Providing Feedback

There are so many interesting aspects to this chapter, it's hard to narrow my response to 2 things. We have a couple class sets of the classroom response systems at Jane Long, and the teachers that use them, love them. Knowledge of this tool is mostly hearsay outside the 4th grade however, as that grade level either purchased them or made the request. Regardless, this feedback tool is remarkably easy to use. The kids get a game show feel and enjoy using the system. What I didn't realize was the ability to create reports concerning the responses. This takes the use of the tool to a higher level.

For my use, in the library, I thought the blog was a great tool. My first thought (not original, I know) was to create a blog about the Bluebonnet Award nominees for the school year. I could post a basic synposis of each book, give the kids an evaluation rubric, and invite them to respond to the books as they read them. This blog would serve multiple purposes. First, the kids could voice their opinions about the books. Kids who have not read the books could consider the feedback in selecting those they want to read. The LA teachers could use the postings to evaluate writing. I, or the reading teacher, could use the postings as live classroom dicussion springboards.

The other tool that caught my attention was the idea of instant messaging. Personal appearances by children's authors earns them more money than the sale of their books, and, for the most part, we can't afford hosting them. However, if I could manage a 20 minute exchange with an author, responding to questions posed by the students, I think the kids would be quite excited. They would be the ones experiencing feedback to their questions from someone they would consider a celebrity. I could coordinate this with the reading and writing teachers in 3rd and 4th, and the questions from the kids might pertain more closely to their current curricular emphasis. The cool thing about this idea is that it could work with virtually every grade level, and could be coordinated with multiple authors. For the little ones, although they might come up with questions, reading a response on the screen might not be very meaningful. However, for the same amount of effort, it might be possible to schedule a phone call with the author on speaker phone for all to hear.

Hearkening back to the previous chapter, I could use one of the survey tools to determine the authors that the kids are most interested in. Naturally, they wouldn't all be available, but with a bit of preliminary work, perhaps the list could be composed of those most likely to cooperate with the project.

Chapter 2 which is Chapter 1

I can see some fun possibilities with the Objectives. I suppose the simplest tool would simply be the Word chart for KWHL. I can see using this with the lower grades especially. It could be used by individual students or, if the kids are pre-writing, it could be teacher led, student fed.

For my 3rd and 4th grade students, in particular, I would love to use the SurveyMonkey. I can see providing an array of general research topics to select from, narrowing the focus with additional selections, including options on how to conduct the research. I think the kids would buy in with this ability to have input on what's going to happen.

I can also see using this as an end-of-year survey tool regarding the library. Something as simple as which book I read was a favorite could be very interesting and help me with planning. Naturally, after doing a project or two, surveying the kids about what they enjoyed, whether they felt the project was worthwhile, what worked/didn't work, would they like to learn more - pretty cool.

21st Century Learners

I've seen this video many times. It's scary in a way, because I feel so many of us are comfortable in the traditional delivery methods of teaching.
Practically, I also wonder... I don't think that many of our kids have as much access to technology as those in the video, so I'm not convinced that this pointed demand is being made on our campus. However, the role of an educator does demand that we be equipped to deliver an end product that can succeed in the real world. As a result, with the digital era comes the requirement for us to answer with appropriate teaching abilities. Hopefully, we will have the tech tools available for all students to take advantage of digital education strategies.