Treasure Chest of Thoughts

In a recent post, I discussed the Ladder of Questioning method.  Since then, I have presented a PowerPoint and short story “Marigolds” explaining this to my Pre-AP English 10 students.

Today during Writer’s Notebook time, each student developed sample questions for each level of questioning using John Keat’s poem “A Song About Myself” as a the source.

Now for the fun!  Within each lit circle group, I appointed a discussion director to whom I extended an invitation through Google Docs to share and collaborate on a graphic organizer these three levels of questions.

Not a single moan and groan!

The heavy is now on the discussion director (who had to obtain each club member’s gmail) to quickly invite the other clubbers so that the whole group can go to work.  The discussion director may either invite/share with me or email me this document when the group’s work is completed.

The assignment?  Each club member is to add two questions to each level…and, of course, no question may be repeated.  As soon as the student hits the “save” button, all the other club members will be able to view his/her question selections.  Instantaneous interaction!

Yes, we now have online lit circles…at the convenience of each club member, just as long as each student inputs his/her questions by Monday morning!

I really, really (yes, to be redundant!) like this tool!  Very much, I like this technology!