TLN Teacher Voices

Designing Our Teaching for the Digital Learner

Brain-based Teaching in the Digital Age

by Marilee Sprenger
(ASCD, 2010)

Reviewed by Ernie Rambo
Middle School Electives Teacher (NV)
Teacher Leaders Network

For the past several years of teaching, my students have seemed more resistant to the activities I suggest in our drama, media production, and Future City classes. As an electives teacher, I try to offer lots of personal and group choice in deciding what projects students will work on, what goals they will set, and how they will meet their objectives. While it is easy to come to agreement on what the groups will produce, the students and I frequently disagree on how to accomplish their goals and what we should consider a completed project.

One of the main topics where students and I disagree is on the requirement to memorize lines for a play performance. I keep recalling how my peers and I memorized lines when we were in middle school, yet today’s students insist that it isn’t necessary and, in fact, they can’t possibly memorize everything a character is supposed to say in a play. Since one of our goals is to generate high quality performances, I keep searching for strategies that will help students get beyond this resistance — but with each passing year, I seem to be less successful.

Enter stage left (with her left brain fully engaged): Marilee Sprenger, author of Brain-based Teaching in the Digital Age. As I read this book over the summer, I wondered whether Sprenger had somehow managed to eavesdrop on the countless conversations between my students and myself as we struggled over memorization — because most of what this former teacher turned neurology expert discusses can be directly applied to my practice.

Sprenger describes how the speed and the use of technology have changed the way that people take in information. Additionally, she describes the rationale for students’ arguments against the tried and true “do this because this is the way I learned” methods that many educators use. As the applications of technology increase, so does society’s expectations. Teachers who are willing to redefine their roles as they use technology in the classroom are likely to discover that more students are ready and even eager to learn.

Sprenger points out that today’s students perceive knowledge differently due to a lifetime of instant access to information: the importance of memorization is simply not valued as it once was. As obvious as this may seem after you read it, it’s not something all that many teachers have completely processed.

Sprenger’s discussion of the research about today’s learners helped me understand, for example, why students keep suggesting that we use teleprompters in our drama class. Students of the Net Generation utilize visuals and icons as they process information rather than the written words on which I depend. Learners who are familiar with using computers actually access different neural networks when reading information from a computer than when reading information from a book. As a result, many students are more likely to learn their lines (aka, memorize) using a digital tool like a teleprompter.

The differences in how students take in and use digital information is not necessarily better than how Baby Boomers tend to learn, but understanding the differences can help an educator plan strategies that play to the strengths of digital learners while also addressing deficiencies that can occur as a result of living digitally.

Digital learners are familiar with tools, such as texting and social networking applications, that facilitate their collaboration both inside and outside of school. The downfall to such wired communication is that a high amount of online connectivity can deprive students of the many face-to-face interactions common in the pre-digital age. And that can make group work in the classroom quite a challenge.

I was reminded of how students in my electives classes (all collaborative and project-based environments) seem to prefer working independently rather than with their group members. Sprenger suggests that teachers include activities that guide students to become more empathetic “in person” and that help them understand tone of voice and the non-verbal body language cues that are used in face-to-face communication. [Many older adults have the reverse problem in digital environments, where they can’t hear or see colleagues.]

Other “low-tech” skills that continue to impact all learners, regardless of what generation they were born into, are highlighted as important to learning. Sprenger cites research to show how physical exercise, music, acting, dancing, and art still have an impact on learning. Not all digital learners are alike, prompting the suggestion that teachers continue accessing all intelligences when planning class activities.

In summary, Sprenger reviews brain research, provides real-life examples of her suggestions, and presents meaningful information in an engaging style that makes this book exciting to read. She also includes three appendices that provide a review of how brains work, a survey of technology familiarity, and a glossary of technological terms. She offers an excellent reference for teachers while gently encouraging us to cross the divide and become more familiar with the learning tools that many students use outside of the classroom.

