CommonSense Media
– Lesson Summary/Review
One of the lessons I read through on CommonSense’s website
was regarding Digital Life for Kindergarten to First Graders. It’s objective was to help students see how
emails provide a way to communicate with real people when you are not able to
be in the same room with them and then how to actually send and receive emails.
What I really enjoyed from this lesson was the idea of
having the students role play the function of the internet in delivering and
receiving an emailed message. By having
several students BE the “internet,” “the email/message,” “send” and “receive”
it gave a tangible opportunity for the understanding of an unseen concept. It allowed the students to physically be
involved in the process encouraging the retention of the ideas discussed. I remember role playing on one particular day
in my 7th grade health class.
I can’t tell you much about what I learned that year but that day is
still very clear to me and it’s been over 23 years. Students respond to doing.
After accessing the students’ background knowledge and role
playing the concept, the teacher demonstrates actually creating and sending an
email. This provides a model showing the
students how it is really done and why (for what purpose); leading to the
option of sending the same message to more than one person. Then a discussion is held on other messages
that could be sent to others within the school, then to family members, and
then to people who are in another state or country. This takes a small idea and opens the students’
minds to the expansive possibilities emailing provides them within their local
or world-wide community.
The wrap up involves a question and answer review, but in
the extension and homework section of this lesson entails asking the students
to draw their message as it is being sent through the internet – how fun! What a creative way to again reinforce an
abstract concept to young minds. For
homework students can write a message they would like to send to someone, get
their email address and either send it from home if they have a computer or
bring it to school and send it from a school computer. I can see how this would be very exciting to
students if they hadn’t already experienced emailing, or if they had, maybe the
teacher could challenge them to try sending a message to someone new.
I found this to be a fun introduction for young students to
see how digital technology can be a great tool in helping them communicate and
connect with others.
Wendy, This looks like a wonderful idea and seems ideal for a Kindergarten or first grade class. I think since this new generation of kids are so well-versed and comfortable with the internet and other online programs, that we often forget that kids need to understand the basics, the importance, the purpose and the thought process behind it. Having them explore the nature of the internet, through different means is such a creative way to have students appreciate the way communication is done in the modern world. Emailing is a great, useful and purposeful tool. I will definitely take a closer look at this site and see how I can incorporate it into my 2nd grade classroom.
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