Foot: Extra Credit

I really liked the multi-genre autobiography we did in class. I think that I learned a lot about myself and others in our class. I realized that we all have so much in common, when it comes to how we all grew up. I know that it has a lot to do with the era in which we were born, but I think being influenced by the same things also puts us into a like mindedness with one another. I think this would be a good activity for students to do in the classroom. I would use this activity either in the beginning of the school year, or at the very end.



If I were to use this activity at the beginning of the school year, I would have students use it to get to know one another, and to show how alike and different they are from one another. I think it would show students who may not know one another, that they have many things in common, and could formulate friendships and trust within the classroom. I also think it would be a really good way to introduce ourselves as teachers to our students. If I were to use this activity at the end of the school year, I would have students demonstrate all the texts that had influenced them since the beginning of the year and explain why each one did so. I think it would help students to understand and reflect on what they had learned throughout the year. They could also think about and demonstrate how what they learned might help them in the future, whether that is in the next grade level or even later on in life.

I think that the only challenges to this project would be if students didn't have access to a computer at home. I would allow time during class for students to work on their projects, but I wouldn't want to use too much classroom time, and i think this would make it difficult for students. I think the benefits would be that it would give students practice with programs, such as Windows Movie Maker and PowerPoint. I also think it would teach students to think about and reflect on what they've learned and why certain texts affected them, while others did not. I would hope that this could be a fun project for the end of the year, that also allowed students to demonstrate what they've learned.