Brain-Based Teaching in the Digital Age caused me to say, “Aha!” many times — and to turn down page corners and highlight passages as I kept track of useful insights and examples. This year I’ll be walking into my classroom with a lot more ideas about engaging my digitally proficient students. I’ll be asking them for suggestions of how their cell phones and social networks can help them memorize their lines for upcoming performances. While I’m not quite ready to find room in my budget for a teleprompter, I think we’ll be creating some bridges over the River Technology!

Susan “Ernie” Rambo is a 23-year classroom veteran who currently teaches at Walter Johnson Junior High in the Clark County School District of Las Vegas NV. A National Board certified teacher, Rambo is a member of CTQ’s TeacherSolutions team studying the relationship between teacher working conditions and student achievement.

Review: Becoming a Better Teacher of ELL Students

English Language Learners: Teaching Strategies That Work
by Larry Ferlazzo
(Linworth Publishers, 2010)

Reviewed by Jose Vilson
Middle School Math Teacher/Coach (NY, NY)
Teacher Leaders Network

For the last three years, I’ve had the privilege of teaching English Language Learners, a group of students gaining ground in the national discussion about educational equity. While California high school teacher Larry Ferlazzo’s new book English Language Learners: Teaching Strategies That Work pertains to a myriad of English-learning students from many backgrounds, the overwhelming majority of those labeled with ELL status in our public schools are students who speak Spanish and recently immigrated to the United States.

At one point in my own career, I wondered whether my pedagogy would work for these particular students, as I had no experience with this population during my training. Soon, I found that developing good interpersonal relationships with students, accompanying my math lessons with a dramatization or illustrations, and embedding forms of reflection helped students become better students (and better people).

I believe a book like Ferlazzo’s new guide would have expedited this learning. English Language Learners: Teaching Strategies that Work reads less like a stereotypical how-to handbook and more like a leadership/ socio-emotional guide to getting to know students, regardless of their background. From building character and finding oneself through stories to actual action and reflection (my favorite), Ferlazzo’s book is a really nice supplement to whichever curriculum you already have and a solid extension of the work he already does on his ELL resources website.

Chapter 1 immediately starts with building strong relationships with students, a critical piece of anyone's repertoire for getting students of different cultures to a learning place. As is Ferlazzo's habit throughout the book, he integrates research and technology into this chapter, discussing how he built a website, for instance, to collect resources students could use on their own.

The anecdotes that accompany his strategies prove an interesting case study for those who might want to follow in his footsteps. In Ch. 2, he walks the reader through a procedure for how to run a lesson on facts for a whole week, including standards, materials, and assessments for understanding. Every chapter follows a similar format, and thus provides lots of good and readily available materials for anyone who’d like to augment their pedagogy to include things like student leadership and metacognitive skills.

The one criticism I have about the book is that it doesn’t address cultural differences as much as one would hope, particularly with a topic like ELLs. I also see, however, that by not accentuating these differences, teachers who read the book don’t limit the potential of their students. That’s where Ferlazzo’s book can work for any teacher. If you’re stuck on how to become a better ELL teacher beyond the instruction, this book is for you.

Jose Vilson blogs about school and life at The Jose Vilson.

Taking the Words Right Out of My Mouth

A review of the Dragon Naturally Speaking voice recognition software

Reviewed by Karen Van Duyn
High School English & Drama (IN)
Teacher Leaders Network

What does a teacher do when she starts to feel like an “old” teacher? Why, she finds something new to learn! Lately my lessons have mostly been in the area of technology, as that seems to be an area of constant development and change. In the past couple years, I’ve become dependent upon my LCD projector, gone wireless at home (with some tech support), and scratched the surface of Moodle and online learning (great potential and lots of upfront prep time). Very recently I started my relationship with a Smart Notebook and its many wonders. While I’m adept with most of these devices and do so enjoy using them, I have come to the realization that I truly prefer to be a USER rather than a TECHNICIAN.
   
Coinciding with this revelation came the opportunity to review a new software program. Of course I couldn’t resist seeing what I could or couldn’t do with it. Dragon Naturally Speaking is voice-recognition software, and I’ll admit, I approached it with some trepidation. I had used other such programs in the past that required hours of “practice” with my speech patterns in order to be able to give dictation and came away with less than satisfactory results. Naturally Speaking, however, produced great results with a minimum of set up and training time.

