Strategies that work from ICL7304

I wanted to share a couple strategies I've gained from this class and used successfully.  The first is the "three stars and a wish".  This is such a simple way to have students provide feedback, and I didn't even have to pull any teeth to get them to participate fully!  The second is the "music in my heart" activity I learned from Kittle's book.  I did this activity in one class period, and learned that next time I will break it down into three days of mini-lessons.  The first day, I will have students create a list of approximately 10 songs that trigger an emotion for them.  The second day, I will have them draw their heart and fill it with the song titles and illustrations that go along with them.  The third day, I will have them write the story of a memory related to one of the songs in the heart.  Doing all of this in on class period with my 8th graders in a co-teach setting was difficult, but the students really had fun with it.  I think splitting it up would provide students more time to focus on the writing part of it.  Above is a picture of one of my student's hearts from class.