Monday 3 March 2014

Skype classroom - Writing Project

‘WRITING,’ the word itself reminds me of the letters, characters, and scripts and of various other synonyms. It is such a complex and multifaceted blend of skills altogether. However, indeed writing is a process and not a product. Hence, various steps are involved and followed in order to create a refined piece of writing.

Therefore, I planned for global collaboration and a team teaching to help my students get more acquainted with this process. I am grateful to Christopher Tozier, an author of the book Olivia Brophie and the Pearl of Tagelus, for such a noteworthy collaboration.

My class had two informative and engaging sessions with Christopher, where they gained a good insight into the process and the various other elements involved in writing. Through these sessions, they even became more aware of what it means to be an author and the patience, thought process a writer goes through. Indeed, it is not an easy job to gather your ideas and sequencing your thoughts. Well, Christopher and I planned the sessions really well in this direction for our students. We gave our inputs/feedbacks on the drafts created by the students. We will continue to work and collaborate this year until each student is able to refine his or her own written piece and is ready to publish their work as well.

As an educator, I am sure that by the end of this session, students would have developed the skills of writing and will be able to produce their written work independently.

Saturday 1 March 2014

Skype Classroom - Book Review

This academic year is very special for my students and me as an educator. My journey began when I first introduced my students to their  academic goals. One of the goals were to do a book review. They started taking good interest in reading the book and understanding the content of the story. In addition, they practiced putting down their ideas on paper too. However, they  made quite a few  errors and  asked for clarifications, inputs to make their write up more fascinating and interesting for the readers.

Therefore, as an educator, I thought of giving them an exposure towards the online book review. Keeping in mind their oral skills, I believed that expressing their ideas in words would definitely help them understand the elements for book review  better. So, I planned for a team teaching and approached Lisa Cohn. When I shared the ideas and other details with her, she responded positively. We had a detailed discussion on the process of how to go about it and finally, the session was scheduled and students remained engaged and engrossed while listening to her and her experiences as an author. They even interacted with her 5-year-old son Michael Cohn, and were impressed with his love and passion for books.

After the first introductory session, we thought of checking their understanding about the book review and hence made a trial. Well, the students really performed well compared to their writing task. Now going further, we are planning to train these students for the book review in a more authentic and organised manner.
The journey has just begun..