I’m still learning all the available commands, but the basics can be picked up very quickly. Admittedly, some of the commands are quite techy – like “Listen to me” and “Stop listening.” I know, I know, pretty difficult. The real bonus is that this software does not require its own special word processing software, but works with Microsoft Office products and other such commonly used programs. It can be used not only to dictate text or data, but it also allows the user to navigate the software itself. This requires the use of other high-tech commands such as “File,” “Open,” “Save,” and “Close.”

Kidding aside, I can perform almost any task with the microphone that I can with a mouse, and the dictation is amazingly accurate. My students even asked me to challenge the software with that old favorite, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. Naturally Speaking won that challenge.

PLCs at Work: An Interview with Teacher-Author Bill Ferriter

Bill Ferriter’s participation in the Teacher Leaders Network began in March 2003, on the very first day of TLN’s existence. We kicked off TLN with an email conversation among 200 accomplished teachers, mostly from states in the southeast. The idea was to stage a series of 3-day chats exploring some key professional issues and then see who wanted to stick around and become the nucleus of a national virtual community of classroom educators.

By the end of the six-week startup, Bill’s provocative questioning and his willingness to reflect on his own professional practice — tarnish and all — made him a leader in our fledgling community. He’s gone on to serve as a TLN Senior Fellow, co-author of a major TLN TeacherSolutions report, and the internationally respected TLN blogger known as The Tempered Radical, whose lively mix of classroom practice, policy and politics, and digital learning topics attracts a broad audience and recently led to a monthly column, Digitally Speaking, in Educational Leadership magazine.

As it turns out, Bill’s willingness—compulsion, even—to bare his teaching soul makes him one heck of a book author, too. Building a Professional Learning Community at Work: A Guide to the First Year, co-written with principal Parry Graham, grows out of a several-year struggle by Bill and a group of teacher colleagues at his North Carolina middle school to learn to collaborate in powerful ways. In this interview, Bill recounts some of the pain and gain of that trial by fire, and how he and Graham went about translating their own experiences into a practical primer for other educators who might be willing to set forth on a similar journey.

As a bonus, I've asked Bill to speak to fellow teachers who harbor their own desire to write a book from their teaching lives. Bill generously shares his secret to publishing success, but I’ll warn you in advance. It involves a lot of writing. – John Norton, co-founder and moderator, Teacher Leaders Network.

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What created the burn to write a book for teachers just beginning to explore PLCs? Give us some history.

Bill Ferriter: I think the burn to write a book for teachers just beginning their work with professional learning communities is a product of my own early struggles and successes with collaboration. About five years ago, I had the opportunity to open a new middle school being built as a PLC from the ground up—and I was paired on a learning team with five of the most intelligent and capable language arts and social studies teachers that I’d ever met.

The problem was that we had no real idea what it was that we were supposed to be doing with each other, and that led to early frustrations. Our initial meetings were rambling, unfocused affairs and we often felt like failures. We fought through personal conflicts and professional disagreements, though, and eventually found a working rhythm and synergy that made all of us better teachers. I wanted to try to make those early struggles transparent to other teachers, hoping that the lessons my team learned might sustain others when the inevitable challenges of collaboration arise.

Collaborative work can make any teacher more productive and professionally satisfied, but only when early efforts at collaboration are structured and meaningful. Parry and I believe that Building a Professional Learning Community at Work can provide some of that structure for learning teams at any stage of their professional work together.

Your book is filled with action-oriented subheads, reproducibles, practical recommendations — there's even an annotated chapter guide divided into seasons of the year. It has the feel of authors who have been there and done that. How much easier might things be for teacher teams who take your advice?

Bill Ferriter: I think the real strength of Building a Professional Learning Community at Work is that Parry and I are both full-time practitioners. I still meet with a learning team every week, trying to identify instructional practices that work and ensure the success of every child. Parry still works as a building principal, trying to create the systems that enable teachers and students to thrive.

