Using Blended Learning (Online & Offline) in Pre-Writing Activities

The goal of this lesson is to introduce blended learning and digital media into the social studies classroom. While the introduction of tech-infused classrooms brought with it a sense that technology could replace all unplugged paper and pencil activities, it is increasingly clear that a more middle path would be best. This lesson combines workshop style classrooms with strong teacher coaching, alternating between tech-driven activities and those driven by peer and teacher interaction offline. Often times even the tech-driven activities are designed to give teachers an opportunity for more individualized student attention.This lesson is for a middle school social studies classroom but has pre-writing elements that could be used in high school and in any subject area. The unique context of this unit is understanding how to analyze and critique the structure of gender in different cultures. In this seventh grade class, we look at chivalry in feudal Europe and the role of women in Japan’s Heian Court. Furthermore, this particular 7th grade class is an English Language Acquisition (ELA) learners. The blended learning of digital media with offline activities is not topical but has wide-ranging applicability to many curricula. This lesson is broken into online and one offline sessions. As students conduct research, read and annotate together, learn about the new genre of Open Letters, and are initiated into the project of applying what they learned in their unit study to the writing project, including annotating our tried and true writing rubric to account for the particulars of the new genre and their own individual writing goals, they work online. As students brainstorm, offer each other suggestions for details to include in their writing, select the subject of their writing, organize their thoughts into an outline they work offline. For self-assessments, peer-assessments, and submitting pre-writing thesis statements, outlines and body paragraphs for immediate teacher feedback, students use online tools.