Ch. 10 - Teaching English LA in a "Flat" World

Wow! I love the idea of establishing a threaded discussion for my classroom. After reading some of the Pre-Cal 30S and Ch. 10 of Ad. Lit., I would be crazy not to at least try this. I also like the idea of taking turns as scribe - what a great way to stay up to date.

Other ideas in the Ad. Lit. book, such as the eight roles that Friedman offers, are apparent though not always manageable. Recently, in math class, my students and I worked on a scholastic magazine about waste, recycling, and global warming. Students researched ways to save water and use less garbage. Much information was given in the Scholastic magazine, but each student also had a laptop (unfortunately, they won't have them next year) and was able to do additional research. Anyway, my point is, we could've done a whole lot more with this unit than we did, while keeping it mostly math focused. The students were really engaged and learned so much from the little we did in class, but a threaded discussion or blogging would have really made a more powerful impact.

Also, we do a lot of collaborative work and investigative work in math class. The Connected Math books encourage students to find algorithms through guided investigations, without specifying one particular method for accomplishing this goal. Often times students work in groups. They assign each person a role and keep a log of each member's role and their work accomplished. They are encouraged to communicate to one another such that each person is participating effectively.