That first-hand experience with the real work of learning teams is evident in every chapter, handout and subtitle in our text. Our suggestions, strategies, and materials are suggestions, strategies and materials that we’ve used successfully in our work—and the text is really nothing more than a public reflection of the learning that we’ve done as we’ve tried to make professional learning communities happen in our own schools.

Reflecting on My Teaching Year

When Larry asked “What are your reflections on this past school year?” several teachers in the TLN Forum discussion group offered up their thoughts. We’ll post several of these over the summer.

Marsha, a middle grades math and science teacher, wrote:

My idea that if I taught lots of open-ended problems that my kids would still OK on the math state assessment came true. I didn't count any of these kinds of open-ended activities for grades because they aren't officially a part of our curriculum. Kids still did the work and the practice, and they learned to concentrate on what they were learning instead of their grade. I will repeat this work again.

My idea that by incorporating lots more data collection devices in my science classes I would advance scientific curiosity was accurate. They loved the probeware. They inquired, tested and became much more capable of posing testable questions and answering them.

One story: I had been using different kinds of probeware in science class, and the kids were beginning to catch on to how you study things. We decided to tape our probes to the surface of globes and have all sorts of different suns (50 watt bulb, 100 watt bulb, etc.) and compare the temperature differences at the equator, the poles and in our midwestern state, using different powers of Sun. They didn't think there would be any data to answer our questions. But when they had all their graphs displaying on the board, they were truly excited. Excited about data! Hurray! Even more, they were convinced they could someday become scientists. The kids that aren't very good at science felt like they understood what was happening and could explain it. It was probably one of the most satisfying teaching experiences of the year because the results made the investment of time worth it. I had about 6 kids who went home and did extension investigations on their own and then brought in data for us to examine.

I didn’t do so well with my idea that I could help foster a love for reading non-fiction and that it would influence their science writing. I felt like my lessons were always just a tad off-target, which kept us from building any momentum or enthusiasm. I need to regroup, rethink and consider if I might not capable of doing this. Maybe just re-calibrating is necessary.

Our grade-level community service projects were successful, and we added a new project. We partnered with Room to Read using a Read-A-Thon and ended up raising $2500 to build a library room in Cambodia. Our kids were completely into it and much of the money (their money, not their folks) came in the form of pennies, nickels and crumpled-up dollar bills. We supported holiday gift bags for six children in foster and group homes. We were able to deliver over 15 large 33-gallon bags filled with many of the basics (new undergarments, bedding, coats and shoes) and we fulfilled all their wishes for presents. And in addition we collected over 13 barrels of food for the nearby food kitchen. I know our kids are lucky to have so much, and in these times, they needed to use their abundance to help others. They did so with enthusiasm, graciousness and big hearts. They learned to organize each other and feel like they can make a difference in the world.

My biggest failure (but one where I learned a ton) was implementing the Argumentation and Evaluation protocol. It was supposed to help me foster better discourse and teach my kids how to critically evaluate articles and lab data. While I do think it worked with lab data, my kids didn't read at a high enough level to be able to use the techniques effectively with scientific articles. It's my first NSF grant, and I'm glad I did this for many reasons even if the technique wasn't as viable as I’d hoped.

New questions I'm pondering: Can I really ever figure out how to improve their writing in science? How can I get our community service spirit to extend to other grade levels within our building? How can I get other teams to see that the whole child is just as important as test scores?

It was a great year. I grew so much as a collaborating partner with my math job-alike colleague. I felt like I did a good job of balancing test prep and whole-child education, we did fantastic community service projects, and my kids tore it up on the state assessments.

Twittering with Parents?

When TLN Forum member Ellen B. asked about using Twitter with parents, tech-besotted Bill Ferriter, The Tempered Radical, had some good thoughts.

Ellen wrote:

I have been thinking about how easy it would be to keep in communication about my classroom with Twitter. What I'd like is feedback and/or stories about how it's worked for you.

