Reading Reflection 2 (January 30, 2014)

In the article, What Would Romeo and Juliet Say to Jack and Piggy on Facebook, teacher Pamela Carver created an assignment through social networking for her eighth grade English class to do. In this assignment, they used the social networking site Ning, to have each student create a page and with the use of readings they had done over the year, took up a role of one of the characters they had read about. By assuming the role of whatever character they were assigned, they were able to demonstrate understanding of the text by having the personality and the characteristics of that character. With this character, they would interact with the other “characters” they read about, even if they were from different books. This made it fun for the students by connecting the readings of The Odyssey, Lord of the Flies, and Romeo and Juliet. Students would do status updates and comment on each other’s statuses where they would discuss the book and their understanding of the book without even knowing it!

I think this is a great and creative idea for students, especially at the middle and high school levels. You get the substance of a book report because they have to know and understand the book to be the character and write their status updates about things going on in the book. However, it is not as dull or as typical. Kid’s lives are so immersed in social networking and it has become a huge part of American culture that this assignment comes second nature to them. The fun is pretending to be a character and being able to act silly with it.

This addresses NETS-S because of the use of a social networking site. This is what students are using the internet primarily for and it allows them to interact with other students online while learning about the characters and the plots on the books they read. This is something they can do both in and outside the classroom.   

Carver, P. (2013, February). What would romeo and juliet say to jack and piggy on facebook Learning and Leading, 40(5),

Reading Reflection 1 (January 30, 2014)

In the article, Where in the World Are they? Students Find Out with Mystery Skype, elementary school teacher Pernille Ripp, tried out a new activity on her fifth grade class called “Mystery Skype”. The idea of Mystery Skype is to connect students to other students across the United States, even the world. The students come up with questions to ask one another about their state or community. Finding out where the students they are talking on Skype live, they look up information about that region. This includes geography facts and the history about that area. In order for this to be an efficient, organized activity, students are given different jobs when the Skyping is going on. This includes greeters, answerers, question recorders, etc. This keeps all the students busy while the Skyping is going on and the classroom organized. It is also important that the teacher check to do a test run before doing the actual activity because there could be technical problems or a bad connection.

As a future history/social studies teacher, this activity intrigued me. This idea could not only work for elementary school students, but higher grades as well. This would be a fun interactive activity that where students could get a different cultural perspective of other students their age living in different parts of the world. But they would also benefit from it educationally because they would be able to learn about the geography and history of that region.

This is related to NETS-S because there is use of technology where you can video chat with anyone across the world and learn about different parts of the world. Students are able to get a whole new perspective through the technology of Skype and other video chatting applications. I think that this is a great use of technology, but like all types of technology in the classroom, it should be monitored and the teacher should have control over it.

 

Ripp, P. (2013, February). Where in the world are they? students find out with mystery skype. Learning and Leading, 40(5),

Introduction

Hello! 
My name is Jaclyn Preciado and I am a senior at Cal State San Marcos and this is my blog for Education 422.