My Inquiry

How can I use our class blog to engage my community and develop a sense of audience in writers?
How can I use social media to engage my community?

Blogging

I recently posted on Christchurch Teachers rock blog about integrating SOLO taxonomy with ICT skills.  Here is a link to the blog post.

Even though it took a bit to put pen to paper, or fingers to the keyboard, I thoroughly enjoyed sharing my knowledge with others.  It has made me think how else I can share what I have to offer with others.  Perhaps my class blog needs to have a little more rigour within some of the posts.  

I am wondering why parents don't engage more on the blog posts, especially when their child has done such a magical job.  I guess that's something else to ponder about.

TTFN

Teacher inquiry

Our team shared our findings about our team teacher inquiry, "How to move our target children in writing.'

I focused on a method of peer feedback that the kids and I have enjoyed using, called 2 * and 1 wish.
We are using this on Google Docs when leaving comments on others pieces of writing.  We still have a wee way to go with this, but like everything, practice makes perfect and also MODEL, MODEL, MODEL!

I gave these children questions to ask and they took turns at being the director, interviewer and the interviewee.

This is from a blog I follow and implement their ideas within my class.  This is an interesting reading because I believe I am a reflective practitioner and have successfully taught children of all ages to be reflective in their own thinking and learning.  SITTI follows my philosophy and own beliefs to best teacher practice.  

Chatterpix

I felt I was just beginning to make some head way with teaching summarising as a reading comprehension strategy, last term with my more fluent readers.  I found my other reading groups needed a lot of scaffolding and using G/O had been great.

I have noticed how engaged the kids have been when using IT.

I found a cute app called Chatterkids initially I was using it for recording messages for their next IT project.

I think the use of this app for the purpose of sharing the main ideas in the story they have just read will help children become more succinct (you can only talk for 30 seconds).  If they took a shelfie (not a selfie) of the book they are reviewing it will let others respond when it's on the blog.

Can't wait to trial...

Chatterkid


Update....

Here are the children using Chatterkid to review a book (Shelfie).  It's a great summarising tool for those who like to 'chat' to much.  I also like how the children who aren't confident can replay and re-record if they need to.

LC 10 likes to Chatter.  I taught 2 kids how to upload their Chatterkids movie file from emails to Google Drive and then on to our blog.  Using the watch 1, do 1, teach 1 approach.

I shared with the kids, yes it was slower and took almost all day, as I explained to the kids, that I could get these two experts to do them all, but then who was doing the learning?  Short answer only 2 children.  Now I have more than a handful of experts!

Recently we have used Chatterkids to explain what they have learnt about plants.  Putting in some criteria this time has given their recording a better quality.

SOLO III

Some of my professional readings around SOLO and how to use it successfully and authentically in the classroom.

SOLO 

http://www.innovatemyschool.com/industry-expert-articles/item/492-going-solo-an-introduction-to-the-taxonomy-everyone%E2%80%99s-talking-about.html

One-sentence or single-word answers are common responses from pupils, and we usually accept them if they are correct. After grasping the principles of SOLO, however, pupils begin to think more carefully about the quality of their answers. They realise that one-word responses are unistructural and therefore less valuable than answers that draw links between several facts or observations.

This part resonated with me and what I believe good teaching practice looks like.  I also like the fact that SOLO is mostly child centred, they know what they have to do to shift their learning.  Sure some kids will need a gentle hand to guide them to move into deeper thinking.  But with constant modelling by other children and specific praise and feedback from me this should help to create a safe learning environment.

One of the reasons that I use SOLO is that it is an accessible way to get pupils to see and understand their own thinking. SOLO provides teachers and pupils with a clear path to higher order thinking.

I am definitely book marking this site!

SOLO Part II

I have already dabbled in the dark arts with ‘SOLO Taxonomy’ and have found it very fruitful in my teaching.  It's one of those *eureka* moments when you find something that clicks with yourself and for your students.  

Using SOLO rubrics is similar to criteria that Lane Clark uses and aligns with H.O.T from Blooms.  But there is no need to go through ThinkIT great process (Venn Diagrams, Cross Class Charts etc) you can create your own SOLO rubric or co-construct with children, something I'd like to do for our narrative SOLO rubric.

The learning conversations I hear from the children are powerful.  They are talking about their learning, they are giving feedback and feed forwarding to their peers.

I have created a SOLO blog post on our class blog to help open up the home-school link.

Best thing since sliced bread!

Where do I start?  Let's start with the frustrations of children publishing

• Time consuming when typing into a "word document"
• Forget to save and loose their work
• Lent computer out to another classroom, therefore the publisher cannot finish their work
• I type their stories up because I am faster and accurate (no ownership)

Now enter the saviour!...

Google docs

The only frustration I have... I don't have enough computers!!

• Ownership for the child's writing (seeing the whole process)
• Develop typing skills
• Develop and fine tune editing/proof reading skills
• Instantly share with others
• Use any device!
• Complete at home if needed

My next steps are to get parents to share their email addresses so children can share their work with their parents.  I can see the comments being a powerful tool for a lot of kids. This will be my next teaching point, sharing and collaborating!