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A Tech Teacher on a Mission

Twitter in Elementary: The #Grammar911 Project

11/5/2013

7 Comments

 
My students have been busy learning the rules of the road for posting online and representing ourselves appropriately.  As we have become more comfortable with replying to posts, using hashtags, and knowing who to follow, I have begun to pose more difficult challenges for my kids. This particular challenge is one that I would like to invite you and your classroom to be a part of: The #Grammar911 Project.

What is #Grammar911?

#Grammar911 is a hashtag that the @EduMinions (my class) will be using to learn about appropriate grammar and punctuation when posting online.  All too often, I have to remind my students to use capitals, periods, spelling, and appropriate subject-verb agreement in their written work. Through social media, students can create and complete their own collaborative "Daily Oral Language" exercises.

The coolest part is that my kids are very engaged in completing this task as a part of their Daily 5 work in Language Arts. I can offer bite-sized, contextual grammar lessons and my students can immediately experiment with their applications.

How Will It Work?

1) Begin by modelling. Post teacher-created "messy sentences" with the #Grammar911 hashtag attached. 

When beginning this project, error rates in your modelled messy sentences should start small with one or two errors per sentence.  This way, students will get used to the idea of searching for specific things to correct. Make sure the #Grammar911 hashtag is attached to your messy sentence.

2) Have students correct errors to create a "clean sentence".
     
Here is an example of how we have complete this in our class:
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The clean sentence author should begin with an indicator that it the sentence is fixed.  We use two stars -- ** followed by the student's initials so I can track how many contributions each student makes. 

Here are the steps my students typically take: 
  1. Select a tweet and hold down your finger on the "messy sentence"
  2. Click "Select All" and then "Copy"
  3. Tap the Reply arrow
  4. Tap and hold in the tweet box and click "Paste"
  5. Move the cursor around the tweet using the magnifying glass - hold down and move your finger on any part of the text (students who are unfamiliar might need practice to get used to this feature)
  6. Fix the errors, ensure ** and initials/name are attached to "clean sentence"
  7. Check with a teacher before tweeting (Some students may not even realize that they haven't corrected all the errors, either!) 

If you want to aim messy sentences directly at your class account, you can do so as I have in the second example below.
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Things can also get increasingly difficult as time goes on by adding extra grammatical elements like quotation marks, spelling errors, etc. You can get creative -- as long as it is generally readable! 

You can also create your messy sentences with classroom context in mind. 
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3) Have students create messy sentences for each other.

Once students get comfortable, have them begin to create the messy sentences.  Mine started asking if they could post their own almost immediately! Again, they still need to check with their teacher before sending out tweets, and should only be including 1-3 errors per sentence to begin with.  Don't forget to add the #Grammar911 hashtag!

Here is an example of a student-created messy sentence with another student correcting the tweet:
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4) Students can create, find, and clean up messy sentences on their own by following #Grammar911!

This is the phase I'd ultimately like to see the project get to.  This would happen when students understand the rules of the road around the project and are using the hashtag appropriately.  My class is getting a point where they are completing the task in a self-directed fashion, and this is where YOUR class comes in!  I'd like to invite you to join the #Grammar911 conversation so our classes can interact and work together on the online language-editing process! 

If you would like some more examples about how this project works, check out this Storify of a few #Grammar911 corrections from my class. 

If you have any questions or would like to contact me, please feel free to comment below.
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7 Comments
Jason
11/5/2013 09:52:20 pm

Hi. I have 2 questions. #1 How can I convince our tech coor. to allow twitter through our filter? Worried about what kids may see. #2 I follow many people on twitter and have learned many new things. Still not sure about hashtags and @'s and everything else. Where can I learn more. Really like your activity about grammar. Would like to use it with my 6th grade LA class. Thanks!

Reply
Sandy Kendell link
11/6/2013 07:17:19 am

Hi, Jason! I was reading Victoria's post and thought I'd offer some resources for you. One is a blog post I wrote earlier this year on all of the parts of a Tweet. I think it will help you with the #, @, RTs, and stuff!

http://edtechsandyk.blogspot.com/2013/01/how-to-decode-tweet.html

In regards to convincing your administration to let you use Twitter in the classroom, the biggest piece of advice I can give is: Find lots of examples of how it is being used well in classrooms, come up with specific examples of how you would use it to benefit student instruction and promote good digital citizenship. Write all of the information up in a nice professional document and present it to your principal and ask him/her to be your advocate with the district administration. Offer to pilot and work out the kinks. Be patient with the process and see where it takes you.

Maybe others who have already been successful with getting social media approved for classroom use will provide some ideas here as well.

Best wishes!

Reply
Victoria Olson link
11/6/2013 11:11:42 am

Thanks Sandy for helping out! Appreciated!

When you do create a class account, Jason, make sure that you only follow accounts that the kids can learn from. This includes authors, experts, other classrooms, and educational accounts for kids and things like that. This way, you have a little bit more control over what the kids are seeing. Hope this helps!

Jason
11/10/2013 11:28:04 pm

Hi Sandy. Thanks so much for the info. Will definitely try those ideas.

Zoe link
11/6/2013 08:41:09 am

My students and I are very excited by this project. I am hoping they can make the connection between the errors in the tweets and their own writing! We're looking forward to starting.

Zoe

Reply
Victoria Olson link
11/6/2013 11:12:16 am

Thanks, Zoe! We're really excited to have you join!

Reply
projects centers in chennai link
5/28/2014 04:14:42 pm

nice posts

Reply



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    Victoria Olson
    A curious and passionate educator in Langley, BC

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