I teach foreign language classes at the high school level and I'm looking for a new review tool for my students. I attended a PD seminar last year where foldables were discussed, but it was at the middle school level. I've read on this site a few times about teachers using foldables at the high school level. Is it successful? My worry is that the kids will find it too babyish.
yes! I recently bought a whole book about them, I've done it 3 times with my 10th World Civ and once so far with my 9th civics class. I had two students tell me on Thursday "Hey..these really work!" YAYYYYYY!
Yes yes yes..use them. But approach them as a easy way to study. And, most hs kids have that little 'babyish' thing they like.. I still put stickers on good test papers..they like those too. anyway, if you say something like these are called foldables, i'll show you how to do them and these will help you study by keeping the information concise and in one area instead of all over your notes. I let them choose the color of construction paper, usually just letting them know if black can be a color choice or not and model how to fold, tell them what to put in it and they have time to fill in the work themselves. Absolutely try it!
I wasn't sure what you meant by "foldables" so I looked it up. Turns out I use them too. I find they work well as long as the kids are able to make it. Sometimes you spend a lot of time instructing kids how to fold the paper. Anyhow, I found a cool link with info in case anyone else is curious: http://www.box.net/shared/7agbycm808
I use them and the students like them, they have pros and cons.
Pros: the students take owership of their work, it helps thm organize information
cons: it takes time, especially if you have a big class, you must plan on an extra 10 or so minutes to show them how to fold and cut, etc. and plan on repeating directions for the students who are not good listeners or do not follow along. Some students get so caught up in making it look pretty that they forget that it's the information they put in it that is being graded!
I have students that like the "pretty" of graphic organizers and foldables..My statement, and the kids know it now is "Its not what it (the boxes) look like, its what is inside them that counts" When you have students that spend 5 minutes making sure the line is EXACTLY straight, they run out of time to put the important information INSIDE it. When I see it, I say my statement and for the most part, they get busy..but then I have my OCD darlings (and I don't mean darlings in a bad way-my girls that are OCD are my best students) who have to be exact, one even has a ruler out measuring and aligning. I love em!
I used foldables today to review the present tense with my Spanish II kids. They really liked them. They said they were really simple to see and they asked if they could do those for every tense. I plan to do it again tomorrow with my Spanish III for the future tense irregulars. My kids like anything that gives them a chance to fold, cut or glue. I have my kids glue their's into their interactive notebooks so that they won't lose them and put the title into the notebook's table of content so they know exactly where to find them. My kids were like "you mean whenever we get confused we can just look back at our foldable and get the answer?! COOOOOL!" It made me smile.
The foldables went over pretty well in my h.s. classes when I tried them. (They didn't think it was childish, if that's what you're asking.) The foldable had lots of room inside for info, which, as stated, is the whole point of the activity. I think it was especially helpful for those students who have poor note-taking skills; it provided more structure for them. That is, students who normally do not take notes in my classes were turning in the foldable. I think it was helpful and would like to use it again. Hope you like it, too, if you try it.
