Learning & Leading Through Technology

a lesson about what constituted good, thought-provoking comments, the students got the idea, and their comments sounded more authentic. To illustrate our point, we showed sample comments and discussed which were unacceptable and why we liked the ones we did (see “Sample Blog Comments,” page 34).

It is alarming how often sixth graders use text-speak in their writing. Some of these young students really didn’t understand why it wasn’t acceptable to type “u” or “lol” in the beginning. This project gave us an opportunity to reinforce good writing style.

We graded all of the comments and posts were graded according to a rubric that the students had access to before posting. The rubric was reworked from one at bit.ly/14yw YNK.

We took breaks between blog as-
signments so students could absorb
more of the book and have more
history to draw from to make each
post more compelling. Eventually, we
assigned the comments and posts as
homework so they didn’t take up class
time. As the story unfolded, the stu-
dents moved their signets whenever
their location for a post changed. At
least that’s what we initially told them,
but the locations were key for upcom-
ing challenges.

Soon we began to incorporate challenges that they were to react to in their blog entries. The events came in the form of the herald presenting a proclamation in class. Students were very willing to be the herald and have the opportunity to read the “scrolls” we created.

The first event was a pet tax imposed by the emperor. The characters learned they would have to pay a tax to fund a coliseum, and nonpayment would result in pets becoming part of the emperor’s upcoming banquet. Needless to say, there were some interesting posts and reactions! One of the characters was the main character’s dog. She begged everyone she knew to pay up to avoid becoming the emperor’s lunch.

Other events included a pirate attack on the harbor, and the final one was the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. It was fun to watch students take up the challenge of producing short, formal writing pieces while being creative.

One memorable moment was when
a student with weaker writing skills
approached the Latin teacher for help
with her comment writing. She was
worried that her comments weren’t
strong enough and didn’t want her
peers to see them until she “got it
right.”
As a result, she emailed drafts back
and forth to her teacher before posting.
This writing and rewriting was really
helpful to her. Having the opportunity
to rework these short writing pieces did
not require much extra work on the part
of the teacher, and the student showed
great improvement throughout the pro-
cess. The best solution for a weak writer,
after all, is to keep at it.

Although students were assigned to write only two comments, they often wrote more, which indicated that they were writing for the fun of it and not just the grade.

Overall, we think that the best projects are those that are creative and engaging and teach some things along the way. This series of assignments brought together history, culture, reading, writing, technology integration—and fun!

Awknowledgment

The authors would like to thank social studies teacher Debbie Waterman for her help with this article.

—Joanne Barrett facilitates the exploration of technology in the classroom and teaches AP Computer Programming at the Out-of-Door Academy in Sarasota, Florida, USA.

—Christina Danielle Goldsby is a Latin teacher at the Out-of-Door Academy. She has a master’s degree in foreign language education from the University of South Florida, USA.