Since our last gathering I have been working toward launching two new initiatives in my classes that has challenged my own technological skills. I may be trying to do too much at once, but it's exciting for me, so I'm determined to keep going. First of all, I have created a blog to use for Virtual Literature Circles (http://jfdsbooktalks.wordpress.com/), an idea I read about in an article in Educational Leadership. I have 4 titles (The Outsiders, Speak, Shattering Glass, & The Hunger Games) that students in my 2 classes of at-risk students (16 students total) have chosen to read. They will meet face to face tomorrow to plan their meetings, and I will review the requirements. My plan is to initially provide the prompts to begin discussions, but I am hoping they will use this as an opportunity to construct meaning as a group. I will work on helping them write questions that elicit rich responses. There is also a page called "Making Connections" for students to respond to what I call the BIG QUESTIONS. For example, these titles have many themes in common including the concept of power. One class began a discussion about the use and abuse of power that we will continue tomorrow.
At the same time, I am preparing to launch a Digital Writing Workshop. In the spirit of collaborative learning, I planned to use the wiki resource on Moodle, but after much work and frustration, I have decided to work outside of that forum. Since I've used both wikispaces and pbwiki before, I plan to use one or the other for student writing. That's my weekend project!
In case anyone missed it, the May 2010 issue of English Journal is about social networking/collaboration. I've referred back to it several times.
Jennifer, I checked out your digital lit circles-under "making connections" and your students seem to be fully engaged in the concept of power. I was so impressed. You must be too. I can't wait to hear what they have to say about the books. Is the blog changing your in-class time and interactions? (I know it's early to tell)
ReplyDeleteThis blog sounds like a really great project. I've dabbled in using blogs for students to share ideas about their work. I'll be interested to see how this works with your reading groups. I'm not sure how Bailey viewed your student responses. When I clicked on the link I only saw your initial instructions.
ReplyDeleteI'm really impressed with your energy and enthusiasm. Right now I feel very bogged down just with grading....This is why this class is good - it reminds me/ motivates me to keep thinking and not let my self get run down...
ReplyDeleteI, too, am impressed. I am still struggling with learning the best use of Google Docs and you are conquering the world!
ReplyDeleteJenn,
ReplyDeleteI am impressed by the interaction among the students on the blog. Whenever I have done blogs in class, students just post things to post them and don't pay attention to what the other kids are writing. How did you present it to the kids? Did they have to respond to others x number of times? Did they post and respond to others' posts in class time?