As I mentioned earlier, I decided to make some modifications to my vocabulary instruction. My morning class on Friday got quite a bit of time to draw pictures to represent the words. I then allowed them to keep this "cheat sheet" on their desks during the test. I also left on the board the samples I had drawn (the book I pulled this visual representation technique from exhorts teachers to "model, model, model" how to do quickdraws).
To make sure students took the drawings seriously and tried their best to complete them, I mentioned that I was stapling the drawings to their tests. I also mentioned that Puakenikeni and I would be conferring and deciding whether the drawings had helped students do better.
Of the 15 students who took the test in my morning class, 10 got perfect scores. The other 5 showed significant improvement.
Today we started drawing with this week's new words. I hope that as students discuss, write and draw the words, they will build a deeper understanding.
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