Standards Diaries

I am always looking for ways to make our standards more relevant, more connected, and give my students more ownership of THEIR standards. They are, after all Georgia Performance Standards for 3rd grade students....not 3rd grade teachers. I've been using chart tablets to put our GPS in kid-friendly language, review the vocabulary of the standard, draw picture clues, symbols, and even graphic organizers to help students connect the GPS to their real worlds and their own knowledge.


What I like about this is it's functional. It's pratical. It's interactive, and it's always available. What I don't like is that my science charts look so different from my ELA charts. It still feels like it's "mine", and I want my students to have total ownership of it, to the point that it's part of their own everyday language.

So here is my new idea. Each student will have a folder with only these sheets. I have posters that match that I will fill in with Vis-a-Vis. This folder will be their Standards Diaries. We will write our standards in "I can" friendly language, dissect the verbs, nouns, draw picture clues, etc. Students will make their own learning goals, and use the thought bubble to make connections to prior knowledge or experiences. The magnifying class is to list our essential questions.

The back is for vocabulary, definitions, samples, illustrations, etc. I'm excited to try something new and hope this method leads my students to the level of ownership that will make them more successful.  Get the files here. And here.

Front Page of Standards Diary

Back page of Standards Diary