Science and Social Studies teachers at BCS have worked hard to integrate writing and writing instruction into their classroom activities and I recently observed a class using blogs to do this. Blogging is a great way to integrate writing and collaboration into any subject area.
Mrs. H's class was doing research on Ancient Chinese Philosophers, a new topic added to our curriculum by the Essential Standards. She provided students with a table to collect specific information about an assigned philosopher/philosophy and students were instructed in how to search online and select information from reputable sources. Each student was working independently on his or her own research, but as you may know research can be quite a struggle for middle school students, so they often need help.
Mrs.H used a class research blog to allow students to collaborate with each other through writing. The blog site she used is Kidblog (http://kidblog.org/home.php_) This site allows teachers to create individual student blogs in a password protected environment without students having to have an email address. Mrs. H introduced the use of the blog by explaining what blogs are, discussing safety precautions, and then describing how she would like the blog to be used. Students were directed to post comments about their research progress, and questions they needed assistance with. After the comments were moderated by Mrs.H (while students were working) students could go back to the blog to respond to each others questions and see what answers they received.
This was an excellent way to allow student's the use of an online communication tool for learning purposes. It gave students a chance to feel what it is like to collaborate with others, in real time on a project through the use of technology. This is a real world application of web tools that many adults use in their professional work. In addition to providing practice in this 21st Century skill, it also assisted students with the research process allowing them to see that others had similar questions and could share strategies to find solutions.
Showing posts with label active learning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label active learning. Show all posts
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
21st Century Skills Walkthrough
Today I was able to take the time to walkthrough almost all of the classrooms at my school. I was particularly looking for evidence of 21st Century skills being taught. I saw some impressive things going on. Here are a few . . .
In Mrs. J's math classroom, two things stood out. First was the math word wall - its so important to bring that focus on literacy into every class! On a bulletin board I also noticed posters sharing the different responsibilities for student roles when working in cooperative groups. It is vital that our students learn to work in collaborative groups in order for them to be college and carreer ready, unfortunately this is a skill that doesn't come naturally and can be quite challanging. Setting up guidelines for the roles can help students begin to learn how in a collaborative group, every member has an important job and responsibility to the other members!
Mrs.T had some students working on their argument for a court case the class was working on. She discussed with a student how she would be the judge and they would have to convince her of their opinion. Such a powerful real life us of writing and speaking skills!
Mrs.S's Social Studies students were working in the Media Center on a project which Mrs.S had collaborated on with the Media Specialist. Students in her class got to see their teacher working cooperatively with other faculty, and at the same worked in groups with their peers to research and create a project focused on an aspect of life in Ancient Greece or Rome. The project allowed students to practice skills of finding information from multiple sources, and then creatively design a product to reflect their learning. It was so exciting to walk in the media center and see all the project materials out and in use! The learning environment was a polar opposite of the traditional read and be silent atmosphere of a library. Students were engaged and active in their learning which resulted in noise and mess, but most importatnly powerful learning for students!
Something I noticed was that our teachers have gotten very adept and comfortable at using our technology such as computers and Interactive White Boards to present instruction, which is great. To up the level of impact on student learning, now teachers need to get students engaged with the interactiveness of the technology -- a good goal for me to help the faculty to work on.
In Mrs. J's math classroom, two things stood out. First was the math word wall - its so important to bring that focus on literacy into every class! On a bulletin board I also noticed posters sharing the different responsibilities for student roles when working in cooperative groups. It is vital that our students learn to work in collaborative groups in order for them to be college and carreer ready, unfortunately this is a skill that doesn't come naturally and can be quite challanging. Setting up guidelines for the roles can help students begin to learn how in a collaborative group, every member has an important job and responsibility to the other members!
Mrs.T had some students working on their argument for a court case the class was working on. She discussed with a student how she would be the judge and they would have to convince her of their opinion. Such a powerful real life us of writing and speaking skills!
Mrs.S's Social Studies students were working in the Media Center on a project which Mrs.S had collaborated on with the Media Specialist. Students in her class got to see their teacher working cooperatively with other faculty, and at the same worked in groups with their peers to research and create a project focused on an aspect of life in Ancient Greece or Rome. The project allowed students to practice skills of finding information from multiple sources, and then creatively design a product to reflect their learning. It was so exciting to walk in the media center and see all the project materials out and in use! The learning environment was a polar opposite of the traditional read and be silent atmosphere of a library. Students were engaged and active in their learning which resulted in noise and mess, but most importatnly powerful learning for students!
Something I noticed was that our teachers have gotten very adept and comfortable at using our technology such as computers and Interactive White Boards to present instruction, which is great. To up the level of impact on student learning, now teachers need to get students engaged with the interactiveness of the technology -- a good goal for me to help the faculty to work on.
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