Allowing students a few minutes to gather their thoughts and jot down their learning is a great way to extend your walk and address standards across the curriculum. Listening journals are a place where your students can respond after each walk.
A listening journal can be a composition notebook, a pocket folder with notebook paper, or just a section in a preexisting notebook or binder. The idea is that students reflect on and solidify what they learned on the walk by completing a brief post-walk activity.
The possibilities for what you can have students do in their listening journals are truly endless and can depend on what skills you want them to practice. For example, you may want them to summarize the podcast or identify the main idea and list supporting details. Not only are students capturing their learning from the walk via writing, but they are also practicing additional literacy skills.
Due to the ever-present time constrains placed on teachers, we suggest brief prompts that change often depending on the podcast and the skill being targeted. Here are a few ideas:
1) Main Idea Circle Map
Ask students to write the main idea of the podcast in the inner circle. In the outer circle
they should write key words/details from the podcast that support the main idea
2) Schema File
When podcasts cover a topic that students tend to already have some prior knowledge of (e.g. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., President George Washington, marine life, etc.), often times there are also some misconceptions. For these podcasts, a schema file is a response activity.
Students divide up their paper into four sections: Prior Knowledge, New Learning, Misconceptions, and Lingering Questions. They should complete the Prior Knowledge section before listening to the podcast. The other sections can be completed after the first and/or second time they have heard the material.
Click here to download some listening journal prompts to use for your students’ post-walk jots.
Do you have students record their thinking after your walks? Share your ideas below!
I definitely need to start implementing more varied responses to the walks. These are great ideas. Thank you, TWC!
As the email so well stated, the possibilities of The Walking Classroom are endless. One way Kinetic Minds uses the information is through weekly enrichment which includes trivia, competitions, and other writing activities.