I am a Reading Specialist looking for another middle school classrooms to collaborate with. My thought is that my classes could read online articles and then discuss them with students from another school. I haven't worked out all the details of how this would work, but am interested in hearing ideas. Thoughts? Anyone want to connect?
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One place your students could post their views in the ePals Student Forums. They could write about music, sports, global issues, or other topics. See: http://www.epals.com/forums/default.aspx?GroupID=52
If you want them to post comments or add their own comments, you will have to join the ePals Global Community (free to join) and get your students accounts (also free).
In middle school, many kids have to get glasses because their eyes change. But they are afraid of being called nerd or geek for wearing glasses. The question, "Do Glasses make you a nerd?" has been answered by more than 700 students from multiple different countries in the ePals Student Forums. The comments are fascinating, and it provides authentic comments and anwers that are interesting to read. See: http://www.epals.com/forums/t/21733.aspx?PageIndex=48 for the most recent postings.
Your students can also read book comments and reviews already posted at the ePals Book Club or even post their own: http://www.epals.com/forums/101.aspx
If you want to have a partner classroom to work with directly, you can find a class through the ePals Global Community. You might have best luck looking for a class that is studying English as a foreign language in a place like Sweden, where they have studied for several years before middle school and get a lot of movies and TV shows in English but want to practice communication skills. It's free to find a partner in the community and to use basic SchoolMail. Your students would then be able to say, "I'm helping someone learn English" and would learn themselves in the process.
Classes in Australia, New Zealand and South America are just starting the fall semester now, so this is a good time to get started with them. (They go on summer vacation just before Christmas!)
If you want to learn more, you can attend an ePals 101 webinar: http://epals.101.sgizmo.com or check out the tutorials: http://bit.ly/learnePals.