Rationale
It
is clear that our educational system is moving further and further away from the
chalk-and-talk approach to teaching. Pedagogical
journals, documents, and lecturers all point to a more lateral approach to the
understanding of educational concepts, most of them to the integration of
technology. These ideas are at the
very center of this project which incorporates both an innovative and exciting
new way of teaching students to appreciate and understand literature with
a functional use of technology. It
involves every aspect of the Essential
Graduation Learnings, from Technology
to Citizenship.
Children work in literature circles to become familiar with the concepts
and ideas surrounding that particular form of literary interrogation and then
employ that knowledge in Virtual Literature Circles (an on-line
discussion forum created specifically for this kind of interaction).
The value in this kind of educational exchange is paramount from the
standpoint of English Language Arts students are able to discuss literature
freely and at their own pace, and most importantly, at a level that they can
understand (whether that level be at the higher or lower end of the spectrum).
The value of the internet portion of the project is limitless it
opens the kind of exchange between people that would normally only occur in the
classroom into the freedom of an internet discussion forum.
Students everywhere (adults, children, people from various cultures) can
read a book and participate in an on-going discussion or failing that, begin a
new discussion on a different topic, even a different book!
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to Virtual Literature Circles
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