Global Awareness
afraid of Frita?” This question is not
explicitly answered in the book. The
students had to make inferences and
support them with evidence from the
text to answer the question.
Students may use critical question
starters, such as:
Do you think it was (good, bad, right,
wrong) for _________________ ?
Should ___________________ ?
Was it more important for _______
or _______________________
When the other students in the
group have completed the assigned
reading, they answer their mentor’s
questions, supported by evidence
from the text. They post any additional thinking and questions they
have and read and comment on their
group mates’ posts. When there are no
mentors in the group, we work with
the students to help them develop and
post their own higher-level thinking
questions for their group mates. We
monitor the discussions and add input
to encourage meaningful discussion
and student thinking.
When possible, the author of the
book participates in these online conversations, bringing a new perspective to the discussion. For example,
Bryan Chick, author of The Secret
Zoo series, contributed comments
to the wiki and met with all the kids
simultaneously by personally visiting
one school and Skyping with the other
during his visit.
At the middle school level, authors Andrew Mulligan (Ribblestrop,
Trash), Kekla Magoon ( 37 Things I
Love, Camo Girl), and Shana Burg (A
Thousand Never Evers, Laugh with the
Moon) jumped right into the online
discussion with the students.
Sometimes the authors ask probing
questions, prompting reflection and
new lines of thinking, or provide information and insight into characters,
places, or events from the novel.
The online discussions add depth
and complexity to the students’ thinking and move them toward determining the theme, understanding the
relevance of the theme to their lives,
and ultimately formulating an inquiry
question they want to research. This
leads to the next phase of the project.
Inquiry phase. After completing the
book, students discuss their lingering
questions through a videoconference
using Skype, which allows them to
talk face to face, or screen to screen, as
it may be. Students use this opportunity to come to consensus on essential
questions to research and develop individual focus questions. Then they
independently conduct research to answer their respective focus questions.
They support each other by post-
ing findings and sources on the wiki
as they go. We assist the students by
helping to keep their research focused,
encouraging them to incorporate
primary and secondary sources, and
connecting them with experts who can
give them additional information and
insight. Students look for or create im-
ages and graphics to post on the wiki to
accompany their findings. These visu-
als deepen their digital presentations.
Presentation creation phase. During a
Skype videoconference, students use a
problem-solving model to determine
presentation modes (for example, pub-
