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Facebook at School

November 20, 2008 By 3 Comments

What goes around, comes around … and goes around again. And when we’re talking about social media, it seems the speed of that cycle is just that much faster.

For example, Facebook is already retro. At the end of our last school year — that would be June of this year, only five months ago — I heard students saying, “Facebook! Oh that’s sooooo 10 minutes ago!” There must have been a change of heart over the summer, however, for it now seems to be enormously popular with that same crowd.

Facebook is one of those tools that I have wanted to incorporate into the classroom, but I’m finding my efforts to do so frustrated.

Before I go any further, I will state emphatically that I have no interest in becoming Facebook “friends” with students, a move that in my opinion would be completely unprofessional.

There are a couple of ways that I have tried to use Facebook as a tool for building students’ ability to make connections between texts and their world. First, I like to ask them to build a Facebook profile for a main character. Take Macbeth, for example. Students learn a lot about the Thane by building him a Facebook profile and thereby asking questions like, “Who are his friends? What groups would he join? What would be on his wall?”

The second main use I’ve found for Facebook is as a tool for students who are building media campaigns. Creating a Facebook group and event for imaginary media campaigns is a natural choice for students. Doing so helps them reconsider questions like who their target audience is and what images best communicate their ideas.

But I’m finding my efforts to use Facebook stymied by school internet security. (More on that another day.) In short, I can’t access Facebook in the classroom or lab. This means that students can’t present their online Facebook work, and I can’t evaluate it. And since becoming a ‘friend’ with a student is not an option for me personally, I’m not going to be able to evaluate it outside of the classroom, either

So I guess that what I’m looking for now is a blank electronic template that looks like a Facebook profile. Perhaps a template that is created in PowerPoint and links only from slide to slide rather than to actual online groups or friends. If done well, the students might really enjoy the activity.

Or maybe I could go back to paper and pen. Or to quill and ink. Or perhaps chalk and slate.

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Image by Jacob Botter

Filed Under: 21st Century Skills Tagged With: , , , , ,

Lesson Debrief: Ender’s Game

June 3, 2008 By 4 Comments

At a Literacy Committee meeting last September we were discussing the OSSLT (what else would an Ontario literacy committee discuss?!). During our conversation our Vice Principal suggested that our Applied level Gr. 9 English students should work with a novel that appeals to boys, our stereotypical reluctant reader crowd. “Some fantasy or science-fiction novel,” she said. “That’s what these students read.”

I couldn’t agree more. After some discussion about options, our department ordered a class set of Ender’s Game. Thank goodness. It’s been a great classroom experience.

Over the last month we’ve drawn pictures of the Battle School (encouraging students to visualize what they’re reading), writing imaginary emails from character’s perspectives (helping students recognize perspective and appreciate author’s choices), writing news articles (enabling students to extract major plot events and re-order them), and writing an essay (yep — a five paragraph one, much as I shudder at the thought).

We’ve been busy, but the class was completely hooked. They were completely quiet while we read the novel together. For those of you who regularly teach Gr. 9 Applied students, you’ll know just how special this experience has been.

What Worked Well

  • Ender’s Game is an excellent book to read aloud. My wife and I read it to each other about eight years ago, and were up until the early hours of the morning doing so. It’s that kind of book.
  • Science fiction is appealing to Grade 9 boys, and this particular novel has strong female characters with whom girls can relate. It helps that the main characters are all children and adolescents.
  • Sharing personal visions of the setting – the Battle School and the Battle Room in particular – through discussions and drawings was fun for students, and it helped them to see both the differences and commonalities in their individual visions. This was a good launch point for discussing how reading involves “filling in gaps” and creating pictures based on the author’s word choice.

      • What Needs Work

      • This is yet another unit that I wish I would have done earlier on in the semester. A month-long unit that centres on a novel feels too big for this time of year. But the question is, what type of unit would work when the weather is beautiful enough to distract all of us from learning?
      • The Cyberbullying WebQuest was a bit advanced for this group.
      • The five paragraph essay. I ended a unit that students enjoyed with an activity that students hated. I feel like I tainted the whole experience for them. On the other hand, perhaps the fact that the novel was so enjoyable saved the essay experience from being complete torture for them.
          • Filed Under: Assessment, Books, Lessons Tagged With: , , ,

          Literacy program success (sort of)

          February 14, 2008 By Leave a Comment

          A couple of days ago I decided to use computers in my after-school literacy program just to liven things up a bit. After reading about an extreme case of using gizmos for their glam factor with disastrous results, I felt a bit uneasy about my new decision. Was I going to compound the challenges surrounding this program?

          Nope. It worked. Like a charm. Today’s literacy program was about as successful as any two hours of class after a full day of lessons can be. I was directed to a great OSSLT preparation site for the students, and most of them more-or-less happily spent two hours there. The novelty of using computers for something like literacy preparation worked.

          I know that this novelty is going to wear off quickly, so I will resist the temptation to design every activity from here on in around online practices. But after the relative success of today’s program, I’m certainly going to integrate many more online activities into the program.

          Filed Under: 21st Century Skills, Assessment, Literacy Tagged With: ,