Connecting through Edmodo
Edmodo is a microblogging platform for teachers and students. Through Edmodo students can communicate with teachers and classmates, collaborate, share files, complete assignments and take quizzes and polls. For my TLP project, we primarily used Edmodo for literature circle collaboration and discussion as well as class discussions on the essential questions for each unit of study.
Getting Started
Throughout the school year my students participate in literature circles, also known as book clubs. In each class section students are organized into groups of 3 to 5 students and each group reads a novel of their choice. Groups meet regularly to discuss the book they are reading.
During first quarter, after introducing routines, expectations and having introductory face-to-face literature circle discussions, we used Blackboard for our first attempts with online literary discussion. I created literature circle groups (also known as book clubs) for each class period's literature circle groups within the class Blackboard page. Each group was provided with a set of discussion questions based on the theme for the quarter as well as the essential questions for the unit. Students were able to respond to the questions, reply to each others’ responses, and post their own questions. This served as a pre-assessment to determine students' level of readiness to use this form of communication for literary discussions. Also, to determine which skills we would focus on developing throughout the school year.
Students responded very positively to this platform for discussion. They were eager to read their classmates responses, post their replies, and see who had replied to their questions or posts. The initial posts were shorter in length, some similar to text messages, and often didn't demonstrate in-depth thinking or text analysis. I was able to use this information to plan the mini-lessons for discussion. After finding that the Blackboard group discussion board format was rather difficult for many students to follow, we began using Edmodo for literature circles near the end of our first literature circle experience and continued with Edmodo throughout the year.
During first quarter, after introducing routines, expectations and having introductory face-to-face literature circle discussions, we used Blackboard for our first attempts with online literary discussion. I created literature circle groups (also known as book clubs) for each class period's literature circle groups within the class Blackboard page. Each group was provided with a set of discussion questions based on the theme for the quarter as well as the essential questions for the unit. Students were able to respond to the questions, reply to each others’ responses, and post their own questions. This served as a pre-assessment to determine students' level of readiness to use this form of communication for literary discussions. Also, to determine which skills we would focus on developing throughout the school year.
Students responded very positively to this platform for discussion. They were eager to read their classmates responses, post their replies, and see who had replied to their questions or posts. The initial posts were shorter in length, some similar to text messages, and often didn't demonstrate in-depth thinking or text analysis. I was able to use this information to plan the mini-lessons for discussion. After finding that the Blackboard group discussion board format was rather difficult for many students to follow, we began using Edmodo for literature circles near the end of our first literature circle experience and continued with Edmodo throughout the year.
Setting Up the Literature Circle Groups
- Class groups are set up through Edmodo and students "join" the group for their class period
- The novels are shared with the students through in-class book talks and students select their top choices by completing an Edmodo assignment
- The instructor uses the students selections to form the literature circle groups for each novel
- Students are added to the group for their novel and they have access to communicate and collaborate with the other group members
- Each group is able to create a reading calendar to post on their individual Edmodo calendar
- Groups discuss and establish ground rules for the group and post these rules to the group page
Discussions
Using online communication tools for learning experiences was something new for me and most of my students. In order for our experiences to be positive, productive and enriching, it was important to focus on writing thoughtful responses, responding to others, and being good digital citizens and using netiquette.
Thoughtful Responses Through writing mini-lessons, modeling, frequent prompting, and using student posts as examples, student responses began to demonstrate more in-depth thinking and textual support. This was most evident in the responses to questions related to the unit's essential questions (read more about this on the right). Reading and Responding to Others One of the consistent strengths of all of my class sections was the enthusiasm and willingness to share ideas. Conversely, a consistent weakness was replying to classmates' posts and sustaining a dialogue. I did not find this surprising because this was also an area of weakness in our classroom discussions. I introduced several of the strategies that we used for face-to-face discussions, such as asking follow-up questions, using discussion sentence starters, and modeling with minimal success. Digital Citizenship and Netiquette When we began communicating online we reviewed the best practices for digital citizenship and discussed how discussion etiquette corresponds to netiquette. Students grasped these concepts and did a good job of following these practices. Only an occasional reminder that we were communicating for academic purposes and not simply social purposes was required. However, using correct capitalization and punctuation proved to be an ongoing issue. |
Essential Questions
Edmodo proved to be an excellent tool for students to use to discuss the essential questions for each unit and the best student response came from essential question discussion questions.
Before Reading At the beginning of the unit and prior to reading the novels students were able to respond to essential questions and connecting questions posted on Edmodo. Sometimes these questions would be posted for discussion prior to an in-class discussion, while other times the class would use Edmodo to continue a discussion that was started in-class. This was helpful in introducing the overarching themes and concepts that would be discussed throughout the unit. Also, it served as a means for me to find out student's initial ideas and understanding. During Reading While students read their literature circle novels they were able to respond to posted questions and share with their group their ideas about how the unit's theme and essential questions applied to the reading. These Edmodo discussions proved to be very beneficial for preparing students for the end of unit transfer tasks. After Reading Once the students finished reading their literature circle novels they were able to revisit essential questions and share the new insights and understandings about their reading that they arrived at through independent analysis, class discussions, and Edmodo discussions. Students were then able to revisit their posts and the posts of classmates to gather and organize ideas for their own writing. |
Benefits of Using Edmodo for Literature Circle Discussions
Students are able to :
Teachers are able to :
- Question classmates and make clarifications
- Share "airtime" by having less domination by more vocal students
- Share their ideas and thoughts in an environment that doesn't feel "on the spot"
- View others responses and use as a “mentor” response
- continue the discussion outside of the classroom
- Communicate with students outside of their class period about the same book
Teachers are able to :
- Introduce concepts and themes
- Assess student understanding and application
- monitor student comprehension
- Identify skills to focus on in future mini-lessons
- Track student contributions
- Communicate with students individually