room and students then moved from poster to poster copying down the information. The students enjoyed the opportunity to move around the classroom as they were recording information in the chart. Tomorrow we will discuss the character traits so students aren't just "copying" information-they are also discussing it.
So far, an activity that didn't work last year is working this year. It's always excited to try new ideas and have them succeed.
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