All About Me
Building Class Community and a Sense of Identity (Virtual Tour)
Stage of Literacy Development:
Stage 1: Beginning LiteracyStage 2: Consolidation / Fluency
Stage 3: Literacy for Growth
Ages:
6-9
Grade Range:
1st 2nd 3rd 4thFood Groups:
Primary: Writing Processes & Strategies Secondary: Motivation for Literacy
Transcript
All About Me is a great activity to do at the beginning of the year. This is an activity that creates a classroom community as well as strengthens individual identity. We talk about those important questions, that maybe, students should answer in order for us to know a little bit more about them. Here, students write down there ideas and they start to put their work through the writing process. Students are able to edit each other's work, and then go through the final draft. They attach their written work to the poster and then continue on with the next step. The next step was creating a portrait of themselves using plasticine. We watched a video, Fun with Modeling Clay, by Barbara Reid who demonstrated to the students how to manipulate the plasticine in order to create a portrait of themselves. I leave that work at eye level so that students and parents can read it during curriculum night. After a couple of weeks, I then raise it, higher up in the classroom so that it still remains here and its a space for students to have that belongs to them. Pieces of work that they complete throughout the year are often posted to their board.
Related References
Activity Objective
The goal of All About Me: Building Class Community and a Sense of Identity (Virtual Tour) is to have students write about themselves at the beginning of the year to create a sense of class community and to strengthen their sense of identity. Students go through the step-by-step writing process, working through brainstorming, editing, and polishing their final product before posting it on the class bulletin board.
Quick Tips
Additional Comments:
- Make sure to post this assignment low enough on the bulletin board for students and parents to read. - This activity can be done with students from all levels and backgrounds. You can ask younger students to draw a sketch of themselves with a few sentences, and you can even ask older students to create a video all about themselves. The possibilities are endless.
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