Working with Students

I have been working lately with students creating some really interesting projects. I have read so much about how we need to give students authentic learning opportunities and differentiate instruction based on interests that I thought I should research how to actually bring this to life. Many teachers are using technology in the classroom, but my concern was are they just using it as an "insert technology here" add-on, or a true lesson where technology is seamlessly integrated into the classroom.

So in the spirit of actually giving a concrete example of what students are doing, here it goes!

Getting students to write has always been a problem. I know I never liked the idea of sitting down to write something in classes and that was a couple of decades ago. Nothing seems to have changed. However, put a student in front of their MSN screen or their Facebook profile and they will write like there is no tomorrow. Why? Because they have an audience; a worldwide audience. Even better, an audience of their peers; their peers worldwide.

What I created was a project similar to "This I Believe..." from National Public Radio. I know I spoke about this before, but this post is about the "nuts and bolts" of the project. I am sitting down with the teacher and brainstorming how this fits in their classroom. Then we are approaching the students with the idea, showing them concrete examples of what they can do. So instead of writing for the sake of writing they are now writing about things that truly interest them. Fact, fiction, action, adventure, life, death, friendship. relationships as long as it interests them, it's good.

Then their writings are to be read by them. We are using audacity to record. They will then turn them into MP3's and post them on our website along with the document that they wrote. Now I wish I could claim that I invented this. I did not. I am a reader of many blogs and this came from a blog by Ms Smith. She has used the "This I Believe" format in her classroom as well. The only difference in hers and ours is that we will be using the format from grades 6 to 12 in a variety of different ways. Check back soon for the link to our first essays!

A World-Wide Audience

We often talk about students writing for an authentic audience. I mean how many of us wrote a paper for a teacher when we were in school to only have the teacher read it, mark it and hand it back to us. Then what happened? We looked at the mark and then tossed the paper. How many tossed papers would others have liked to read? A lot I think. Now there is a blog I found today that brings students out of the classroom and gives them an authentic audience. They are creating "This I Believe" essays and posting them as podcasts. Oh, but wait, in case you think they were just recording their thoughts off the top of their heads...no! Their completed essays are also there in text.
These students have some amazing things to say. Listen for yourself. This is the kind of learning we all should be striving for in our classes!