Coach: Sara Simon, Edmund Burke Elementary School
Adaptable for grade levels: 5-8
Key Subject Area(s): Art, Music, Drama
Also incorporates: Character Education, Language Arts

Study Group Teaching Method Description:

Investing in meaningful relationships with students often results in increased student learning and a more manageable, peaceful classroom environment. This photo journal strategy, in which students and teacher create a visual narrative of their daily lives, family, and community, is an innovative way to build meaningful teacher-student relationships.

Photo journals are a great way to get to know the personal backgrounds, community experiences, and family lives of students. This Study Group demonstrates how valuable a learning experience it is to have students and teachers simultaneously creating visual narratives of their lives. These journals are created and shared in order to help build significant classroom relationships and discover connections with one another. Photo journals offer students an opportunity to see and critique photographs as works of art, using proper vocabulary to describe how a certain picture makes them feel and what they believe a specific picture represents.

Illinois State Standards and Benchmarks:

Sara Simon teaches K-8 Art and Reading at Burke Elementary School. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Art Education and Gender Studies from Northern Michigan University where she was President of the Latin American Student Association for three years. At Burke, Sara is involved in a number of committees, including serving as a leader in the elementary level reading program where she is responsible for training, observing, and supporting teachers as they implement the school’s reading program.  

Meeting Times:

The Study Group meeting schedules are determined together at the Study Group Program Kick-Off Dinner on Thursday, June 4, 2009.