Take a look at one of the cool things that is going on in an elementary iLearn (Moodle) class in the district!
At McCollough/Unis, students in Rola Harb’s 5th grade used iLearn(Moodle) to discuss the indentured servant system and whether they felt the system was fair. First, the students learned about the indentured servant system in a previous social studies lesson. Then, using the Forum module in iLearn(Moodle), they made a discussion post stating whether they agreed that the system was fair or disagreed that it wasn’t. After all the students posted their opinions, they had to go back and choose two posts to reply to. They were given the sentence stem, “I agree with you because—” or “I disagree with you because–“. Last, they had to go back and read everyone’s posts and replies to hear different opinions and reasons on the topic.
After the posting was complete, students then completed a writing assignment using the Assignment module. They used the information gathered from the discussion forum to support their opinions. This activity covered social studies GLCEs as well as CCSS in Language Arts.
This activity was the first iLearn(Moodle) experience for this particular class. The students were engaged and motivated, and very positive about not only the experience of using an online classroom, but also the activity itself! One student remarked that he liked being able to read everyone’s thoughts, and it helped him change his opinion on the subject by reading what others said because he hadn’t thought of some of the ideas expressed.
If you would like more information on how to use iLearn in your classroom, contact one of the district Tech Coaches! We would love to help!