Middle school teachers have been exploring how tech tools can promote opting in during academic conversations (such as Socratic seminars and fishbowl discussions). Last spring, Caitlin Alastra’s sixth grade students at Longfellow Middle School used Padlet, an online discussion board, to reflect on the major themes from the novel they had just read, The Outsiders. Caitlin set-up five discussion questions, each on its own discussion board, and students rotated through the prompts, posting their ideas and responding to their classmates.
In preparation for the BUSD Oratorical Fest, sixth graders in Kathryn Mapps’ class at Willard Middle School also used Padlet with a modified fishbowl structure to analyze a series of mentor poems. For each poem, Kathryn divided the class into thirds: one group made up the inner circle who discussed the poem and the prompt, another group who documented and reacted to the discussion on Padlet which was projected on a classroom wall, and the third group who served as co-pilots and captured ideas for the inner circle on post-it notes.
Another awesome tech-infused variation took place in Jill Barash’s 7th grade history classes at Longfellow. As part of their study of West Africa, students read and annotated a series of articles and watched video clips about the wealth of knowledge found in the manuscripts in Timbuktu. To prepare for an online, collaborative debate, students worked in pairs to collect evidence for or against whether or not the manuscripts should remain in Timbuktu using graphic organizers. Then they drafted an opening statement for their assigned side of the debate using sentence frames.
All student pairs participated in the online debate during one class period. Jill explained how the online debate would work and she clearly communicated the academic language expectations and how work would be graded. Students logged into Padlet, an online discussion board, using their Google accounts. Then they accessed links from Google Classroom to one of two Padlets that Jill had set up for the activity–one for pro and one for con.
Partnerships posted their opening statement on either the “pro” Padlet or the “con” Padlet, based on their assigned side for the debate. As students were posting their opening statement, they could see and learn from posts from other groups, elevating their thinking and persuasive writing. Once they completed their opening statement, students accessed the other Padlet link for the opposing side. They read through all of the comments and crafted counter-arguments. Towards the end of the period, students returned to their initial Padlet, read all of the counter-arguments posed as comments on their post, and responded with a closing statement.
This structure provided an opportunity for students to explore the multiple perspectives in rich ways. Everyone engaged and participated throughout the activity. Partners worked collaboratively while sharing their thinking, crafting ideas, writing and responding online. Everyone was heard from — even reluctant voices. The format permitted built-in think time which is especially valuable when students are building rhetorical skills. The debate is also documented. Jill’s students may go back to these boards and review the format and feedback before starting a similar activity in the future.
NOTE: Padlet has just announced a pricing restructuring since the time this blog post was drafted and these activities took place in classrooms. Now users can create a limited number of new online discussion boards for free or pay a monthly fee to create more.
Please reach out to DigiTech if you’re interested in ways technology can amplify academic conversations and we can figure out an activity and a tech tool that meets your needs.
– Mia Gittlen, K-8 Instructional Technology TSA