Artifact Reflection Blog #4: Collaborative Web Tools: Keep it about Genre

Collaboration has been something I thought I was pretty good at using in my classroom for students to practice and reinforce skills I've been teaching in class. I generally used group work for students to discover new things, practice skills and ultimately flip my classroom into a problem based culture. The following artifact and project which I designed for my students to work with genre, a larger focus this year with regards to literacy in my school, is one activity I can't wait to try!

In my experience students at the 4th grade level tend to know the difference between fiction and nonfiction but their knowledge of genre usually ends with those two. Even their definitions of fiction and nonfiction are surface level and it takes many opportunities to prove that nonfiction is not just "real pictures." This artifact is a google classroom assignment focused on encouraging students to explore genre with a depth they may not have experienced before. Through the guiding questions, students are encouraged to think outside of their "normal" type of books, and to choose a genre they are less likely to read. They are to then study this genre and create/present a slide to the class in regards to their chosen new sub-genre to fiction or nonfiction.

The collaboration truly takes shape when students begin to comment and encourage one another with the commenting feature on google drive. Students are asked to collaborate with one another in a unique and timely way. They are then going to gain knowledge of different genres simply by helping one another on their individual slides.

I'm excited for this activity and ultimately hope to be able to use it within our Family Reading Night event at our school this year. I'd love to have students present their genre to families over the course of the night. Collaboration and encouraging a depth of learning at its best!