Portfolio of Teaching Activities
Semantic Mapping
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Objective: For this activity there will be spelling words, and each student will have to pick at least two spelling words that they want to learn more about. Then give the students at least 10-15 mins to look up the definition, synonym & antonym. Once they do that, those two spelling words that they pick, you will use that in their semantic mapping. To create the semantic map, students will use one of the spelling words to put in the middle of the paper and make more circles going from that word.
I think this activity will help students to understand their vocabulary words better. They will be able to know the meaning of their spelling word and know how to use it in a sentence and the opposite of the word. This is teaching students to learn new words and to know what it means. Semantic mapping is helping students to expand their vocabulary. They are also learning how to group words together understand each word doesn't mean the same.
Here are some example questions:
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What is another word that has the same meaning?
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What is an example of this word?
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What is the antonym of this word?
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What is the definition of this word in your own words?
Exit Slip- What stuck with you today?
Objective: To do this activity you need to have a white poster board and markers and posted notes. In class we will be talking about an article that we have read during class. At the end of class, give them a posted note and let them write what stuck out to them in today’s article or during class. They can use how many posted notes they want as long has they write about what they have learn in class today. They will be given 5-10 minutes to complete this activity. Once they finish and it's time to leave, they would go and put it on the poster where they see a square with a number inside it while they are walking out the classroom.
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I believe that this activity is useful because teachers are able to see what their students are paying attention to in class. Also, seeing what they didn't pay attention to the reading. Teachers are able to learn from this activity and to see what they still need to talk about from the reading. Sometimes, teachers may think that students know the main idea of article and they don't. So now you have to find another way for them to understand the main idea of the article. That's why its good to ask students what they learn from the reading in class today, they might have learn something else we really didn't talk about in the reading. That might need to be talk about in class because its very important to know. With this activity teachers are able to see what their students learning from their reading, what is something we need to talk about. You don't have to use this activity just for reading an article, you can use it for just knowing about what they learn during the whole course of the day.
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Daily Journals
Objective: At the end of the school day, give your students at least 10-15 mins to write down how there went. In their daily journals they can talk about anything that’s going on with their life. Also, you can give out prompts to the students if you want them to write about something in particular. The students can put their journals in one spot in the room or keep them in a bin by each class period. Teachers can grade their journals every once a while to make sure they are writing in them. Encourage a self- evaluation with your students and let them pick out one of their journal entries and talk about why it is their favorite journal entry.
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This activity is useful because This helps the teachers to keep up with their students. If there is something going on with one of your students, you can see what is going on because they have talked about it in their journal. This activity might take a while for students to get use to but thats okay. If teachers want to just do it twice a week just so they can get a handle of it. This will also help students that are shy in the classroom that don't really participate in class to have them to express themselves in writing. Teachers will be able to reach each of their students with this activty because students don't have to talk about what they wrote in their journal unless they would like to share with the whole class.
Writing prompts examples:
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What is one thing you would change about this week?
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What is something you are looking for this weekend?
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What is something that you enjoy learning about today?
Venn Diagram
Objective: For this activity students need to be in four groups. Each group will do a Venn diagram about China and Africa clothing styles. With the Venn diagram on the left side the students would write down China clothing style and on the right side the students are going to write down Africa clothing style. In the middle of the diagram they would write down the similarites between the two. Give about 20- 30 minutes to look through the articles that the students have been reading about China and Africa clothing style. Once they do that each group can discuss what they would like to put on the diagram for their group. After, everyone is finish with their Venn diagram, they will present it to the class.
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I think this activty is useful because it help the students to understand what they are learning about two different cultures and being able to tell the difference between the two cultures and simiarlies about their clothing style. Teachers are able to see if the students are understanding what they are learning and learning how to discuss about what they have learn. Students are becoming a team player when they do group work because everyone has to be on the same page in order to get their group work done.
The Birthday Lineup
Objective: This is an ice breaker teachers can do with your students, so everyone can get to know each other better. To do this activity teachers have to call out any month of the year and have all students born in that month come up to the front of the room. It is up to the students to decide who stands first, second, etc., so they are standing from the first day of the month to the last day of the month. Now call out another month (don't call the months in order), and have those students try to position themselves correctly by day and by where they should stand as an entire month. This is a great way to get students working together and knowing each other. Once all of the kids have lined up, test them to see if they are correct.
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This activity will help each student to learn how to work together as a team and letting them to become comfortable with together. This activity allow students to facilitate this lesson with each other. The teacher just there to supervise the activty and explaining what they have to do. Teachers are able to see how their students work with each other and will they be able to complete this activity. If they do this well they will be able to do many other group work, if not when that is something we have to work on as a class.
Write a letter to Yourself
Objective: For this activty the students will write a letter to themselves. They will be writing a letter to themselves about there goals they would like to achieve this quarter or before they graduation from middle school. Something they would like to change about themselves and what is something that they want to work on. For this activity teachers should give them 30-40 minuets to write a letter. Once they finish writing their letter, they will get a envelope and put their names on it and the date they graduate from middle school. Also, let them know that nobody is going to see there letter but themselves.
