For the Technology Teach-In assignment, I plan to use Poll Everywhere as an alternate method of class-wide discussion. In the social studies seminar last semester, our field instructor used this website a few times; in particular, I remember him posing open-ended questions and having us students reply via the website. As we finished up our paragraph-long responses, they would show up anonymously on the feed projected in front of the class. Thus, we were able to see our classmates' honest uncensored thoughts, which perhaps would have been impossible in the traditional class discussion format.
In my eighth grade U.S. History classes, I notice many students being wary of taking the risk of being wrong in front of their peers; the outcome is that I lose class participation as soon I try asking questions that demand higher order thinking. This is really too bad: these types of speculation questions have the capability of stimulating some of the most thought-provoking and interesting conversations. In my opinion, this sort of pondering and speculation is exactly what makes history so interesting; without it, history is as dull as my students think it is.
A secondary problem I notice (which I'm sure is common to all classrooms) is that we as a class hear from only the more outgoing or academically confident students. I remember my middle school experience: I was certainly too shy to ever voice my ideas in class, but at the same time I craved the times when the teacher would draw me out by cold calling on me, because I found it a lot more fun and satisfying to participate in class, even though I was too scared to volunteer to. I think I would have enjoyed voicing my thoughts via anonymous writing: this is lower stakes because any wrong answers I might come up with have no way of being attributed to me.
Thus, I'd like to create a hook activity using Poll Everywhere open-ended questions that ask students to consider the theme of the unit before having any formal instruction. The first unit I will be solely planning will be a unit on "An Era of Reform," which discusses reform movements of the 19th Century.
So far I have come up with the following questions:
What does reform mean?
What do you think of when you hear the term "reform movements"?
What sorts of issues are going through an era of reform, today?
What issues do you think need to be going through reform?
I plan to give the students 3-5 minutes for each answer. I will let them know that I expect substantial, thought-out answers (i.e. at least a paragraph). After each question, we will read through the answers and allow the ideas presented to stimulate a more traditional class discussion. Perhaps at the conclusion of the activity, I will ask students to write a paragraph of reflection on what they took away from the activity and what ideas they found most intriguing and why.
Thus, Poll Everywhere will add to my lesson by a) allowing all students to practice expressing their ideas through writing and b) allowing shyer or more insecure students to comfortably participate.
