Procedure
	The actions of students and teachers and the interactions among and between students and teachers:

This project is not a "traditional" class lesson or unit of study. Rather, it consists of a thematic literary collaboration between lower primary classes around the world, facilitated through online technology. The resulting experience creates student/teacher, student/student, and teacher/teacher interactions that would otherwise not be possible.

The project was designed for students in grades 1 - 3. As the project sponsor, I advertised the project on the Internet through Classroom Connect and Global School Network. Although the project was only intended for 25 classes, there was a huge level of interest, and 33 classes were finally accepted for participation. Each class was required to select a book with a winter theme, and to conduct a set of activities involving their selected book.

In the "Call for Collaboration", potential participants were directed to a web site on which Mrs. Silverman outlined the goals, objectives, and suggested activities for the project. Participants were encouraged to use the activities as a starting point, and to add to them or adapt them to their particular classroom and community situation.

The following is a partial list of the activities that were suggested:

1. Author study - research the author and write a report with bibliography.
2. Write a book review.
3. Create new endings for the story.
4. Interview some of the characters in the book.
5. Create a diorama depicting scenes from the book.
6. Make a group mural of the story and photograph it.
7. Write a character sketch of your favorite, or least favorite, character.

My class was involved both as the host class, as well as one of the participating classes. As a participating class, we read "The Hat" by Jan Brett. Our work, and the work of the 32 other classes, is posted on the project web site.

Our literary activities for this project included new endings, puppet shows, illustrated rhymes and letters to the author. The first three of these activities were designed to support ELA Standard 2 (Language for Literary Response and Expression). The performance indicator outlined in the previous section (students creating stories, poems, etc.) was the key target for these activities.

The last activity, writing a letter to the author of the book, supports ELA Standard 4 (Language for Social Interaction), and targets the performance indicator indicated in the previous section.

The learning associated with this project did not end after we completed our classroom activities on "The Hat." Each day, as the site expanded with contributions from other classes, my students would visit the new site and we would read their book in class. By seeing what activities the other classes had performed, my students got ideas and used the website as a model for their work.

The use of technology for online collaboration is an exciting method to enhance learning outcomes in elementary education. There are not very many schools participating in this type of activity, and I hope through my projects and through my professional dialogs to make this medium more accessible to a wide audience.

Top of Page