1. Have you tried using Twitter with parents? How did that work for you?

2. Is there a downside, provided I have a school-only Twitter account?

I'm not looking to replace the other ways I communicate with parents, but I am looking to expand it beyond relying on my 8th graders to get papers home in a timely manner. Are there other ideas that have worked better for you?

Bill replied:

Twitter On, Ellen! While I'm not Twittering with parents yet---I don't want to have separate accounts for personal and professional use--it's definitely an idea worth pursuing because it's easy times ten for you. The messages that you post in Twitter are short, so it won't take you much time to update parents, and there is no concrete, direct way for people to reply---so you're not generating a ton of responses that you've got to spend time answering.

The other thing that I love is that you can Twitter from anywhere--including most phones--so posting the last minute thing that you think of after you shut down your computer and walk out the door is no sweat at all. The process of making updates is so much easier -- and the expectation for volume of content is so much lower than a teacher website -- that the process of communicating is no longer intimidating.

Another benefit is that parents don't have to be Twittering to follow your update. All Twitter users have their own publicly available page where people can read their Tweets. Here's mine:

http://twitter.com/plugusin

So parents could just bookmark that page and see your updates right away. And each Twitter page has it's own RSS feed, so if you have any tech savvy parents who are using feed readers, they can get your updates automatically.

What barriers can I see? The only one that pops to mind is that parents who are Twitter users can flame you in the @replies section if they wanted to--and those @replies can be seen by a broader community of people than the email blasts that parents pop off every now and then.

But that risk isn't prevented by NOT having a Twitter account for class updates. Parents using Twitter---or writing blogs, or talking at the grocery store, or sending email, or using short-wave radio (I know, I know, I'm exaggerating)---can always find ways to criticize teachers if they want to.

So in the end, I say go for it!

It’s about what computers DO. They connect.

In the TLN Forum discussion, a middle grades teacher in the southeast offered this provocative conversation starter:

I'm starting to believe that 21st Century learning is just a dream in today's schools, simply because there just aren't any shared definitions of what 21st Century learning looks like -- and I'm not sure most teachers or principals could pick out a 21st Century classroom if they saw one!

For most of my peers, 21st Century classrooms are characterized by whiteboards and student responders. As long as they roll the class sets of laptops and clickers in the room once in a while, they're preparing students for tomorrow -- even though their instruction remains teacher-driven and static.

I argue with one person regularly who starts every conversation about technology with, "Do you know what whiteboards let me do?"

"I could care less," I say. "What do they let your students do?"

I think that's where the disconnect begins: Shouldn't every conversation about instruction start with a clear vision for what we want students to be doing -- and why those actions and behaviors actually matter?

And if so, are the actions and behaviors necessary for success in the 21st Century different than the actions and behaviors necessary for success in previous decades? How? Can technology support the development of these actions and behaviors?

Could your peers answer these questions? Your principals?

A midwestern teacher replied:

I could not agree more, especially with your contention that very few people interpret "21st century learning" as anything more than the application of cool technology to what we've always done, in our brick-bound classrooms.

I am part of a county-wide task force to build programming for accelerated learners; mostly superintendents and curriculum directors (read: turf protectors). We met recently and it was three hours' worth of frustration, trying to decide #1) who was really "gifted" (because that matters so much) and #2) what new ways we could deliver accelerated learning opportunities to them, whoever they are.

What it boiled down to, at the end of the day, was that seat time and per-pupil funding trumped all other possibilities--and we needed to meet monthly for a whole year, because we didn't want to rush into decisions about utilizing technologies to let our most able learners take college-level classes.

Near the end of the meeting, I said this: "None of this has anything to do with what's now possible, via technology, or what our most capable kids WANT to learn, and are learning, completely on their own. While we are scheduling a year's worth of meetings, our brightest kids are forming quasi-professional networks and directing and choosing their own learning. We're still thinking like traditionalists."

This, of course, went over like the proverbial lead dirigible. We'll see if I get invited back.

