Their Time to Shine: Structured Student Spotlight
Add a Little Culture to Your Elementary Room
Well.. one of my FAVORITE times of the week now, is on Wednesdays when we do student spotlight. I send home a packet of work a week in advanced, and give students seven days to work on it at home and bring it back to school. When they bring it back, they have written all about themselves, their families, their favorite things, and their hopes for the future. They include pictures, bring in items for show and tell, and even bring in their favorite treat for everyone to share. Students get 20-30 minutes to share about themselves by reading what they wrote, talking about the pictures, sharing their items and answering questions from the audience. Students LOVE this moment, and beg to be the student spotlight star of the week!
Here is a breakdown of our allotted time, however, this could easily be done in 10 minutes or up to 45 minutes, if done correctly!
3-5 Minutes: All About Me (read and show pictures)
1-2 Minutes: Questions About All About Me
3-5 Minutes: My Family (read and show pictures)
1-2 Minutes: Questions About My Family
1-2 Minutes: Questions About My Future
3-5 Minutes: My Favorite Things (read and show pictures)
1-2 Minutes: Questions About My Favorite Things
2-5 Minutes: Turn & Talk About One Thing You Have Learned, One Compliment You Have and One Question You Still Have
5-10 Minutes: Show Items Brought, Pass Out Treats while students wait in a line. Students give the student a compliment or ask another question before they are given a treat.
5-10 Minutes: Students eat their treats while talking about the presentation, and raise their hands if they have more questions. Students can write compliments on post-it notes to give to the student spotlight student when they’re finished.
I usually pick students randomly, but this can also be awarded based on a student of the week (at my school this is a different award), or it can be done based on birthdays!
If you are looking for a structured way to do student spotlight in your classroom, check out my resource here. This includes all posters, examples, and a detailed parent letter about working on this project at home. This project could also be structured to be done during school.
Enjoy 🙂
I hope that you found what you needed in this blog post! If you liked it or have questions, please comment below. Follow my blog for more ideas for your elementary classroom!