Discussions

Getting students to participate in appropriate and useful conversations in a blog format can be challenging. Here are some hints that might make it easier.

Assign students a certain character from a book and have them respond to a question. For example, in Homeless Bird, a character Koli, doesn't immediately accept Raji's marriage proposal. You could have the boys pretend to be Raji and the girls be Koli and answer the question, "Why didn't Koli accept Raji's proposal?" Then the students can make comments pretending they are the character and explaining their behavior and reaction to this twist in the plot.

Show a short video segment you download from Discovery Streaming or something and ask them to respond as a preview to a lesson--like a video that introduces China before you actually get to that unit and the question poised is, "What are you excited to do or learn in our unit on ancient China?"

Extra credit or actually counting it as points toward an assignment also helps.