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I believe this activity is useful because students is given an opportunity to express how they feel about themselves and things they would like to accomplish when they are graduate. This is helping students to have something to look for in the future. This is helping them to figure out what kind of goals they are going to set for themselves. With this activty you can give prompt about what you would like them to talk about. Teachers can even mail out there letters to them they can open it with their family.
Book Scavenger Hunt
Objective: For this activity students will be filling in the blanks and find the answers in the book. Teachers can make a worksheet with sentences they want them to find. The questions can be between 10-20 long.The questions can be about definitions of a vocabulary word, finding a page number for the answer. The questions or statements can be anything you want them to find in the book. Students can work on this for about 30- 35 mins. This activty is good for independent work.
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I believe this activity is good for students to learn how to work independently. That will help the students to understand more about the story that they are reading. Also, its helping students to be able to use thier context clues to find the answer. Every time is not going to be right in your face when you are look for answers. Thats why this is a good way for students to use what they have learn to find the answer. This is also a good activity to let students do when they have a sub in the classroom. They don't have to ask questions about what they have to do. Teachers can make the scavenger hunt how they want it, that means they can have as many questions or statement they would be like to be found.
Personal Dictionary
Objective: For this activity students will make a personal dictionary. A personal dicionary is for students to write down new words that they would like to know more about and words they are unfamiliar with. Theses words are not vocabulary words that they have weekly.In the dictionary their will be pictures and examples sentences for students to recognize how that word is used. This dictionary is for words that students would like to learn more about, they can find words from class reading, from other books that they are reading. This activity is something that teachers can check in with the students. To start this activity, give students 15-20 minutes to start their personal dictionary. Teachers can do check-ins to see how students personal dictionary is going.
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This is a great activty to get students to expand their vocabulary. This will help them to improve their writing and reading. When they are writing papers students are able to use their personal dictionary to able words in their paper. This is something that they can keep with them forever and they can keep adding words in their dictionary. This is something students will be responsible of doing because they can put any word of their choice.
"I am"poem
Objective: For this activity teachers will facilitate self-esteem building and personal reflection, you can have your students write ‘I am’ poems. I am poems are where students write down positive affirmations about themselves after the words “I am…” Students can write as many affirmations about themselves as the can think of and once they finish that, students can decorate their poems with drawings or magazine cut outs. This activity for middle schoolers helps them to use their creativity while writing positive affirmations over themselves. Some teachers hang these poems around the classroom for the students to remember these facts about themselves and their classmates throughout the semester.
This activity will help students build their self-esteem and to guide them to what they want to become in the future. Young adolescents are trying to find on they are and who they would like to be, with doing this poem that will help them with that. This is just a start to get students to set goals for themselves and start to believing in themselves. Teachers can learn so much from this activity with their students because there might be affirmations that everyone can work on together. Teachers can add on to this activity if they would like to.
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Context Clue Detectives
Objective: For this activty students will be given a paragraph with challenging, related to your content vocabulary. This could be a paragraph from a text you’re already reading. Ask students to use context clues to determine the meaning of an identified by you or challenging to them word. Teachers can choose the word ahead of time or you can have students choose a challenging term. Let the students to write the definition of the word based on context clues and use two details from the text to support their response.
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Doing this activities student will be using context clues to unpack the meaning of unknown words. Practicing this skill with texts students are already reading with the support of class review and discussion will help students to develop the ability to use context clues more independently later on.
Reflection
Doing this project, it has really made me think about what activites I would like to do with my students. The activities I talk about are for my endorsements which are Social Studies and English. The activites I provided above are from when I was in middle school and my teachers did the lesson with one. One activity that I did in school was the birthday line-up. That was so hard for my class to do because we had to be quiet while trying to put everybody in order with our birthdays. It was fun to with my class because we all use to talk alot in class so when we couldn't it was hard for us to do.We need complete the activity, it just took us a while. I want to make my classroom environment welcoming for my students, I want them to feel comfortable with each other and I think this is a great activity to do with everybody so they can learn each other little more. These activities are not just to improve their reading and writing but also its about them trying to figure out what they are. I want my students to believe in themselves and to know that they are special. Each and everyone of makes my class environment very special. Another activity I pick was "I am" poem because I believe that this is a great way for them to really open up about themselves and what they would like to be in the future. I would put these poems about my classroom so went one of my students are having a bad day or just discourage, all they have to do it find their poem around the classroom and read it out loud to themselves. Its just a remember that they are special and they have goals they would like to accomplish just keep pushing even when there is a set back. The other ideas and activities help students to better themselves with their vocabulary, reading and writing. To get to understand thier culture more and how do they identify themselves. I want my students to be well around, I don't want anyone to tell them they can't read or write because my class will take the time out to make sure they can. They are going to be very informative and know how to engage with their classmates and others.
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I look forward in to using all these activites that is in my Portillo in my future class. I am excited to add on to my portfolio with more activites I can do in the future. I really enjoyed making this portfolio and being able to find lessons that are very engaging and fun to learn.