When I began looking at the lists of suggested edubloggers given to us by Jeff and Kristin I started glancing through some of the different blogs to decide which ones to read and, before I knew it, I had read a stampede of them. There was a lot of great resources available here, like random History facts and pictures being given every day by "Today's Document from the National Archives"' blog, and much much more. I'm going to take a second in this blog to discuss my favorite two blogs I came accross.
The first really good blog I encountered was "The Graphic Classroom". This blog gives a list of reviews on graphic novels that may be helpful in the classroom. I have long been a fan of graphic novels (though the ones I read may not be quite so educational as the ones reviewed in the blog), and I thought that using graphic novels in the classroom is a great idea! Not only are these novels educational, but they are easier to read and fun, which can have huge implications for educating slower readers or readers with ADHD (these students tend to find graphic novels much more stimulating and easier to pay attention too; plus they're easier to put down for a moment then go back to). I think that using graphic novels could raise interested levels and student knowledge because all the students would be more likely to actually read them. This blog is a fantastic resource for using graphic novels because it gives you a list of novels, how helpful they are, and ideas on how to teach them.
The second blog that really caught my eye was called "Speaking of History", and it was a list of blogs and podcasts by Eric Langhorst. There was a series of blogs on Thomas Jefferson that I found particularly interesting, especially the one about Jefferson's ivory notebooks. Langhorst says that Jefferson used Ivory notebooks to keep notes during the day then transfered this information to his permanent logs at night. I thought this information had great applications for the classroom because I could have students make their own Ivory notebooks. These notebooks would obviously not be made out of real ivory, but they could be made out of a hard object that you could write on in pencil (I haven't thought of what to use yet, and actually commented on the blog and asked the author for suggestions). This activity would only take a day, and the students would feel really cool carrying around there notebooks and using them in other classes. As a very positive side effect students would get a good sense of what people would have used to write on in this time period, which would give them a great idea of what life then was like. I think this activity would also encourage students to take more notes because it would be fun to do in these new notebooks.
E.
I'm intrigued by your "ivory notebook" idea. I'm a fan of The Graphic Classroom because they are so clear on what the trouble spots could be for particular audiences or age groups. While I'm a graphic novel fan, too, there are some that really are better suited to the public library than my classroom, and I like that they're up front. Also, they do a great job keeping up with what's new and fresh ... though they've been on hiatus lately, no? Also, I really like how the National Archives blog shows just a little snippet of the document/image in Google Reader and I have to click through to find the entire image. Gets my imagination going!
ReplyDeleteI like your ivory notebook idea too! So cool that you are pulling things from EduBloggers that you might actually use in your future classroom.
ReplyDeleteThe AADL (Ann Arbor District Library) has great resources regarding graphic novels. They are becoming increasingly popular (and AA has one of the largest collections in the state). A quick chat with a reference librarian at any of the branches would give you some great ideas of what series to perhaps use in your classroom.
Also, if you haven't been there, Vault of Midnight is a SWEET place to go peruse graphic novels, comic books, obscure/ strategy board games, and other treasures. On Main st.- I think you'd love it.
Elijah,
ReplyDeleteFirst, I want to apologize for neglecting your blog. For some reason I thought your blog was another, sometimes its tough to figure out who the authors are of blogs that don't have people's names publicly attached to them (I should have been referenced the class wiki after I made my bookmarks).
Anyways, I really love the idea of the Ivory notebook. It has so many possibilities. When I was reading your post it sparked so many thought! Another spin on your idea is that if students kept an Ivory notebook during the day that they could blog about it later on (the blog being their permanent log).
Graphic novels are awesome. An activity that could promote writing and creativity would be to have students write out their own interpretation of the novel. This assignment can reach students that on different learning levels and could be really fun. Graphic novels can really promote a constructive classroom discussion too, where each student can discuss the different elements that they noticed and how. It is definitely a language we all need --- the possibilities of graphic novels really draw me back to Jeff's activity with the symbols and the discussion that followed.
Graphic novels = good tool. They force students to actually think in different ways, since different elements are noticed and interpreted individually, like Chelsea said. For many students, they make any kind of information more exciting to learn because it's not just a textbook forcing information at them. Plus, as someone with ADHD, I understand what you're saying about them being a tool for kids with this particular learning disability. They're a lot easier to pick up and put down and with so many different features in them, they're easier for me to follow. I know it seems counterintuitive, that more features and options would be easier, but it really does work.
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