I created a binder for our son Will after my husband asked him, “What did you learn today?” and Will replied, “Some stuff. I don’t really remember.”
I homeschool Will and when I heard this I nearly cried. I promised myself that this would never happen again.
On a sheet of paper I printed out in huge letters, “This is How My Brain Grew Today by Will” and glued it to the front of the binder, then I divided the binder into the different content areas (reading, math, etc). Each day I put the lesson plans into the binder so that Will knew the activities that he had to do. For independent work, he had to fill out a form on which he listed five things he learned about a topic and place it in the binder.
At the end of each day I asked Will, “How did your brain grow today in (content area)?”, and he had to tell me what he did and what he learned. If he forgot, I pulled out the lesson plan for that content area (for example, reading) from the binder, and we reviewed how his brain grew.
When I first introduced this concept to Will, he was less than thrilled, but the problem of him forgetting what he learned has virtually disappeared.
This idea works in classrooms, too. I used a similar method at the end of each day where we reviewed what we did for the day in each subject. I told my class that I never wanted to tell their parents that they did nothing in class that day.
There are many ways to tweak this idea. For example, you can ask your children to verbally review what they learned for the day, or have each child keep a journal in which they can record what they learned at the end of each day.
Good luck to the hard-working, worrying, giving-it-all-you-have teachers out there. May you never hear from a parent that their child said, “I learned nothing from my teacher today.”
No related posts.
Liked this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
16 September 2008, 8:21 pm
I agree!! I think it’s important to set objectives and review learning regularly. I post objectives each day in my classroom and review then throughout the day. Then on Friday my students fill in a letter home with some things they have learned that week to take home and show their parents.