We launched the class blog on the last week of the third quarter, the week before our two-week spring break. In previous years, when we've only had a one-week break, we've gotten kids started reading their NF book club book; but a two-week break seemed too long to interrupt the reading. Instead, we decided to do some background knowledge building first and get them started reading in their books after the break.
We took the first day to introduce the unit, go over expectations and assessments, introduce and choose books, and explore the Social Justice Essential Questions.
The second day, we set up the blogs using Kidblog, a very easy platform to use, and one that keeps the blog private within the class structure (keeping the "garden walls" closed is important to our school). They used the day to remember the "academic language" expectation, upload their avatar pic, choose their blog background theme, write an introductory blog post with a tag, and then read and comment on others. Being eighth graders, there was some level of silliness in posts, titles, and comments, but that just allowed us to discuss "appropriate" versus "inappropriate" uses of the blog.
The third day was a research day to develop schema. The nonfiction books in this unit all deal with Social Justice issues from US History. Through my Adapt and Adopt philosophy, I found some excellent primary sources and related lesson plans, which I structured on a google doc as a series of viewing and thinking activities for each group:
child labor: looking at and reading about photos by Lewis Hine and viewing a short video to connect to
- Kids at Work: Lewis Hine and the Crusade Against Child Labor by Russell Freedman
- Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne and James Houston
- Let Me Play: The Story of Title IX: The Law That Changed the Future of Girls in America byKaren Blumenthal
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| from Amazon.com |
civil rights movement: reading the Six Principals and Steps of Nonviolent Resistance, looking at images and short videos to connect to
- Freedom Walkers: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott by Russell Freedman,
- The Voice That Challenged a Nation: Marian Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights by Russell Freedman,
- Getting Away with Murder: The True Case of Emmitt Till by Chris Crowe
- We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball by Kadir Nelson
The fourth day was blogging day again. Students wrote about their understanding of, and reaction to, the information they researched the day before. The mini-lesson focused on viewing exemplars of blog postings at 4 levels, from poor to excellent, and noticing the characteristics of each. Since the best ones included pictures and hyperlinks, there was a quick lesson on the "how to" of this tech skill (written up in a blog post on my page for future reference).
The third and fourth days were very very quiet and focused, especially considering they were the days immediately proceeding a holiday. In teacher-speak, you know you've hit on a winner when that happens! The short primary source documents, photo images and videos quickly caught the students' attention. They found them very interesting and worth the effort to dig through the difficult language (definitely examples of CCSS's close reading of challenging texts!). Writing up their understanding and reactions was harder--pulling the pieces together and writing in a new genre--but the format was engaging, and the information provocative. My quick sample of some posts showed me that they were successful, for the most part.
We will come back to these posts when we return from the break, and read and comment on each others' learning. That's when the true power of the blog will hit them. Right now it's a new way to show the teacher their learning. But when others read and learn from them, they will really see the "3 C's" of 21st Century learning--Creativity, Collaboration, and Communication--come alive.
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