Academy Curricular Exchange
Columbia Education Center
Language

TITLE:  Class Directory

AUTHOR:  Jan Riley, Maplewood School, Anchorage, AK
  (as taken & adapted from M. Hunt, Noel Nelson, AWP, etal)

GRADE LEVEL/SUBJECT: (7-12)  Writing


PURPOSE:  A class directory is a booklet of stories written
by the students in a given class about other students in the
class. By doing this project, students become better
acquainted and bond as a class. When done at the beginning
of the year it not only "breaks the ice", it serves as a
diagnostic tool for the teacher. I can quickly assess where
each student is in social skills, language, reading,
writing, spelling, etc. Writing skills, such as asking for
complete information, following up on questions, organizing
information on a variety of topics, and making
generalizations based on specific bits of information, are
also developed.

ACTIVITIES AND PROCEDURES:
Each student, teacher, aide, and anyone else who will be
taking part in the activity is assigned a number. When a
person is interviewed, the information obtained is written
in the block on the information sheet which corresponds to
that number on the interview sheet. (to make this sheet,
simply divide a piece of lined notebook paper in half and
each half into 3 equal parts for a total of six blocks. At
the top of each block, label a place for NAME and NUMBER.
Zerox as many pages as you will need.)

Each student in the class interviews every other participant
by asking them three (3) questions and writing in the answer
in the correct block on their interview sheets. (In a
regular sized class you will want to limit the number of
interviews to as many as can be accomplished in the amount
of time you have allotted for this exercise.) A student may
answer a question only once, thus ensuring a variety of
information about each student. sometimes the same answer is
elicited by a different question. Students must tell the
interviewer that they have already given that information so
that a different question can be asked.

Before students begin interviewing, the class should talk
about the kinds of questions to ask in order to elicit
information. You can either let students choose from a
large, group-compiled list, or let them each make up 3
questions of their own which must be approved by the
teacher. With my small group (8) I find it helpful to read
stories from previous classes to give them ideas for
questions. I also maintain a list of question used before to
draw on if they are unable to think of enough questions.
They need to be aware of the need for follow-up questions in
order to get sufficient information on a particular
question. Students should be required to write their
information in complete sentences so that the reader can
tell what the question was.

**  Getting Ready To Write  **

Once the interviewing is completed, the interview sheets are
cut apart on the dark lines and sorted according to number.
All pieces of information about a particular student are
placed in an envelope with that student's name on it. The
envelopes are handed out randomly or you can pair students
that could work well together. If students are in pairs, it
is easy for them to obtain further information or
clarification about each other. The teacher should keep a
list of who each person is writing about.

Once students have their envelopes, they need to read all
the bits of information and organize them into categories.
This is a good time to discuss ways to organize a paper.
Then I have them write a rough draft based on the
information they have. Students need to be guided into
making general statements based on the specific bits of
information they have. I check their papers for mechanics,
then they rewrite making any changes or improvements on
them.

Students may discover theat there are big gaps in the
information which they have. If so, they need to go to their
subject and do some additional interviewing to fill in these
gaps.

BOOKCOVERS:  Each person will make his/her own individual
bookcover. Somewhere on the cover will be written "Important
things to know about (their name)." They may draw, letter,
make designs, whatever, as long as it illustrates their own
personality in some way.

I laminate the bookcovers with clear contact paper myself.
Everyone doing this at once usually makes a mess. Once they
are laminated they can be bound with a punch and bind
machine or just stapled together. Each booklet contains a
copy of every participant's story with the first story
belonging to the person on the cover.

Click here to return to OFCN's Academy Curricular Exchange

Click here to return to OFCN's Academy
Click here to return to OFCN's Main Menu