The Global Read Aloud is, as its name suggests, a global initiative to get students all over the world to experience the same book and have the opportunity to connect with others and discuss their thoughts about the story over the course of six weeks. I had never supported teachers through something like this but was determined to give it a try. Five brave souls, who were also new to the Global Read Aloud, agreed to read the story and connect with other classrooms. Angie Third-grade teacher Angie Levato connected with Jessica Hennelly at Winston Campus Elementary in Palatine. Angie and Jessica used shared Google Docs and set up partners so the students could be pen pals with each other. Having a pen pal provides a truly authentic audience for student writing. The kids WANT to be understood by their pen pals so they make an extra effort to be clear. Maybe for the first time they understand why things like writing conventions and punctuation are important! Writing for clarity and reading for understanding are real life skills. In addition to Google Docs, Angie and Jessica connected their classes via Seesaw. The students created video “selfies” to introduce themselves, discuss the book, and also draw pictures relating to the book. Angie created a new Seesaw class, invited the other teacher to be a co-teacher, then set up each “member” of the class with two names: example Liam/Maddy as one “member” of the class. Either Liam or Maddy could just click on their name to see what their pen pal added to class journal. Angie’s Reflection “My students love the pen pal idea! We plan to invite our new friends to share another book beyond Fenway and Hattie. The hardest part was that the other class didn’t have as much opportunity to use iPads in their building as we do in our shared cart situation. Because of this, my kids sometimes had to wait an extra week to hear back. This is not a travesty, of course, but they were just so excited to hear back from their pen pals. I'd like to be paired with someone who had a similar number of students and the same, consistent access to devices as we do in our class." Kelly Kelly Funk, a fourth-grade teacher connected with Sarah Dime, a third-grade teacher at Jane Addams Elementary in Palatine. All kids had an assigned pen pal with whom they communicated and commented on through Seesaw. The class listened to the story being read through YouTube where a teacher had posted a recording of herself reading the full story. Throughout the time we listened the class stopped and discussed, predicted and questioned the text. Ms. Funk also provided the opportunity for the students to communicate during the reading through a backchannel chat on TodaysMeet.com. Kelly and Sarah coordinated so that the kids did several of the same projects to provide more opportunities for connection and discussion. One STEAM project was making robotic arms (super cool!) and then demonstrating how the mechanism worked while explaining in Seesaw. Classes also built “nests” or homes for Roz and Brightbill, characters in The Wild Robot, and tested the strength of their creations. Ms. Funk’s class also created a graphic novel to summarize the story and share with their third-grade buddies. Finally, the classes met via Google Hangouts as a closing activity. The 4Cs figured prominently throughout this project. Students were able to create through STEAM-based activities and used critical thinking skills to evaluate the effectiveness of their creations. Students were able to communicate and collaborate with each other about different sections in The Wild Robot through writing, video, and literacy skills such as summarizing, visualizing and making connections to the text. Students enjoyed connecting with their “buddy class” and learning more about them. They were excited to respond and build that relationship through sharing literature. Kelly’s Reflection "I really enjoyed the activities we did that were inspired by the the book and the GRA experience. We were able to integrate subject matter and make connections across different content areas. We had a good time learning more about the scientific method, graphing, math skills, simple machines and building/creating. Students were creative, collaborative, had a reason to share their insights, and were more engaged than usual in a read aloud in class. I loved it and think diving deeper into some of the information and topics was so interesting. The students really enjoyed getting to know another group of students and they responded well to the open communication structure of Seesaw. They were able to comment on each other's work and engage in their reading. The book reading schedule was very fast paced. We had many other special events going during those weeks. I would have preferred a more casual or slower pace. In that way we would have more time to dig into the details of the book and explore more of the connections to content areas. Going forward I would like to connect from the start of the year and possibly keep the connection going the rest of the year by continuing to read the same read aloud books together." Laura Fifth-grade teachers Laura Mkrtschjan and Ana Grogan from Baraboo, WI found each other via the GRA page on Edmodo. These classes began their connection by doing a Mystery Google Hangout. The students had to guess each other’s location. This provided a nice way to get to know the other class. Each week, 3-4 questions were posted on Padlet. After writing their original response, the kids were required to reply to two responses from the students in the other class each week. Knowing that students in another class were going to read their responses made the students more motivated and excited to post. The authentic audience gave them a purpose for writing. It also exposed them to perspectives that were different from their own. Laura’s Reflection "Because they had an authentic audience my students were more motivated to write. I noticed that they were paying more attention to punctuation and capitalization. As the weeks went by they started looking for the names of students in the other class that they had responded to in the past. The students also paid more attention to the read aloud because they knew they would be discussing questions with the other class. One thing I would change would be giving each student a “buddy” in the other class. Before starting the Padlet I would have them connect via Seesaw or write a letter back and forth. I think seeing a student in the other class more frequently would have made the experience more fun for the students and also given them a reminder of the authentic audience." Alison's Reflection
I am so glad that these teachers participated in the Global Read Aloud. Reading a common book is a great opportunity for students to have casual discussions about characters and plot. Connecting to the classes outside our district was the real eye opener. Everything that is said about how writing for an authentic audience motivates students proved true. The kids cared more about making sure that their writing was understood. Closer attention was paid when the story was read because they knew they'd be discussing it with their pen pals. I look forward to spreading the word and connecting even more classrooms next year for Global Read Aloud 2018!
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Alison MahoneyLearning with third through fifth grade students and teachers! Archives
December 2018
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