After class last night I continued to think about online literature circles and how they would work in an elementary classroom. To tell you the truth, I'm having trouble seeing them working at my school. First of all, we only have 2 student computers in each classroom. We have one computer lab in the library, which teachers can sign up for time to use. Fortunately, teachers do take advantage of this and I do see many classes using the lab on a regular basis. What are some suggestions as far as availabilty of technology in order for online literature circles to work at my school?
My next thought was whether or not it would be beneficial to create an online literature circle with another group of kids within the same school district, just across town. The reason I think this would be beneficial is because we are using the same curriculum and teaching the same reading skills/strategies at the same time, following the same curriculum maps. This way you could center discussion around specific skills the students are learning in their classrooms at that time. Also, I was thinking this would be beneficial because the students would see different ideas coming out of the same stories they are reading. You could even create a discussion on the story for the week, coming straight from their reading text. YOu could also do smaller group discussions on other books, but still concentrate on the specific skills and/or strategies from the curriculum maps.
I realize this blog is somewhat random, but these are just thoughts I was having in class last night as we were discussing online literature circles. Let me know what you think!
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I think doing lieterature circles with another class in the same distrcit might be a good solution to your computer issue, because there would simply be less people needing the computers if the other members of the circle were in a different facility. I think this idea has a lot of promise! I think the students would be very motivated by these literature circles, especially because they would be able to establish new relationships through them.
ReplyDeleteI think this is something to just "think" about and you are doing just that -- several have been successful at doing this. I really like your idea of doing it within your district with the same goals in mind. I have seen this done with one computer in classroom. One group is online with one group from another school - they discuss as a group like they would in the classroom with one child's responsibility being the typist. But, maybe there are some other things we should think about --- what about using Skype for video conferencing? maybe podcast a discussion? Have students blog about what they hear the other group saying and then they can respond back. Just some thoughts.... thanks for keeping the discussion going.
ReplyDeleteI really like the idea of using another school in the same district, it would make the connection between the curriculum but also bring in another perspective. Especially in a district as big as Des Moines with so many different types of school. Great idea!
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