not underestimating our youth - some ideas Round 1

Empower all voices in the class  - #onebeautifulthought

Sharing and discussing a topic, an idea, a piece of inspiration can be tricky with 24+ students - all with unique opinions and personal learning styles. Some students throve in class discussions, others hesitate, some disengage and there are those so disinterested they can not add to the conversation at this point in time.  Furthermore some of the most engaging and provoking resources can make the teacher or students uncomfortable, may challenge us in unexpected ways or may require time and space to reflect on. Why not use some savvy tech to help!  

Dove has long been known for its hard hitting, provocative advertising campaigns. "The aim of the campaign is to celebrate the natural physical variation embodied by all women and inspire them to have the confidence to be comfortable with themselves." ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dove_Campaign_for_Real_Beauty, 4 April 2015) To use these to create discussion and prompt thinking can be challenging. So to help I want to show you how to create a space for conversation using free, online technology Padlet based on the Dove #onebeautifulthought campaign 

Original Clip

2 minute guide 

Suitable for: Years 9 - 10 , males & females 

Brief AusVEL's links: 
English, The Arts, Health & PE 
Communication, Thinking Processes & Interpersonal Development 

What makes it empowering: 

• accessible any time, any place with internet  - gives time to think, reflect
  
• gives voice to those who may not often use it 
• can be anonymous or comments owned by authors
• collaborators can record their discussion and post it if that is how they want to learn
• collaborators can type their responses if that is how they want to learn
• collaborators can respond using imagery if that is how they want to learn
• hesitant learners or disengaged can comment & contribute when ready, with extra assistance through an additional prompting question or image 
• collaborators can add links to other relevant sites, videos, images and build their own topic resource centre 
• collaborators can only edit or remove their own posts and they do not need an account or email to use. 

Rad skills also fostered: contextualising  different perspectives, ongoing, growing learning grounded in real life and encouraging empathy.  

Tip:
Set up expectation of how to behave in this learning space in line with your physical classroom expectations 

Read and understand - together

Providing engaging, real world and challenging texts for readers can be a monumental task - how do you provide something for everyone - the strugglers, the creative thinkers, the bored, the high achievers, the under the radars and the list goes on?! What about every so often tackling a challenging, provoking, imaginative or optimistic or funny reading together using technology to empower learners of all sorts using Diigo. 

Explore diigo here

What is Diigo?
Diigo is a cloud based, free tool that allows learners to annotate websites, PDF's, JPG's  online adding colour and notes to help them develop their understanding and to engage with content. Annotated notes are them stored for later reflection and development and can be shared between users. 

What do I need to set up before using it in class? 
Each student needs to set up an account (free) using an email and password. This will need to be verified so students must use a valid email. They can use it on Chrome or the App or another tablet. Just search Diigo extension on the device and install it. Setting this up could be a good 1 minute legend task. See this post http://www.whatnextshelly.com/explore/1-minute-legends 

Source - Dumbo Feather Conversation - Julian  Burnside, Nov 2013 

Access reading here

Option 1 - read, annotate, share 

Set up students in Diigo and use a prompt screen like the one below to guide them through the tasks you want them to do. 

Tips: 

• quantify the minimum points on tasks you want the students to engage with 
• set up groups prior to setting the tasks - mixed groups work well when you want to encourage readers and similar ability work well when you want to target and work with a specific group 

Option 2 - read, think, grow 

Set up a class Diigo link and share. Then you can work together through the task! Students work collaboratively on a single document, highlighting terms and ideas they want defining in yellow, responding and building capacity using post it notes to respond to these yellow terms. Thinking prompts are in green and are input by the teacher prior to sharing the resource. Students respond using post it notes as well. All work is attributed to the student user automatically. Students can also add personal thoughts and private musings for themselves whilst reading. And bets if all all the notes, ideas and discussion points are saved for future reference. Check it out in action below. 

Tips:

• show students how to share some things and keep others private and set expectations around what you want shared/private 
• students may want to complete  a reflection after the reading collaborative session - why not include the link and a piece to camera reflecting on what challenged them, what they connected with and what they now want to explore to support the learning 

Suitable for: VCE, males & females 

Brief Study Design links: 
English & EAL - AOS 2 in Units 1, 2 & 3 
Global Politics - AOS 1 in Unit 1  

What makes it empowering: 

• thought provoking, up to date reading
• provides at passionate, intriguing viewpoint
• local viewpoint about a global issue
• students work to scaffold and support each others learning  in real world contexts 

Rad skills also fostered: empowers readers with metacognition strategies to problem solving understanding roadblocks, lends itself nicely to reflection, provides challenge in terms of vocabulary and content  and is grounded in real life.