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Reflections of Student Understanding Travel journals are student-created "textbooks." Normal Park calls them travel journals because they chart the journey of students' learning. They are a great way for students to take ownership of their learning. Every student creates one, and every travel journal is unique to the student. Travel journals are a collection of the work students do for their science or social studies module. Teachers use travel journals on a daily basis; students create work and then add it to their journal throughout the quarter. Journals include writing and reflection pieces, graphic organizers, timelines, charts, drawings, diagrams, vocabulary, maps, pictures, and anything else that reflects students' learning and understanding of the module topic. Teachers also photocopy relevant articles and have students place those in their journals. During the course of one year, a student will create four journals for four different modules. Students take the journals home at the end of each quarter. Students love to show them off to their parents and keep them as a record of what they learned.

What do you think of when you think of your Target Language country/countries? While you may have spent some time there - and traveled to various spots - your students may have not. As a Japanese teacher it seems that Tokyo is the number 1 'want to go to' place for my students. However, as I spent my first 2 years in Japan in smaller more out of the way places, I want my students to learn that there's more to Japan than the big urban areas. And so the Year4 travel fair - a summative activity at the end of a 2-week unit - was born. It allows students to utilize key words they will need if/when they visit Japan - and also allows them to research and introduce key areas to their classmates during an interactive oral. For me the fair takes a week - with time spent planning/preparing for the 'fair', running the fair and then using the information for a written 'summative' evaluation. (My handout - for my Yr4 Japanese class including is here) The premise: Design an optional tour for a visitor to Japan - one that is outside major urban areas (I list the 'no go' places). This can be a 2 or 3 day tour.

Japan Travel and Living Guide

Article (in English) about a group of male students from McClymonds High School in Oakland who traveled to Dakar, Sénégal, in March 1982.

Tourism brochure for Les Saisies, an alpine resort in Savoie, France

Web site for a chain of French mountain resorts

Winter sports and activities in Quebec

Winter sports and activities in Austria

Winter activities for the whole family