Well, friends, as has happened many times in my life before, my wonderful dream job in Korea fell through at the last second due to issues with immigration and so, I am still in my position as a 7th grade special education paraprofessional. I hope to complete the school year in this position and will be putting my creativity hat back on to devise more epic projects.
Here is one we did in our remedial reading class. We read the book, Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine and because it is a class of reluctant readers AND reluctant writers, instead of asking students to write a paper or give a presentation, we got snazzy and had them put together a dodecahedron. They ended up looking like this:
Pretty fun, right? Especially hanging from the ceiling in our tiny windowless room!
This project was great because it gave the students a lot of flexibility but also helped to see who comprehended the material and who didn't. This project is also amazing, because it can be used across subjects. Each side of the dodecahedron depicts a different concept. In this case, as a final novel project, we asked students to use vocabulary, characters, and important events, but it can be easily adapted as a social studies review, a math project, or as a science fair project. The sides can be divided amongst a group, or you can cut down to just 6 sides for younger learners or students who have a hard time staying organized.
