| LEARNING CONNECTIONS
Writing for Real Purpose
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Working to transform his
classroom, fifth grade
teacher John Blain of Buffalo
(New York) public schools infused
technology into his literature lessons
by adding an online literature discussion to his more traditional classroom
discussion.
Students were assigned to read Kate
DiCamillo’s books Because of Winn-Dixie and The Tiger Rising. Blain then
set up a threaded discussion at Nicenet
( www.nicenet.org), a free online classroom assistant that is a cross between
a blog and a wiki. Blain created some
discussion threads and invited students to respond to the questions. He
also encouraged the students to generate their own questions and discussion
threads on any aspect of the book
that interested, confused, or intrigued
them. Students responded to the discussions at their convenience within a
specified time period. Blain then used
the students’ comments posted online
to generate classroom discussion.
By Chinwe H. Ikpeze
Students used this forum to question the action of characters, explore
major themes, and connect events in
the books to their own lives. There
were open-ended questions such as:
1. Do you believe Otis was a dangerous criminal and Gloria Dump a
witch, as some people assumed in
the book?
2. Miss Franny wanted a library full
of books for her birthday. Do you
think it was a wise choice? Why
or why not?
These questions required students to
write either in support of or against
the actions of a particular character
in the text. Whichever side students
took, they supported their opinions
with evidence from the book or their
own lives.
During this discussion, the volume
of reading and writing increased tremendously, as did student engagement
and motivation, as shown by the large
number of discussion threads and
student-initiated discussions. Most
students responded from their homes,
