Powerful Learning: Engaging Students with Authentic Reources and Social Media

Bailing on my lesson plan - today was one of those days - and I'm so glad I did! The result was an engaging learning experience, with students connecting with authentic resources and social media. I am fortunate to teach in a 1:1 classroom which allowed for this change in plans.

I felt compelled to change my plans for class after listening to NPR on the way to work and hearing some of the latest news from Venezuela.  The segment included news of the anniversary of Hugo Chavez' death sparking a new wave of protests, and a new way that social media is impacting social change.  There is a new app, Zello, that allows users to send anonymous voice messages. It turns out that it is the number one downloaded app in both Venezuela and Ukraine.  It is being used to organize strong participation in protests without fear of repercussion.

This news seemed too important not to share and engage my students with, just to stay on track with our AP essay! So, I started class by telling my students about the news I had listening to, and they seemed very interested.  Many of my students don't understand all of this news (understandably - it is very complex), but I was very taken with the questions they asked. We had a brief discussion about how the news of both countries connects to the themes of our curriculum.  For example:  Science and Technology - social media impacting social change;  Global Challenges - political instability, economic instability and inquality, political corruption, etc.  Connecting to these themes through current events is so much more meaningful for the students than using the textbooks!

After a brief whole-class discussion, I gave the students ten minutes to surf the web to find an article, video, and/or twitter feeds to read or listen to.  I suggested a few sources, but encouraged students to experiment with their own means of investigating.  I was really taken with how engaged they were, and the fascinating discoveries that they were eager to share with the class.  I learned with them and I was so inspired.  Here are some examples:

• One student read tweets from Ukraine by using the hashtag #ucrania.  She saw powerful images of protests, political cartoons, along with real-time tweets, all in Spanish. We noticed how photos from protests in Ukraine and in Venezuela looked so similar:  incredibly crowded streets and bold flag displays.

• One student found a photo gallery of powerful images from Venezuela. For example, a photo of a lone person in an alley in front of a grafitti covered wall that said "Chavez asesino."

• One student decided to search for the Twitter feed of President Maduro! She was fascinated and very interested in sharing the images of anti-American sentiment, the political cartoons, and Maduro's tweets of homage to Chavez.

After their investigation, students shared their discoveries with each other in small group conversations, and then with the whole class using Apple TV.  They shared interesting insights.  One student said, "Sra., I think it is very ironic, Russia just hosted the Olympics, and now they are invading Ukraine!"

Bailing on my lesson plan was the best thing I did today!  My students really led a good portion of the learning and they taught me; we all left class having connected with meaningful insight on some complex issues, and ALL of it in the target language!  (And, of course, we'll get right back to our AP essay tomorrow!)