Global Lesson

**Oops, left this as a comment. Reposting as a discussion for comments.

I chose to do a lesson using ePALS for my kindergarten class. I wanted to find something that I thought my young students could really understand, and something that they could do somewhat independently, or with teacher help, allowing for differentiation. I would like to choose a class in a different region of the US, as well as a class from another country. I would have my class keep a chart of things that are the same and different from their own experiences (i.e., traditions, holidays, customs, vacation days, neighborhood experiences, etc.) In addition to communicating through email, I would have my students communicate through Kid Blog and have the other students follow and comment on each other's blogs. The lesson is a global awareness lesson because it exposes my students to people from other countries, cultures and geographic regions of the world. By getting to know other students their age, they can compare and contrast similarities and differences. The overarching hope is that through this activity my students will learn respect for diversity as well. This lesson can easily be incorporated into both my social studies block, and my writing time, as students will be using phonetic writing and other writing skills to email and create blogs.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by adfasedf asdfadsfa on June 20, 2014 at 10:01pm

Deb,

I was also very impressed with ePals and chose it for my global instruction as well. I never considered having students use ePals to dialogue with students from other regions in the United States. I think this is a great way to show students the microcultures that exists in the United States. Additionally, this also allows students to develop a diverse reference point when engaging in cultural comparisons with other countries. I also like your idea of using Kid Blog in addition to ePals, which allows more students to communicate with each other rather than one on one. I’ve never used Kid Blog before, does it have the same security safeguards that ePals boasts? If not, how will you monitor the posts?

Permalink Reply by Samantha Delfeld on June 24, 2014 at 7:33am

Deb,

I like that you are able to combine this lesson with social studies and writing. That sounds like a learning community at Del Tech. The students learn issues that carry over into other subjects, so they also learn to apply the issues in different areas. I like the idea of them communicating through their blogs, as well.

Permalink Reply by Patty Horney on August 18, 2014 at 2:26pm

Hi Deb, I think that communicating through KidBlog would be a fun way for your little guys to get computer experience. I teach older students, so I wonder if that would be too "young" for them. One concern I have about blogging is that it seems so one-sided and it's mostly the blogger doing all the typing. I really like the idea about you creating a chart with your students about their own experiences and comparing those with students in another state and another country. Sometimes living in another state is like living in another country!!

Patty

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