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Holy Crap!

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Last night I didn't get much sleep.  My mind was spinning and racing like a hamster in a wheel.  Anything and everything sped through my mind.  It wasn't a completely horrible thing, the thoughts not lack of sleep, because I came up with an idea that I think is going to be awesome.  My new dyad partner asked me about ALC (after school program often focused on helping struggling students).  For the last two years I've co-taught (kinda) a reading ALC with seventh graders.  ALC meets four days a week, and we basically each taught two of the days although we planned together (and separately... you know how it goes).  Since my new dyad partner asked about teaching ALC, I felt that she should have the opportunity to make a little extra money and work with students after school, but if she taught 7th ALC reading, what would I teach?  At the current time, there is no 8th grade ALC reading program.  "I'll teach 8th grade," the wheel started moving slowly.  "I'll incorporate reading and writing," the wheel started moving a bit faster.  "I'll use technology, current apps, and heck, I'll use current events,"  the wheel started spinning.  The wheel spun a long time, but I came up with a decent (maybe even good) idea.

First, I'm going to have the students set up a Feedly page with topics that interest them.  I'm also going to expect at least one news folder with three news sites.  Next, I'm going to set up every student with a blogger account.  Of course, we'll cover the basics of how each app works.  It will be an app or website depending on if the media specialists offers me iPads or computers.  These will show up on their Google homepage, so I'm going to call them apps.  After students feel comfortable with the apps, the schedule will look something (hamster still in wheel) like this:  Monday:  Look through news feeds and decide which two or three articles are worth reading for comprehension.  Tuesday:  Use a variety of comprehension activities to show understanding of articles.  Wednesday:  Write a blog about one of the articles (I'll focus on good writing traits.) showing understanding of article and stating feelings about article.  Thursday:  Read blog entries of the group and comment.  Sometimes Thursday will be used to read articles aloud for fluency.  Friday:  No ALC on Friday... good for everyone.

I knew I didn't want to do all four days by myself, and I knew who I wanted to teach the class with me.  One of the eighth grade social studies teachers is awesome and super enthusiastic.  When I went to her room to approach her with the idea, her computer screen was talking about the importance of writing in social studies... Yay!  We discussed my idea, and she said she'd teach with me.  This is going to be fun.  I even went as far as making sure the district tech guy, media director, literacy lead and ALC lead were "on board".   The only negative comment was that I might have difficulties getting students to write about current events.  What?!  If these students don't want to write about articles from websites they chose, I will be absolutely shocked.  Students want to read about what interests them and be able to give their opinion.  Yep... the hamster is still in the wheel, but this is going to be awesome.  Right?!

Comments

LH said…
This idea does sound very cool.
My goal today is to find out what feedly is.
1:24 AM
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