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| Image from: http://www.relatably.com/q/brainstorm-quotes |
I’ve been trying to think of ways to create more real,
authentic tasks and audiences for my courses for next year since that has been
a key take-away from the Lattimer (2014) text and some work I’m doing for
another (online) summer course this year. In this post, I’m going to throw out
a few ideas I have for one of my classes, and hope that I can make them happen
and/or get feedback and build connections to make them even better.
The main thing I’m struggling with is that I know that I
want and need to have students write some full essays because they need
practice writing and need support and feedback in how to write formally, but I
still want them to think there’s more of an audience than just me. Is this
where I bring in peer feedback circles? Or something else? Do all of my
assessments have to be “authentic” and have “real” audiences? How can I do that
while also still having students practice writing essays or backing up claims?
For 8th grade, I’m lucky enough to have iPads and
was at a conference for similar schools with our grant this summer. I connected
with some other American history teachers, and we’re hoping to connect our
classes this fall to have students interview each other, share work with each
other, and generally work as sort of long-distance partners or pen pals. I hope
this will pan out and help to make their audience broader than just me, but if
not, I’ll need other ways to build these connections or make it more real.
Please let me know what you think, what questions you have,
how I can improve these, and whatever else you’re thinking!
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