As part of the new Primary Literacy Framework, we are covering narrative over the next four weeks and I must say it has been much clearer what we are doing in literacy due to the changes. I find them most welcome, gone are the days of chopping and changing all term.
Anyway one of the 12 strands is to “Engage with and respond to text.” Well today we used Diigo in a fantastic way that got the children doing exactly that!
Unfortunately I cannot link to the work we did as it had photos of the children and some text from published texts. So you get your visualisation juices going…bear with me…
Imagine a web page, I used a published Google Doc, with a table at the top of the page with the children’s photos and names in. Under the table is an opening to a story by a significant author and suitably chosen for the ability of the children in the group. Tomorrow a different group are doing this activity so a different story. As we are only looking at the opening hooks it is just a few paragraphs worth. Above the table of children’s names are some simple instructions such as:
Take your time to read the opening to the story below. Your job is to respond in two ways.
1 – Add a sticky note, using the Diigo toolbar, under your picture or name and explain how you feel about this opening.
2 – Highlight some text and comment on part of the opening you enjoyed or want to talk about. Add you initials to your comments.
In my planning I had put down to work with this group as they completed the activity on individual laptops at their desks and it was a real success. The children clicked on Sticky Note in the Diigo toolbar and added a typed comment, they then went a step further and (after clicking refresh in IE to see their friends comments – a good tip!) added further comments to their friends Diigo stickies. They rolled over the sticky bubble icon and then rolled over the Actions menu at the top right. Then it is just a case of going to “Add Comment” and the children are engaging with not only the text but each others’ responses.
The other Year 5 class completed the same activity after playtime. Whereas the group in my class began with a webpage with no comments on, the other class were able to view (and comment on) ours and get started quite quickly. The children were, as before, motivated and really engaged with the task. Diigo as a tool is becoming very, very useful!
Here are some of the children comments on the text we looked at today using Diigo.
“Its a sad story when the girl and hugo dies at the end.(and i think that hugo should die because he didn’t let the girl have freedom so he disereves it.”
“on the part were hugo found out that the young girl escaped your body goes really cold for second with fear that something terrible is going to happen”
“It is a sad story because some body dies and the girl trys to get her freedom.”
Any guesses what the story is?
On Reflection
- This activity was easy to set up – it is basically a page of text, the key thing is to have the Diigo toolbar (and class account) ready to roll.
- It can be done with a whole class using a computer suite for a literacy lesson, different children looking at different texts.
- The texts could also be in the public domain and they do not need to be narrative even. If you are looking at persuasive text why not look at the Alton Towers site and get the children to add Sticky Notes with their comments about how persuasive the site is.
- It could also be extended beyond popular fiction to include peer reviewing of children’s work they have published. (Lots to explore here I think)
- We worked between classes separated by a corridor but there is no reason why schools from anywhere could collaborate in response to a story or text.
- Given the right preparation and equipment I think this is a most manageable activity within a literacy independent session.
- My children had looked at Sticky Notes before but never added them independently – they catch on very fast and coped without any problems.
- Diigo with its “Highlight and Comment” tool can easily become a very useful online text annotation / response tool and I think I will keep using it.
I am pleased to welcome Diigo into my toolkit on a permanent contract 🙂 all these ideas have been simmering for a while now and it is excellent to have the opportunity to see the children engaging and responding to text in this unique way.
Have you used the educator account? Apparently you can make class logins and create a sort of community page.
I think I’ll try this with my high school students.
How does it compare to Sharedcopy?
Hi Corey – thanks for the questions.
Do the students use my account? – I have created a class account that we use, keeping my private one separate.
Can groups of students look at different texts? – Yes, there is absolutely no limit to what you can view. Although you clearly have to add notes etc to a page to get the most from the tool.
Does this get confusing if they are all signed in to one account? – A single login works fine with a small group of 6 or 7 (this is how I have used it in class) If the children ensure they initial their responses then you can see who has done what.
Hope this helps
I played with Diigo the other night and have some questions.
I signed up for an account. Do the students use my account?
Can groups of students look at different texts? Does this get confusing if they are all signed in to one account? The bottom line question is, I guess, should each student have an account that is somehow connected to mine or do we all log in with one username and password.