There are a number of tools that I want to include in my teachings this year but my main focus I think will be podcasts and Twitter.
I have been a little bit nervous about wanting to try podcasts because I struggle with the management piece of it, but I think I need to just try it out and see what works. Podcasts are audio recordings that the students would create and record. I think that they could respond to the read alouds we do, different books that they have read, or even combine it with a writing assignment. For the management piece, I think that I would have the students come together to make a script that would need to be checked by me before they do any recording. I think that this would get my auditory learners very interested in reading besides just from listening to audiobooks. I love that podcasts involve them creating their writing and listening to their work.
Another tool I want to implement would be a classroom Twitter. I have my professional twitter and I have used a classroom twitter in the past but it has been primarily run by me. Twitter is a type of social media where you post up to 140 characters each time. You can connect with other people and follow different subjects by using hashtags. I think it would be a great Literacy 2.0 tool if I had the students each take a week where they would be in charge of running the classroom Twitter page. This would require them to recount the important activities to our followers as well as making their language concise as Twitter only allows 140 characters per tweet. This would also give the students a sense of ownership of their classroom, which I believe as a teacher is extremely important.
Sometimes implementing these tools in your classroom can seem somewhat daunting, but I believe that the students have such great experiences at the end and can learn so much through these tools. It is important to keep introducing new tools year after year, as there are so many new tools to use!
Kirsten,
ReplyDeleteHere is a thought that comes to mind with the podcast idea that you mentioned. Have your students create audio book talks about the books they are reading independently. Publish the podcasts online and create a QR code that links to the podcast. Paste the QR Codes inside the books addressed in the book talks. Students can use a QR code reader to scan the code to listen to a peer's book talk before making the decision to read a book. This provides an authentic audience for the podcasts.
Your plan to have a tweeter-of-the-week has been used by many classrooms with great success. Parents love to be able to keep up with classroom happenings in such a simple way. It will be great experience for students and they will learn many lessons as a result of contributing to social media. This activity also provides an immediate authentic audience.
Happy learning!
Dr. Dell
Dr. Dell,
DeleteI love your suggestion about the audio book talks. I will being trying these as soon as I can. Thanks for a great idea of how to incorporate an authentic audiences.
Kristen,
ReplyDeleteI really want to try podcasts as well this year. Like you, I am a little nervous to try them just because I feel like it would be hard for the kids to find a quiet place to record their podcast. I like how you came up with a way to use podcasts with fiction. I could only think to use them with nonfiction.
I also really like the idea Dr. Dell suggested. I think I will have try out the audio book talks next time I have my building's technology teacher push into my room. I think the kids would love to create these podcasts for their peers. My only concern would be that it would take some students forever to select a book because they would want to listen to every podcast!