Chapter Chat - Increasing engagement in Literacy

This term I have branched out to include Chapter chat in my class (https://www.facebook.com/ChapterChatNZ/) This is a nation wide programme that students participate in. It involves have a class novel, and students completing activities around the novel. On the Friday at 10am all students participate via twitter and share all there work, as well as answering questions and interacting with other students, and the work other students have shared. The novel we are reading is called Refugee by Alan Gratz. It is based on 3 refugee children from different eras. Josef is a Jewish boy from 1939, Isabel is a Cuban girl from 1994 and Mahmond is a Syrian boy from 2015.

This is the first time that I have read a class novel to the whole class and had everyone so quiet when I have been reading it. When ever I got to the end of the chapter they would beg for more. I book is very well written.

Using twitter in the class is certainly a first for me and I was very nervous about how it would go. I did some prior teaching about our digital footprint and how that everything they put on our class twitter page needed to be able to be put on the front fence of the school. This seems to have worked for the students, and so far I have been impressed with their "tweets"

It has been encouraging for me as a teacher hear the conversations around the class about the book, and how they have been happy to share their thinking and activities.

Part of chapter chat involves the students all going on to twitter at 10am on a Friday and sharing their work with other students from around New Zealand, as well as answering questions that are provided by the organiser. Our first "Chapter Chat" I wasn't sure exactly how it was going to go, having never done or seen it. I used a few of the guidelines given and got all the students to answer the questions the day before, I also downloaded 'Tweet Deck" in order to be able to have on projector so students could follow it. The students worked in pairs or 3's and shared a laptop. I showed everyone how to access twitter on the laptop, and gave everyone our user name. However, I have not given the password as I wasn't sure that was such a good idea. This meant I had to physically put the password in for each group.

The chat itself was very fast but the students really enjoyed sharing and looking at other students work. They were lots of comments like "Man that is cool" "I really like that" and even "I could do better then that".

Students using Twitter to engage with other students from around New Zealand

TweetDeck is on the big screen to enable students to follow what is happening

In regards to increasing student engagement in Literacy I think that Chapter Chat at this stage is working well in my class. Students are certainly enjoying the collaboration of twitter and being able to share with other students from around New Zealand. They are often asking if they can do Chapter Chat, which is awesome to hear and see. I do wonder if if is the collaboration they are enjoying, or the story itself.