Then high school teacher JB wrote:

I think about these questions/concerns every day. I'd love to share my thoughts and experiences in my school district as we've wrestled with this unstated mission that we must transform our schools into 21st Century learning environments.

[The first poster said]: “I think that's where the disconnect begins: Shouldn't every conversation about instruction start with a clear vision for what we want students to be doing----and why those actions and behaviors actually matter?”

I agree. In fact, most folks would say they agree. Yet, we fail to have this vital conversation so our actions do not always match our philosophy. In my experience, I find something different about the conversations about using technology to teach than the conversations about using other methods to teach. And it boils down to this. We aren't talking enough about "why it matters" (as you put it), we only talk about "how to do it." But, more and more teachers just like you are saying "so what?" to their colleagues and initiating the vital conversations about why using technology can have more impact on learning than not. No dream can die when a struggle like this exists.

[The first poster said]: “And if so, are the actions and behaviors necessary for success in the 21st Century different than the actions and behaviors necessary for success in previous decades? How? Can technology support the development of these actions and behaviors?”

In this decade, my lifestyle and behaviors have changed tremendously because of technology. It's not just about using a computer or other fancy tech tools, either. It's my thinking. I need people in a different way than earlier in my life and career.

I see it everywhere. Something has happened that has created a need for people to connect differently and more often than before. And not on someone's front porch or on the phone. We need loose, virtual relationships to remain near the surface at all times - for business, for family, for play, for school, for government, and so on. You were concerned about accurate definitions of 21st Century learning. Another way to think about it is to think about 21st Century living. What is living like now that is drastically different than living before? When we answer that, we know what our students need to know.

For me, I look for deep meaning in the history I teach. Meaning for them, not for me. So I've designed an election project that helps them connect with an "election partner" to discuss and make sense of this election for their lives. I couldn't possibly do this without adults willing to connect to kids or technology.

I could go on forever with zeal for this type of learning. But I really want to underscore the fact that our instincts about this new way of learning are correct. We know it's necessary because we live it and our students will, too. (If they don't already!) It's not about computers; it's about what computers do. They connect. After all, most teachers I know are inspired by the process of making connections. Some of them just don't realize why those connections are so important.

Thanks for initiating a conversation about what students are able to do as they learn in new ways. I'm thinking I should take down my "It's All About Me" sign by my desk and replace it with a large question mark to remind me to think about why I do what I do.

Student Commenting in Blogs & Wikis: How to Get the Quality – and the Learning

So you’ve jumped into Web 2.0, determined to teach your students those “21st Century skills” everybody’s talking about. You’ve set up a blog or wiki and have students commenting via the Internet. Now what? Two members of the TLN Forum describe their methods – and dilemmas – and TLNF’er Bill Ferriter, fast becoming a guru on the topic of using Web 2.0 commenting in the classroom, shares some tips.

Back in May, Marsha wrote in the TLN daily discussion group:

I'm working on my 21st century skills and I need some help. I've cobbled together a wiki on Force & Motion. And I found a great topic to have students investigate and discuss. Since the beginning physics concepts are a tad dry, and I am using Lego robotics to study how different gears change speed, I thought we'd look at real life robots doing amazing things. I started them off with an animation of the Mars rover takeoff and landing, asking them if it was fact or fiction? That worked great.

But here's where I need the help. In one evening, my kids generated almost 200 pretty good comments (not counting the 70 or so comments that were one liners). But now I'm pressed to know how to really measure what they've contributed to the conversation. You can tell that there are varying amounts of background knowledge, and some of them have gone off and done some searching/reading tonight. That's great and my hope was to get them to talk to each other about how to use robots to explore.

You may be thinking I should have thought about all this before I launched. Well I did. But what I thought they'd do and what they've done isn't remotely the same. So much for worrying about if they only had a one word answer! Which brings me to pick your brains --

Have any of you come up with a methodology for handing this much commenting volume in a blog, wiki, discussion thread, etc.? I can tell with four more days of commenting I'll never keep up. I'm going to really get them in high gear once they find out from my postings tonight that there's a new rover set to land on Mars later in this month. They’ll go nuts.

