Chapter 7 Getting Connected: My Experience as a Collaborative Internet Project Coordinator by Susan Silverman

Elizabeth B
Innovative Approaches to Literacy Education
Chapter 7 Getting Connected: My Experience as a Collaborative Internet Project Coordinator by Susan Silverman

Susan discussed a number of Internet collaborative projects in detail. Before reading this book I knew nothing about the Miss Rumphius Award. In fact I was totally ignorant as to the number of collaborative Internet projects that existed in cyber space. This is primarily due to the fact that the students I teach are not allowed to use the Internet for security reasons. Nevertheless, I can still use the ideas generated from some of the collaborative Internet projects in my lessons.

Susan tells how appreciative she was of winning the Miss Rumphius Award for her project – “An Apple a Day”. Susan explained how the idea for her project developed from a 1997 Conference she had attended. She highlighted the fact that at the start of the project she had little or no knowledge about computer technology and the Internet. Bill Gates should be credited for designing his popular user-friendly computers, this made computer novices into pros in a short time.

“An Apple a Day” project objectives were to develop reading /writing skills, and poetry appreciation. The project was geared towards second graders (age 6-7). The students were encouraged to write original poems about apples using a particular format. The format includes specific number of words per line, the use of the five (W)s and the use of descriptive words. I viewed the project on line and found the poems posted by Mrs Nunneley’s class from South Africa were fun to read. My five-year old daughter and I read a couple of them. Her favorite one was by Gaby.
My apple looks tasty and good.
It sounds crunchy and crackly.
It tastes sweet.
It feels round.
It smells healthy.

The “Winter Wonderland” was Susan’s second Internet Collaborative project. The project involves participants extracting information from a selected book with a winter theme. Students were encouraged to create some form of activities from the winter book. Susan pointed out that a rubric was produced to evaluate the creations that the participants had submitted. She noted that the students were very critical of their peer work.

The third collaborative project which Susan designed was “Frosty Readers”. This project was designed to meet NY State learning standards in language arts. The project was aimed to develop literature appreciation, language skills and creativity. Susan stated that her students were very enthusiastic about the project and were very motivated to write their own stories after viewing other student’s work.

I would like to commend Susan on following through with a promise she made with one of her student. The student had asked her to do a collaborative project on bats. Adults often times dismiss ideas and comments coming from young children.

Lessons Susan have learned
- choose collaborative projects that ties into the curriculum
- internet expose students to new literacies
- students love using the computers
- peering students is a good idea
- students/teachers need minimum technology in order to participate in Internet collaborative project

Susan ended her chapter on the “Changing Face of Literacy Instruction”. Susan believes that, “As educators we need to teach our students traditional literacy skills along with new literacy”.