Sending text messages is another form of writing that students are engaged in. You can ask them to tell you what text messages a character in one of their books would send. When teaching about different audiences, the children can "text to an audience". For example, have the students give you a text message to the president, to the principal, to their best friend, to you, and to their parents. You can teach persuasive and expository texts.
Yodio can also be utilized by your students. They can create online responses to questions and assignments that you give them. This can be a very effective assessment tool.
Yodio is a Web 2.0 tool that records what a student says when they call a Yodio on their cell phones. It can be found at www.yodio.com. If you need help with how it works, ask your students. They will love that they can be a technology expert! Then have the students who have experience with Yodio help others in the class to become comfortable with the tool.
Possible Concerns:
- Students will text each other instead of listening: Go over your expectations before they take out their cell phones. The first time a child abuses the privilege, he must put his phone away.
- Not every child will have a cell phone in class. If you feel comfortable with this, let students use your cell phone. If there are too many students who need to use your cell phone, there can be optional cell phone assignments. For example, students can either turn in a written sentence or send it as a text message.
If you have any comment, questions, or suggestions, please let me know.
