Chapter Chat - Final Weeks

We are on our final week of Chapter Chat for this term. I have been super impressed with the engagement of the students. Next terms book has been announced, and I wasn't sure if the students wanted to continue on with the new book. So I decided what better idea to find out what they students wanted to do, then ask them. I ask them and they unamiously decided YES, so I guess we are going to continue.

Here is a breakdown of what I have learned this term:

1. Carefully choice what activities you want the students to achieve, then make these a must do. When I gave them free range, they tended to do the easier activities. I had one week where everyone spent the whole week doing Mindcraft. Whilst this increases creativity, I felt they had missed the point.
2. Everyone needs to be accountable and have something on our twitter page to share by the end of the week. Those that had shared their work were more engaged in the actual Chapter Chat. 
3. Clear expectations of how work needs to be set out. Some students were not working to their full potential.
4. Make sure everyone completes the twitter questions for the Friday Chat, before the chat. Some students hadn't done the questions, and made the Friday Chapter Chats harder for them to follow, and thus they were less engaged.
5. Keep ahead of the story! Makes it easier to keep up with what is happening, and means that if you are away, or things crop up you are not rushing to finish the story up to the point for the students to continue on their activities.
6. Trust your students! I had a group of boys on the last week that worked together to create a fantastic trailer for the book. I was really impressed with what they had produced (To be honest I thought they were just faffing about outside of the class) yet the group I thought would produce fantastic work did not.
7. Embace the unknown. Students are cleaver, and creative, and when given a little creative freedom produce amazing work!