Making Connections Using a Tool Box

After teaching seniors for over 10 years, I came to an important realization last year.  I had spent every year teaching my students all of these great reading and writing strategies that they could take with them to college to help ensure they were successful in their classes. BUT- few of my students were actually making the connection and realizing they had learned strategies they could use later. They just looked at the lessons like they were regular, boring 'class busywork' assignments.

It was then that it hit me. "Hey dummy-- either help these kids make the connection, or continue wasting your time every year!" Many of my students get so submerged in test taking and busy work, that sometimes they just need help figuring out what is really useful, and what is not.

So last year I made sure that every time I introduced a new strategy,  I pointed out:
1. that this was an actual strategy I was teaching them
2. how they could use the strategy in the future
3. that they should  plan to use this strategy in the future

At the end of the year, I checked in with my students and found that many of them were beginning to 'get it'. Great, some success! But there were still others that needed just a little bit more help. So on to Step 2. Learning is a process, and I'm not just talking about my students. Good teachers try to learn everyday. We love learning-- that's why we became teachers! We learn how to be better teachers and we learn how to reach more students.

I had learned that my students needed more help to make the connection that these strategies were imperative if they were going to be successful in college and the workplace. So, I needed to move on to Step 2. I decided to create a handout (graphic organizer) to help the students remember the strategies. This was the birth of the "Strategies Tool Box" handout.

I have students fill this out after we complete a unit and then they keep it in the front of their binder.
BTW-- I fill out a copy of the handout as well and post it on our class web page for students who are absent (mentally & physically) :).

My students don't know it yet, but they are going to be moving to Step 3 later this year. Step 3 will require students to apply the strategies that they have recorded. I have created an assignment where they will be instructed to find an article and then they have to create an assignment to teach/present it to the class. They will need to choose a reading and/or writing strategy from their "Tool Box" that they think will help other students understand the text.

Hopefully, these added steps will result in even more students realizing the importance of these strategies this year. We'll see how this goes when I check in with students at the end of the year!