Sunday, September 30, 2007

I like these

From Will Richardson:
"Sage Students: Darren coined the term “scribe” to describe the student whose responsibility it was to summarize and extend the days events from class on the blog. But now KB Foglia has come up with a different, and I think even more interesting moniker for students working her AP Bio blog: “sherpa.” “Each day a student in class will be assigned to be the class sherpa — our guide who will show us the clear path up the mountain of knowledge.” Nice."
I'd like to try this. My husband does a similar task with his fourth graders.

"Quote O’ the Day: “They expect to be part of the discussion, part of the living thing that text itself is becoming. This is how we get kids excited about language, about writing, about thinking: by giving them the power to be part of the conversation. When we lock our machines down, filter their internet service and not allow them to be contributors we take away the involvement, the intensity, the power. Remember doing grammar worksheets in school? I don’t. But I do remember art class, the time I got to take part in making a radio play and another teacher that let us act in class. They involved me, they challenged me, they forced me to think, to play with language, to defend my opinions. Language fairly pulses and thrives across cyberspace. Let kids in to the conversation.” Clarence Fisher"
I recently had a conversation with a student via email. His enthusiasm for getting extra help (outside of class on grammar) would never have been expressed in person-too many social consequences. But it's evident to me that using new ways to communicate and examine language can be more effective sometimes than face-to-face interactions. At first this seems scary-we'll all become trolls never interacting in person and missing body language cues-but when viewed as just another way for humans to interact, it's revolutionary.

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