A constant struggle of mine has been helping my students find a love for reading and writing, especially writing! I might be able to persuade a few to join me on my love for books but for writing I usually have more push back. Well last year I found the secret tool that helped me persuade my tweens to actually want to write while caring about grammar! Whaat!? That sounds unheard of, right? The secret tool is none other than interacting with other tweens: having a pen-pal.
Reading and Writing with a Purpose
This year my tweens and I are reading the novel Refugee by Alan Gratz while collaborating with a 7th grade classroom in Canada. We are both reading the novel at the same pace while discussing the novel together. So far we've introduced ourselves by writing a friendly letter and then shipped it to none other than CANADA!😲 Oh yes you heard right, we're bringing snail mail back! Connecting with Google Meet
In addition to writing letters we also set up a Google Meet session where our students had the opportunity to meet face to face for the very first time! Ahhhh... The excitement was vibrating through our walls, literally. Prior to our live Meet session, my lovely partner and I tested Google Meet and were able to connect without any troubleshooting problems. Overall this tool is very user friendly even to new users like myself. We held our live Google Meet right before our Thanksgiving break and it was a huge success. Our pen-pals had received our letters and their teacher had placed us with our pen-pal! Both classes had the opportunity to ask questions, discuss the novel and meet their pals. Below you'll find a video of our Google Meet session.
After participating on this amazing opportunity I noticed that my students were anxious to read to see if their predictions were correct. They were also excited to write back to their pen-pals! Talk about the power of one book.
My challenge to you is to connect with other teachers in our district and perhaps collaborate by using a novel or informational text. Can you imagine a Socratic Seminar or Philosophical Chairs debate by using Google Meet? The opportunities are endless! Stay tuned to hear about our escape box that lead to our letters.
My challenge to you is to connect with other teachers in our district and perhaps collaborate by using a novel or informational text. Can you imagine a Socratic Seminar or Philosophical Chairs debate by using Google Meet? The opportunities are endless! Stay tuned to hear about our escape box that lead to our letters.
Learning & Growing,
Nancy Vargas
It was amazing to watch your students in action yesterday! The students were so excited to write back to their pen-pals. Thank you for opening your doors to us through the Spotlight program.
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