In January with the start of a new semester I started a FVR program. I’m using the term SDR, Self Directed Reading, simply because I hope to focus on students self monitoring their understanding. I’ve tried starting a reading program a couple of times and this time it is here to stay. Check out my original post if you’d like some direction on a few important things to consider to help a new program gain momentum and not fizzle out like my first attempts.
I’m trying a variety of ways for students to respond to their reading. Recently I came across the idea of story choice boards. My first thought was it seemed a bit elementary. But then I reminded myself that most of my students are considered “elementary Latin” students. Therefore I looked at a few examples and decided to create my own. I won’t use these often. I think once a quarter at most.
I am a father of 3 young girls and this year my family has experienced some illness. Now that my SDR program is in place and running story choice boards will be a nice emergency sub plan activity that I can use once or twice throughout the year. I see myself using them once or twice as well as a way to have students to engage in a longer reflection of what they are reading while giving myself a chance to catch up on reporting their reading logs and in class proficiency scores.
My board looks like the one below when just using for an unexpected sub day. I also use a broader version for students in independent study situations found here. This is a work in progress but I used this with a student who was suffering from intense symptoms from a concussion. This student is back with me in class this year and excelling even after some many absences.
Verbal/Linguistic
- Write a journal entry from the perspective of a character in the story. (English or Latin)
- Create a radio advertisement that sells the importance of a character in the book. (English or Latin)
- Review another student’s 3-D model in respect to artistic value
- Write out Latin syllables for sound effects to go with a story.
|
Logical/Mathematical
- Create a timeline of the story plot. (Latin captions)
- Design a map reflecting locations in the story. (Latin labels)
- Create 3 survey questions (in simple Latin) that ask classmates to solve a problem.
|
Visual/Spatial
- Create a graph of data from a survey of classmates. (Latin data)
- Create a poster advertisement for the book. (Latin captions)
- Create a visual image of a journal entry.
- Create a visual representation of a musical rhythm connected to the story.
|
Interpersonal
- Ask classmates a survey about the story. Record data
- Write a journal response to someone else’s journal entry.
- Play another students’ game and write a note of feedback about the game.
- Ask classmates and record how they might be personally connected to different points on a timeline of the story.
|
Free Choice
Choose 2 |
Kinesthetic
- Create a cooperative game that reviews the story.
- Construct a 3-D model of something of major importance in the story.
- Perform, and record a rap, poem or song musical or with interpretive dance.
- Perform and record a reading of a section that includes sound effects.
|
Rhythmic
- Create a rap, poem or song about the story.
- Create an interpretive dance to go with parts of the story.
- Make up sound effects for important parts of the story.
- Take a portion of the story and rearrange the Latin words to create a metrical rhythm
|
Naturalist
- Identify and Label (in Latin) items of nature from the story.
- Create instructions (in Latin) for a character to survive a natural phenomenon in the story.
- Create a survey about classmates likes and dislikes of natural items in the story.
|
Interpersonal
- Respond to your journal entry about the story in a way that connects the story to something in your personal life. (English or Latin)
- Predict what will happen next in the story or in a sequel if finished. (Latin or English)
- Write a simple story (in Latin) about something in your life that is similar to something in the story.
|
What other activities or categories might you add?
Like this:
Like Loading...
Related
Comprehensible Antiquity 
This is incredible and something that I wanted to put together myself but never seem to have the time to do!! Thank you so much for this!
To this point, I have students who have said they want to get better at “texting” type conversations in Spanish. Given that so many of these kids feel more comfortable chatting behind a screen I’m taking it seriously and trying to come up with a way to make this work. The best solution I have come up with so far is to have them collaborate on a google doc and “text” each other on it for an interpersonal option, so that all edits are tracked for accountability (and to try and ensure that conversations stay school-appropriate.
This could be an interpersonal activity on your board perhaps 🙂
LikeLike
That is an interesting idea. Does it matter to you if they do some of that work in translation? To me even that seems more presentational because if I’m not present I imagine they will do a lot of that work in English and then translate it into the target language. Either way, I like it as an addition.
LikeLike