It is a simple (…)
Here is another example of an engaging practice that, from a professional experience, fosters students’ SCHOOL ENGAGEMENT. By school engagement we mean students’ observable participation in school activities, sense of belonging to classmates and teachers, and valuing success in school-related goals.
Name of the practice: Story of the class: We are the protagonists of the story
It is implemented by: Teachers
It is directed at students aged: 12-14
Target group: Group-centred
Main subjects involved: Greek or Roman subjects
ICT involvement: yes
Description of the practice: It is a simple quarterly reading of a book with a Greek or Roman theme and an associated activity, but with the particularity that students choose their book from a varied box of books, in which there are of all genres and styles, from Latin poetry to comics with historical or mythological context. Students make an oral presentation about reading, and a different complementary activity each term (written work, artistic creation and commentary on passages), which represents a challenge but at the same time an opportunity to show the class the work done.
Accessible to any student: Yes, it is all designed so that no student is left out, for whatever reasons, since, apart from not implying economic cost for the students, it allows a fairly marked multilevel and multimodality: we have books of all kinds and of all levels, oral presentations can be done in very different formats, the works are essentially simple (although the students can sophisticate them a lot if they want) and, when they are not so simple, they are very open…
Meaningful participation for every student: yes
Why? TThe oral presentation, the co-evaluation of the oral presentations and the delivery of the written or artistic work I can verify that everyone participates. The reasons why everyone ends up participating are already exposed to the previous question: multilevel activity clearly, and very open in reality.
Support to the practice: Yes. We receive help from our library and librarian, who provides us with the books.
Does this practice promote students observable participation in school related activities? I cannot guarantee that this practice will open up participation to others, although it helps students in key skills such as reading, writing, presenting something orally and expressing themselves artistically, always on a multilevel. And the fact of promoting skills so key surely helps to participate more and better in other activities of the center.
Does the practice promote students sense of belonging to classmates, teachers and school? I think they promote it, simply because thanks to the center they can read books chosen by them and also because when co-evaluated, links are created at an academic level also with the rest of the students of the optional subject, which belongs to different class groups.
Does the practice promote students giving value to success in school-related goals? I believe that yes, with co-evaluation and an oral presentation in front of classmates, students are encouraged to value a job well done and academic success. Nobody likes to make an oral presentation about a book that has been chosen by oneself and that the result is clearly poor.
