Hi friends!
Today, I wanted to share about learning passports and how we have been using them to improve student writing at our after school site.
Haven't heard of them yet? Well, keep reading to learn more. :)
Learning passports are a fun portable way for students to respond to writing prompts in a paper saving, student friendly way. Like everything I create, learning passports came out of the needs of the students I work with.
I work for a educational non-profit and one of my many, many, many, many (you get the idea) tasks is to assess student gaps in learning and to develop/curate materials to target those specific areas. One day, a site coordinator came to me and asked me to make a food passport for her students to use. I wanted to make it double sided so that she could make the 30 paged book out of 4 sheets of paper. After tinkering with it for a bit, I was able to create the Food Passport and it was a hit!
I soon began to think of other applications for this Food Passport. In thinking of the needs of my students, it soon became clear that writing would be the most beneficial. The current area to target was student writing.
I work for a educational non-profit and one of my many, many, many, many (you get the idea) tasks is to assess student gaps in learning and to develop/curate materials to target those specific areas. One day, a site coordinator came to me and asked me to make a food passport for her students to use. I wanted to make it double sided so that she could make the 30 paged book out of 4 sheets of paper. After tinkering with it for a bit, I was able to create the Food Passport and it was a hit!
I soon began to think of other applications for this Food Passport. In thinking of the needs of my students, it soon became clear that writing would be the most beneficial. The current area to target was student writing.
Writing Learning Passports
In making the change from a food passport to writing required some serious thought. Below were some of the issues that I was contending with:
- Students did not like/enjoy writing
- Students were always misplacing writing journals
- Making large packets was using up too much paper
None of these issues were earth shattering or brand new. At the root, the issues were motivation, organization, and saving paper. I took all of these parameters and tried to come up with a solution.
Solution: Monthly Learning Passports
The Writing Learning Passport really addressed all of the problems. Students liked responding to quick prompts and discuss. If they lost their learning passport, it was easy to replace (and yes, they had to start over)! And lastly, so paper saving!
My favorite thing about them is how much I can get on 4 sheets of paper. 4 sheets of paper per kid for a month plus of writing can't be beat.
Below is an example of how to assemble to books.
I love the badges too! It helps to keep track of the student's who finished the assignment. I have had students glue the back page to their actual writing journal when they were done because they were so proud of them.
Look below at the sample writing topics that will be covered for March. Some of them are specific to day while others are themed for the whole month.
Bonus Tip:
Because I am prone to bouts of OCD, I ordered the stapler below to ensure perfect stapling every time and that would help me speed up the process. I actually timed how many learning passports I could create and found I could make 6 books in under a minute. Since we have small groups of six, this was golden. I would highly recommend the stapler both for the learning passports and for all your other booklet projects.
I plan to continue to make the monthly learning passports because they are quick and easy to make and the kids really enjoy them. My favorite part is handing out the completion badges. Least favorite is having to create more since they go through them so fast.
Try Out Writing Learning Passports for Yourself
Click to get St. Patrick's Day Writing for free!
I plan to add more free seasonal Learning Passports in the future.
If you like what you see, I also have other monthly editions of the learning passports
If monthly writing isn't for you, the Would You Rather Quick Writes might be a better option. The older students really enjoyed them.
They mostly used them for writing warm ups and for fast finishers. They tied completing the learning passport to their incentive program and students could earn extra swag bucks by completing the packet.
Learning Passports have helped the students so much. Hope it helps yours too!
Great concept.
ReplyDelete