It seems the older the students, the less likely a teacher is to decorate a classroom, or at least change bulletin boards. True, students often focus on more personal issues the older they get, and a high school bulletin board may not be the top of the list. One way I combat this (student interest and my gumption to change those boards!) is by creating a board that students help make.
I've used student work before, as well as their brainstorming ideas, like on note cards or post-it-notes. This year I decided to make a literary term board:
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| Simple, and easy for students to add examples. |
As we cover literary terms, I want students to see literary terms in their everyday lives, in everyday readings and advertisements. Our school gets the newspaper daily, and I often have them scan the pages finding a few examples. I also encourage them to find examples on the Internet. 'Allusion' seems to be the easiest found example, but they will find more along the way:
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| Allusions: The Catcher in the Rye and Fahrenheit 451. |
I think the students also like the breaks in class to find examples. I've thought about making a "grammar mistake" bulletin board, but I need to think that one through a bit more...
