I am a reading coach at a small school in northeast Florida. Our fourth and fifth grade students were struggling with reading, especially in the areas of vocabulary and comprehension. Since I plan the lessons for the afterschool tutoring program, I searched the web for ideas, and found The Walking Classroom.
I purchased the Walking Classroom for our afterschool tutoring program, and began using it in August of 2018. Our students were scoring at a third grade level (one to two years behind) on our diagnostic assessments in August. The program was easy to implement, and the students really enjoyed the walking, discussions, and the listening to the podcasts.
One of the challenges I noticed at the beginning was that the students weren’t able to remember everything they were listening to while walking. I decided to make them a “big idea” page to hold in their hands. This would help them remember what they were listening for, and guide them once the podcast was over to have something to discuss with a partner.
I love the additional resources The Walking Classroom provides, in the form of PowerPoints and videos to go with along with the lessons. Since podcasts are so auditory, my visual learners really needed (and benefitted from) the extra visual resources. When many of our struggling students tested at the winter diagnostics, they were scoring on grade level. We are thrilled with The Walking Classroom!
Natalie Faucher
Reading Coach
Bryceville Elementary
Leave a Reply