In the current reading unit I am teaching, the ultimate goal is to help students to find books they will enjoy reading and read voluntarily, as well as boosting their self-confidence as readers. My firm belief is part of the reason some students dislike reading so much is due to the tedious, minimally-effective worksheets that some teachers assign. As stated by Olgren, “The purpose of interactive activities is to involve students in the kind of deep analysis and synthesis processes essential for deep understanding and application” (Leading 21st-Century Schools, 47). By allowing students to work on activities like wiki sites and blogs, we are still holding them accountable for understanding and analyzing books. However, instead of simply recording answers on worksheets or in their books, they now have the opportunity to dialogue with other students, in their own class or in other parts of the country or world; the boundaries are endless.
Also, education constantly stresses the necessity to individualize our instruction to meet the needs of our very unique learners. As Schrum and Levin explain, “The main characteristics of this “new” Internet are connected with its constant development and delivery of services tailored to the needs of each user” (48). That way, teachers can allow many possibilities of response, reaction, and assessment to help all of his or her learners to grow and succeed.
I have embedded a link to blogs, one for each class, into my wiki. I feel that these blogs will be easy to utilize in my Reading classes, as students can respond, question, and discuss the books that they are reading. As the year progresses, and many students have read the same books, it will create a very convenient opportunity to dialogue about their book choices and ideas. Furthermore, if I have a student who seems to have very unique interests that don’t really match with those of their classmates, they can interact with other learners of the same interest. “ . . .Collaboration can be much more accessible and diverse. We can create sites where classes from disparate geographies can conduct all sorts of experiments” (Richardson 27). That way, students can dialogue with people outside of our classroom. Bringing their unique experiences to the table, the students are equipped to both teach something they know about the book, thus empowering themselves, and they are able to learn from someone else who has the same interests.
While I am very excited to work to implement this, I have two hesitancies. First, I am a little uncertain what permission I need to get from the school and the parents in order to ensure that all students can participate. I am going to begin by contacting my principal to ensure that I am following proper protocol. Second, our school district has a very tight curricular schedule. I will work to incorporate these activities in class, but I think they will also need to be assigned for homework. Unfortunately, I work in a district where only some of the students have access to the Internet from their home. I will need to work with those students to make alternate arrangements so that they have opportunities to utilize the technology as well. I would love to hear everyone’s thoughts!
