Standard+6

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** Standard 6 ** ** Teachers communicate well. **  The teacher uses effective verbal and nonverbal communication techniques as well as instructional media and technology to foster active inquiry, collaboration, and supportive interaction in the classroom.

Evidence: Class Edmodo [|www.edmodo.com]

Rationale: This school year I have been using Edmodo with my 5th grade class for their reading groups. Edmodo is an education based blog site where students can post comments, turn in assignments, and add links. Through the use of Edmodo, my students have gotten the opportunity to use technology to discuss their thoughts, ideas and questions about the texts that they are reading. Students also have gotten the opportunity to read their classmates thoughts, which helps model what a good response may or may not be. Collaboration was also used with this site when students helped with each other by linking helpful and interesting websites for group projects. As a teacher I have learned from using Edmodo that it is possible to use less paper and pencil activities. Edmodo has allowed me to post whole class, small group and individual assignments, which have made communication and differentiation more manageable. It has helped me as a teacher on a daily basis since students can turn in assignments electronically and I am able to keep the assignments organized in one place, give students immediate feedback, and score the papers all online.

KSD

6.K.4 The teacher recognizes the importance of nonverbal, verbal and media communication techniques.

While using Edmodo I have emphasized to my students that just because they are using technology to communicate, does not mean it should be in an informal manner, such as texting. Grammar and writing standards still need to be followed when composing their responses due to the nature of the task.

6.S.3 The teacher knows how to ask questions and stimulate discussion for particular purposes (e.g. probing for learning understanding, helping students articulate their ideas and thinking processes, promoting risk-taking and problem solving, facilitating factual recall, encouraging  convergent and divergent thinking, stimulating curiosity, helping students to question).

The prompts that I give for each assignment are designed to encourage students to share their thoughts, questions, and knowledge about their readings. Students are also encouraged to ask questions of their group mates, so that they can reply each other’s misunderstandings and thoughts.

6.D.2 The teacher values many ways in which people seek to communicate and encourages many modes of communication in the classroom.

Edmodo is just one way that I have students communicate with each other in the classroom. They also meet in reading groups to verbalize their thoughts, as well as journal in notebooks.