Before we begin our reading of "The Skin I'm In", you will be completing an Internet Workshop to help increase your knowledge of the author, Sharon G. Flake. For this activity, you will be responsible for locating two specific websites and finding interesting facts about Sharon G. Flake to share with the class. Use the websites given below to begin. Keep your responses in your Internet Journal and bring to class on Friday for our workshop. As always, be smart and safe!
1. Go to http://www.sharongflake.com/ and click on the "bio" tab to find out why she writes books about young adults.
2. Now click on the "4U" tab and tell how her message makes you feel as a young adult.
3. How many books has Flake written?
4. Now go to www.nypl.org/author-chat-sharon-g-flake to read the text from an Author Chat with Sharon G. Flake. What inspired Flake to create Maleeka Madison?
5. What advice does Flake give about teenagers interested in writing a story?
6. After researching Sharon G. Flake, are you excited, semi-excxited, not at all excited to read "The Skin I'm In"? Why or why not?
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As an English teacher, reading novels is an important part of the curriculum but rarely do we provide students with background knowledge about the author to specifc themes presented in the novels. We tell them we are reading a novel because 'we have to', or 'I said so' when we should be saying, 'I cannot wait for us to read this novel' or "This is one of my favorite novels and I cannot wait to share it with you'. Utilizing an Internet Workshop is a “simple way to integrate the Internet into the curriculum” and to focus student use of the Internet on important information” (Leu, Leu, & Coiro, 2004, p. 106). Today's students use technology on a recreational level, but focusing their attention with specific structured activities can help prepare them to devleop critical literacies to participate in a “highly competitive global economy” (Leu et al., 2004, p. 105). Leu (2004) explained that Internet Workshop is a powerful instructional method because it supports collaborative skills by sharing and exchanging information about a topic, provides strategies for navigating information on the Internet, further enhances content knowledge. The instructional framework of Internet Workshop integrates the new literacies of the Internet, such as evaluating Internet sites and information, that are "essential" to our students success in this information age (Leu et al., 2004, p. 99). Internet Workshops have the ability to transcend literacy learning because we can "thoughtfully guide students' learning within information environments that are richer and more complex" (Leu et al., 2004, p. 99). Students can still use the library and traditional methods of researching information, but incorporating the Internet supports the acquistion of new literacies (critical thinking and evaluating information) and the social construct "requires us to learn from one another since no single person can be expected to know everything that exists" (Leu et al., 2004, p. 105). Teachers and students need to work together to figure out how to take advantage of such expertise provided by the Internet.
The Internet Workshop works especially well in classrooms where the students are already part of a workshop approach. You raise some interesting points about our interactions with students during our teaching.
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