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Virtual Book Club - Turning Perry High School's Library Digital

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My students are ALWAYS on Twitter tweeting things out to each other, so why not utilize that form of social media to create a discussion about the book they are reading?  They love creating hashtags and trying to get things to trend.  Many of my students will do live tweeting during a movie, show, sports event, or awards event that is on TV.  So instead of having them do active reading notes for this story and write about it in the margins, they will tweet their reactions as they are reading.  This will not only make them think about the story as they read, but the process of active reading notes (which they do often) will not be a private thing.  Instead, they will share these with their classmates, pose questions, and respond, creating a virtual discussion.

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Students will use Twitter to “live tweet” their reactions as they read shorts stories and books for a virtual book club.  I will select high interest novels and short stories that students are engaged in and will have a lot of opinions and reactions with.  Students will use the hashtag #virtualperry in order to connect with each other as they create a digital dialogue around reactions and questions about their book.

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Access the entire lesson here.

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Flipped Classroom Unit: Digging Deeper & Analyzing the Complexity of Text

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This unit will work best in collaboration with a Language Arts teacher as a way to supplement their learning.  One of the skills that we continuously work on is text analysis.  Language Art teachers analyze the author's purpose, the themes, symbols, motifs, and other elements of a piece that involve exploring the text beyond the surface, but more of than not, however, I help lead my students to these conclusions. 

 

This lesson can help students who are good at understanding the text they are reading and can pull out basic elements (such as plot, characterization, conflict, setting), but might not have the skills to go deeper into the text and analyze the author’s purpose and message. This lesson will give students some tips on how to analyze a text and discover the deeper meaning without the teacher's constant support and guidance.  

 

This Ted-Ed lesson aligns with the idea of a flipped classroom because students will view the video that gives tips and strategies for how to analyze a piece of writing on their own time.  They will have the ability to watch it multiple times until they understand the content.  Students will then bring these new skills and tips to the classroom where they will first create a graphic organizer in groups to help them remember the skills from the lesson.  These organizers will be done on their computers and shared with their classmates.  Students will then use these skills to analyze pieces of writing in groups and then on their own.  They will integrate technology here by having them write on Google Docs and linking up with their group, so they are working on the same document.  These will then be posted into Google Classroom for the rest of the classmates to view as examples. Students will post multiple examples on the Internet, so the rest of the class can go back and access them.  

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Access the entire lesson here.

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Pathfinder Activity - Sexual Violence in Dating

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This is a web activity that includes information and resources that will guide a teen in finding items related to the topic of sexual violence in dating.  It allows them to explore the topic further independently (from either inside the library or virtually) using the best resources. 

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“Unhealthy relationships can start early and last a lifetime. Dating violence often starts with teasing and name calling. These behaviors are often thought to be a "normal" part of a relationship. But these behaviors can set the stage for more serious violence like physical assault and rape.”  

~Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

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Click here to access all the material for this activity.  

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