Twitter: Novel Approach to Routine Academic Practice

Posted by Marsha on September 19, 2011

Most teachers are opened minded and eager to engage their students. This was evident to us when we facilitated a session this past weekend at FRA, Florida Reading Association, called If You Tweet, They Will Follow. As promised, we want to share the ideas our participants came up with about ways to use Twitter for educational purposes, providing a novel approach to otherwise ordinary, routine academic practices.

Because a tweet is limited to 140 characters, it requires concise language. This forces students to be considerate of what they want to say as well as the words they choose to say it. This 140 character constraint lends itself to many interesting opportunities for student participation and informal, quick evaluation. For example:

Jigsaw content word vocabulary. Instead of assigning every student a list of words, divide the words up so that a few students have the same word. Have students tweet the definition, explain the concept, or use word in sentence that shows meaning of the word they were assigned. Then students read thru the Twitter thread, compare like definitions, and, if necessary, copy the words and definitions into their notebooks.
Root word activities: After introducing a root to the class, have students brainstorm and tweet other words with the root. Tell them to try not to duplicate other tweets. Copy words onto word wall or to chart papers. After discussing words or the next day, making connections to the meaning of the root, have students choose a word from the list and use the word in a sentence via Twitter.
Instead of Reading logs, let students tweet their reading response summaries, from a character’s point of view, predictions, etc.
Conduct polls, surveys or interviews. For example: To build interest in a geography lesson begin by asking students to find out where their great grandparents are from (country and/or state) and tweet their findings. The next day, use this information to plot coordinates on a class map, or tally locations for a lesson on graphing.
Let students post factual statements and opinion statements and let the other students discuss which are facts and which are opinions.
Ask students to tweet questions for other students to answer about the content they are studying. Use some questions as potential test questions or study guides.
Anticipation guides: As a pre reading assignment, post statements about a reading assignment for students to agree or disagree about.
Tweet:
Who Am I Riddles…
Quick biographies or autobiographies…
Similes, Metaphors, Idioms…
321 (3 things learned, 2 things wonder, 1 question left, etc.)…
Haiku Poems (“Twaiku”) Google twitter haiku and find tons of Tweeters dedicated to Twaiku. There is even a NASCARHaiku on Twitter
Cloze passages …