A class project in which I do after all reading skills have been taught, learned, and mastered is Introducing (Skill Name) (Student’s Name) Style, (ex: Introducing Cause and Effect Sara’s Style). Because I introduce each weekly reading skill through an interactive PowerPoint presentation, I now turn the table and let them create their own to present to the whole class, they become the teacher and the rest of the students and I become the audience. Each student is assigned a different reading skill and they have to explain it, define it, show examples, and create a short story (a few paragraphs long) where the skill is incorporated and assessed through two to three questions. Because my students have seen and been exposed to the different PowerPoint layouts in which I have designed, they each choose the format they like best and start their own. This is a phenomenal project that not only explores each child’s creative mind, but fosters their synthesizing mind as well! In Five Minds for the Future, page 84, Gardner states, “Youngsters are not only intrigued by a wide range of phenomena…they persist in exploring, even in the absence of encouragement, let alone material rewards.” Thus, children are natural creative innovators, and as an educator we should let their sense of wonder play its part, let our children be creative and make and design concepts in their own perspective, of course not neglecting the importance of content mastery achievement. At the end, this becomes a great interactive review before the state assessment (TAKS), and my students become even more confident of themselves and their accomplishments!
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