Joan Moser
March 6, 2009
Do you ever wish you could give your children another model showing the expectations you have for your classroom? Wouldn't it be great if they could see the 'big picture' of the room that we as teachers can see? What about the small, minute detail of a certain skill or strategy?
A conversation with our good friend, Lori, last week opened our eyes to the power of using short video clips of other students as models to seeing the big picture, minute details or behavioral expectations we have for our students.
Lori had looked at the new postings on Friday morning before her kids came in, and got excited when she saw the video where Joan teaches Haylee about asking questions. Lori had just introduced the strategy to her students the day before, and decided to start Friday's mini lesson with the short clip. She pulled it up onto her SMARTboard and shared that even kindergartners could do what they were leaning to do. They thought Haylee was funny and adorable, and believed that if that little five year old could ask questions, they could certainly do some smart wondering of their own.
Providing students with a visual look at our expectations can help move them to a higher level, much like an anchor paper does with writing or math problem solving. The video clips on The Daily CAFE™ are a great length to use in this manner since most of them run 5 minutes or less. Whether it's for Daily 5™ behaviors, building stamina or even a reading strategy, having other students or teachers come into your room via video, can be a powerful teaching tool.