Student Contributor: N. Pierce
Creating an agenda each day can be very beneficial to students reviewing what is going to take place each day and checking off items as they are completed helps to build a sense of accomplishment and helps students know what is coming up next. This helps students know the classroom routine and gives them a sense of predictability.
Each morning, preferably during the morning meeting. The teacher and the students will create the schedule together. This can be done by putting premade cards in a holder in the order of the day or writing it out on the board. By putting a time with the activity, students will be able to look at the schedule throughout the day and know what is coming next as well as what time it will occur. Hopefully over time this will lead to the students not needing to constantly ask the teacher what is next or when is recess. I would also allow for student input when making the agenda, even if they are not deciding the order, they can add their opinion in. I also would have students help put the cards in order or help write it on the board so they can feel even more involved in the process. I can remember when I was in elementary school I really did not like change, so being able to see the schedule every day helped me a lot. If there was something different about that day, I already knew about it and could prepare myself rather than being taken off guard when it happened.
I chose to put this tool into the preventative phase. It helps students prepare for the day to come and is taking place before the actual learning is started. It helps students know what is going to come which can prevent a lot of anxiety or frustration during the rest of the day. It is something we are setting up in our classroom for our students for them to be more successful. Depending on how this tool is used I would say it could be collaborative or teacher centered. Obviously, the teacher needs to have some roll in making sure the day flows and everything that needs to be done is on it. If it is all decided by the teacher and the students have no input, it would be teacher centered. However, if students have a role in decision making and offering their opinion it would be more collaborative.
More Information –
Tool Source: Teachingonpurpose.org
My mentor teacher has a hard time remembering to change out the days, tasks, and subjects for the day, so she decided to let me be in charge of changing those and adding times to them. My mentor didn’t have times attached to any of the subjects in case her plans changed a bit, but I found it was more disruptive for students to always ask what time something is at versus looking at the schedule and the clock. This is also helping the students learn to read an analog clock with accuracy. This seemed to work much better for the group of students I have right now and we will continue with this throughout the rest of the year!