November: Which of the 6 tips included in the "Personalized Learning" article is a strength in your classroom and what does it look like?

• Make Your Projects Simple is the one that stand out to me right now for ELA Strategies 7.  I struggled to incorporate drama into my lessons last year and I want to make it fun for them.  This is covered on their state test and I want to make sure they understand it really well.  After talking with Mrs. Landry one day, a great conversation sparked a simple project idea.  We are studying the effects of bullying throughout the entire 7th grade and I wanted to take this one step farther.  I showed the students a bullying video about cliques harassing and how to cope with it, then  followed it up with guided notes and class discussion.  The kids are now brainstorming character profiles for three characters: bully, target, and bystander.  The audience is elementary school.  They will use these characters to create a short story sketch and outline about how to overcome a bully situation.  They love working on this.  I was surprisingly shocked how much they wanted to work on this.  Every kid is so into it.  It will soon move on to kids combining and sharing their story ideas for a collaborative project.  Students will combine characters and situations to write a script for a puppet show.  I think now I might offer a variety of options for presentation: presenting the puppet show on a stage made by Mrs. Landry’s kids, filming the show, and drawing out the scenes and characters on poster board or digital media.  They will all be presented.