What I felt a need to do, however, was to more concretely structure this activity to encourage student achievement. I asked students to create a list of fifty things they wished to accomplish at some point in their lives. I then took the assignment one step further. When students brought the completed list into class, I asked them to select one item from the list that they felt they could accomplish within the next two weeks. They were also asked to identify a goal they believed they could accomplish within the next month, and finally a goal from the list that they wanted to accomplish within the next year. At the end of the two-week period, the class was given a journal writing activity in which they were asked to describe the goal they had achieved. They were asked to respond to why they had chosen this as a goal, how they had gone about accomplishing it, and how this accomplishment made them feel.
Moodle Guide for Teachers
Phila. Teachers on Capitol Steps, Wash., D.C., 5/1...
Original title page of Walden featuring a picture ...They concluded the journal by writing about what they wanted to be their next accomplishment from their list. Expressing their opinions and ideas in this way will help to promote identity building in the classroom.
Then, as a class we created two bulletin board displays. The first display we created was located inside my classroom. The top of this bulletin board was called "What We Have Done." After the two week period had passed, and the students had written their response journals, they each were given a bumper sticker sized piece of construction paper. On the front of this paper they wrote what goal they had accomplished from their list. On the back of the paper they signed their names. They were encouraged to bring in pictures either of themselves or of pictures relating to their...