Kutztown and Brandywine Heights middle school students participated in reading groups via Skype.
Kutztown 8th grade reading teacher Kristin Haring and Brandywine 8th grade reading teacher Tom Whalen initiated the across district lines-literacy group novel unit in their classrooms.
‘Our goal is to enhance and broaden our students’ love for reading and their communication skills through shared text literacy groups via Skype,’ said Haring.
This was the first time Kutztown students Skyped with Brandywine students.
‘Students developed an ownership of their learning, discussion skills, and an understanding of other perspectives, all of which can be applied to their own real world experience,’ said Whalen. ‘Technology is exploding and being used more and more.’
They were given four choices of books to read and were broken into groups dependent on what book they chose to read. For each chapter, the groups had a Skyping session with the group at Brandywine that read the same book.
‘We got to talk to other kids in another school about the book we were reading and we got to hear their opinions,’ said Xavier Luciano, Kutztown 8th grader.
He noted that everyone in their Kutztown group knows one another but getting the chance to talk to Brandywine students they don’t know showed them different perspectives, they heard a different point of view.
Luciano and his group read ‘The Boy in the Striped Pajamas,’ a book about the Holocaust from the point of view of a young boy.
‘(Participating in the Skyping group sessions) was a fun experience,’ said Luciano.
‘Before, the only way that you’d be able to do anything with kids at another school is writing letters and sending it to them, but now we can just talk to them and they can hear us,’ said Austin Kolson. ‘We can talk to them live. You can really see their emotions, too. You can’t really see emotions through writing.’
Claire Pursel said the Skyping sessions made the reading experience better. Other times they would read a book and take a test after. For this project, they made tests for each other.
Kolson said the experience made him think more about what he was reading.
‘When I read a book for fun, I just read it. For this, I had to actually read it and think about what I’m reading because I needed to ask questions,’ said Kolson.
‘You understood the book more,’ added Madeson Fegely.
When asked what they learned from the Skyping experience, Fegely said, ‘Keep your options open for meeting new people.’
What Whalen liked the most is the fact that the students were reading books of their choice and they were actively engaged in their own discussion groups.
‘For the most part, they led their own discussions. Mrs. Haring and I simply monitored and created mini lesson plans to help improve their discussions,’ said Whalen. ‘This was primarily a student-centered activity.’
What he liked the most about the Skyping and journaling sessions was being able to use technology and seeing how excited the students were to participate in the activity.
‘It gave them the chance to get out of their comfort zone and work with other people with whom they were unfamiliar,’ he said. ‘These are the types of situations that they are going to be faced with outside of school, especially when they enter the work force.’
Skyping with students at another school enhanced the learning experience.
‘Students were using technology and interacting with other students, which increased their interest level,’ said Whalen. ‘They were able to learn about other perspectives, and every student was actively engaged throughout the entire activity.’
‘With the state standards as well as the common core standards, the students need to read independently a book at their grade level, and we had thought that instead of the teacher always instructing about the novel, we thought it would be better to have the students also work on their communications skills and teach the novel to themselves,’ said Haring. ‘It has broaden my ability to share experiences and have my students experiences things… we can get out amongst the world.’
Haring explained that Skype is a free downloadable computer application program and that the students used their school laptops, so there was no additional cost to the districts.
While there were some gliches with the technology, Haring and Whalen and the students were looking at ways for the Skype sessions to work more smoothly, like using headphones and microphones. There are plans for a collaboration next year.
