A Different Kind of Pen Pal

I was so honored to chair “Integrating Blogs, Podcasting, and Digital Videos into Fourth and Fifth Grade Language Arts Classes” at NCTE this year.  I learned a tremendous amount about the right way to integrate technology into classrooms from these California educators (i.e., Carl Withaus, Gail Desler, Aparna Sinha, Manuel Senna, and Lesley McKillop).  What I mean by “the right way” is that there was a grant written for 37 teachers (of 531 students) in three elementary schools over the course of two years.  There was lots of support for how to use the multi-modal writing tools since many of the teachers involved were not tech savvy.  By having teachers teach teachers how to use the technology, the classroom teachers were able to meaningfully weave the technology into their classroom instruction.

One program McKillop, a fourth grade teacher, told session participants about was called in2books.  in2books is a website that connects classrooms of children with adult pen pals, who must go through a screening process, who write letters back and forth about books.  Essentially, these are pen pal relationships that grow though books.  McKillop told us that in2books provides free books for Title I Schools, as well as many safeguards to protect the children in the classroom (e.g., the teacher checks all of the letters between the children and their adult pen pals).  If you’re not familiar with in2books, click here to learn more about the ways it.  It’s not a substitute for Reading or Writing Workshop.  Rather, I see it as an additional opportunity for students to practice their writing skills by corresponding with caring adults about books they’re reading.

Additionally, the presenters showed digital videos their students created, as well as Voicethreads the children created with their classes about the Japanese Internment Camps.  To learn more about Voicethread, click here.