for all those files to transfer, I thought I’d elaborate on what I’m thinking about in regards to creating a school social network, or at least one that I might use in my classes. Basically, everything that I think about right now as a teacher passes through the lens of me being a language arts teacher who needs to expose his students to as many authentic reading and writing activities as I possibly can, while struggling to meet the requirements of my state standards, benchmarks, and standardized test questions.
They need to read, read, read and write, write, write. I’ve got to help my students master grammar, vocabulary, and all of the detail parts of writing, too. But mostly, I’ve got to create literate students out of people who, for one reason or another, have not had success in previous schools. And I’ve got to do that in nine week chunks with very little continuity from quarter to quarter, as students are constantly coming and going from our program for a multitude of legitimate and, occasionally, quite bogus reasons.
Can a social network, centered around reading and writing, help me to do that?
Well, maybe. What if there was a member of our network (and by "our" here I’m referring to the students currently enrolled in my classes) named "Word of the Day" or "Wordsmith." (I really wish her name was "NYTimes.com Word of the Day," but she doesn’t have an RSS feed.) If every student read the posts from "Word of the Day," and wrote their own posts discussing the word or how it’s used or even writing about how it’s not a word they’ll ever need to know, then I’m accomplishing two things:
1. My students are being exposed to some new vocabulary.
2. They’re writing about the words, which is one of the best ways that I know of to put a word into your active vocabulary — actually use it. (Of course, I’m also using technology as a shoehorn to integrate some more traditional vocabulary instruction into my teaching — which might be a good thing, and it might not be.
Maybe it’s late at night, and maybe I’m reaching here, but I’m just beginning to explore this idea some — I’d sure be eager to hear your responses. Another thought — isn’t a book club a community of readers who are reading and discussing the same book? So within our network, our book clubs can co-exist — with their conversations being accessible to the entire class when and if necessary. And everything comes to me, the teacher, who is often simply a more experienced member of the learning community. And the software will/can/should reflect that.
Am I heading out into LaLaland? Are you already using a social network to build a community of learners?
My wheels are turning. I hope for good reason.