Cindy replied:

I have not plunged into wiki world yet, but my English students do blog regularly. Our eighth grade blogs earlier this year were research groups of students in all three periods collaborating on a presentation for a topic they had chosen. Blogs were necessary since no group had all of its members in a single class period.

There was more than commentary; they traded files, links, slides for their presentations. I read the blogs and regularly posted comments to each and every student--all 76 of them! The platform I use, Blackboard, allows printing of an entire blog or the student can print his/her own contributions. I printed the whole thing only once, thankfully early in the process, learning quickly to have students print their own pieces at the end. The entire thread is not obvious that way, but an individual student's work is in front of you.

Currently, three periods of eighth graders are blogging about literature circles. I am learning from this one as well. There are sixteen (16) blogs because students selected a single novel, genre or author to study. What was I thinking? Two periods of seventh graders are also blogging about literature circles, but there are only four (4) blogs since I limited the choice. I am reading the blogs every other morning and making some notes about specific posts. I ask students to share what they wrote or I comment directly to the student so others hear. They do know I am reading.

I have had some success this year with students' written reflections on their learning. That is my plan for this round of blogs. I will ask: What did you contribute to the blog discussion – substantively, not just the number of posts? What did you learn from the blogs? Are you more or less a contributor to discussions in a blog, in Socratic seminar, in small groups? Students will attach their printed blogs to this and highlight parts that support their comments. I am hoping to read the reflection closely and only have to skim the blog entries.

I am open to any other ideas for assessment. I will say kids are excited about this. When we began, my eighth graders developed protocols for blog writers and blog readers--rules of the road, as it were. I showed those to the seventh graders before they began their conversations and that seemed to be enough for them, maybe because they knew the "rules" were created by eighth graders. They are also allowed to read all of the blogs at their grade level, but only post to the one where they are a member.

My students have permissions to edit and pull down their posts. I know some teachers do not allow that. However, writing is such a process; I have to let them make changes. I know I am often frustrated if I post something then see the error once the message is "out there."

TLN Forum member Bill Ferriter, who blogs regularly on these topics, wrote:

I'm enjoying the strand on digital conversations and commenting between kids! Wish I had more time to reply, but my students roll through the door in 30 minutes, so my response will have to be a speedy one.

First, y'all are doing the right thing by teaching your kids the importance of quality commenting. So often, educators jump into the blogging/wiki/voicethread waters by getting their kids to create content and completely forget about the value of responding to content created by others. That takes the 2-way conversation out of Web 2.0, don't you think?

Second, I've found that commenting isn't something that comes naturally to my middle school students (sixth graders). They just don't have the language or the experience with collaborative conversations yet. So teaching the skill of commenting is something that has to happen in rooms where teachers are introducing digital tools for collaboration and communication.

To that end, here are some specific ways that I use comments and commenting in my classroom:

Marsha, to handle the crush of comments that you describe (which doesn't surprise me...after all, kids are driven to interact and schools are places almost completely devoid of interactions), why not have groups of students put together strands of conversation that highlight lessons that they are learning in your project?

This would force them to work through the process of sifting the comments being made AND to think critically about the topic you're studying.  They could highlight comments that show misconceptions and correct those misconceptions, find a string of comments that show students working towards new understandings, or find a string of comments that best reflect (or run contrary to) their own opinions.

This will force your kids to engage more fully in the conversation and to evaluate/synthesize the information they are learning. And it'll slow the volume of commenting down!  No longer is their work about adding to the conversation. Instead, it's about interacting with the conversation.

Most of the material I'm using to teach students to use digital tools like blogs, wikis, and Voicethread can be found here. I've got two specific bits on commenting that I designed for use with Voicethread, but really work fine for all asynchronous communication. The first is a list of simple comment starters. And the second is a set of "comment types" that I've included in template form on a handout for my kids.

Both work really well.  I've seen the quality of commenting go up exponentially in my room over the past few months since I started using these templates.

Anyway....Hope this helps! Gotta run....Don't know exactly what I'm teaching today!