I truly enjoyed taking some time and reading over the many teaching tools found in the Toolbox. What I realized is that they are much more complex than I thought they were. They definitely have objectives and assessments.
Some of my favorites to learn about were the Learning Menus, Think-Tac-Toe, and RAFT activities. I think the best part of all three of these is the fact that students get to make choices. They choose what tasks they want to do based on their interest, readiness, or learning profiles. This way they can all learn the material while being fully engaged doing something that they enjoy doing. It makes so much sense.
I really appreciated seeing how these activities can also be tiered. I had experience in helping to make the Think Tac-Toe. I like the idea of making the center be an activity that I want all of the students to do and then letting them choose what other tasks appeal to them. I also learned other ways to tier it.
The Rubrics and Journals also made a lot of sense. I know as a student it is so nice to know exactly what is important to put in my papers. Rubrics make it so the students know exactly what we as teachers are looking for. The journal idea is so nice because you can see exactly what is going on and it shows the students progress over time, which is so valuable.
I think that while looking this over it confirmed to me that these activities are not just busy work for the students but they are intended for student learning.
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Great response! I hope you will challenge yourself to just try out at least ONE of the strategies while you are in field. Just to see how it works to set it up and notice how the students respond. If you do, please let me know, and tell me how it goes. 4 points
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