Tech AND Text?!

I have heard this numerous times in a variety of ways, "If I go TECH do I lose my TEXT?" Seems logical that if you use digital documents and articles then you would not have the physical paper copies. The wonderful thing about instructional technology is that you the teacher are EMPOWERED to choose and diversify the HOW you teach what you teach and even more fun is CREATING learning experiences that the students will engage in and connect actively in a relevant manner.

Today, I tried to model this in my Earth Science classroom. This classroom is 1st period and has 34 students trying to figure out the basics of pastoral agriculture via Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma.

Serving students reading literacy is also important so thank you TEXT. Collaboration between peers in small teams combined with competition to respond to a shared document comprehensively is a recipe for a good learning experience so thank you TECH.

In the picture you can see three students in a team. All of them have text in hand (or near hand for the current student typing). In the front of the room I projected several questions to understand. The student is working on inputting the team's thoughts about each question. This team is 1 of 8 teams linked into the same GOOGLE DOC. Below is a video of that doc in real time. Notice the action!! Hear the discussion?!

This document is color coded because each group earns credit by contributing to the document. Groups CANNOT repeat information so this encourages them to read the previous responses and THINK more CRITICALLY. Fun lesson to facilitate. Diversified for various learning modes. Quick set up for any teacher that can create a google doc and share it.