Friday, January 22, 2010

Tween Tribune






I introduced Tween Tribune to my class last week and was blown away by how engaged they were.
TweenTribune offers teachers and students an opportunity to read high interest news stories about everyday people from around the world.  Introduced in such an appealing way, Tribune stories are interesting to middle schoolers and are a great way to get students to read newspaper articles—and then to hear them comment. 

After reading the stories, the students are able to post a response.

Students log on in a very safe manner and are able to access TweenTribune at home. I’m able to check the blogs before they are published and able to print them.   

My students were sharing stories with each other and having a great time writing a response. They are proud to be published writers. I introduced this website on Thursday and many students logged in at home over the weekend! 

The responses have to be at least 25 words.  At first students were unhappy with that number, but as they started to respond, they realized how easy it was to accomplish.  Students came in the next day and asked if we’re going to read new stories again. 


In response to the article, “Suspended over long hair. Is it fair?” Korie posted: I don't think that it is fair that a four year old would get suspended for having long hair. There are students in my middle school with hair longer hair than him that don't get in trouble for it.


I recommend this site to all teachers.  The students are engaged and they are reading and writing at the same time.  Check it out: http://tweentribune.com/.


11 comments:

  1. Way to go Tina! Good to see you on here:)

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  2. What a great way to integrate reader response in a way that engages students & is aligned with their preferred style of communication, i.e. technology. This is a winning combination!

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  3. I love this idea Mrs. Wolfer. You are truly an inspiration. I'd like to know how to set up something like a "response to art blog." Could you please e-mail me regarding how to get started? Thanks! Mrs. Mountel

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  4. Hey Tina! Amy Condrey here. I'm now a teacher at CNE high school and your blog was distributed here. I am interested to read more. I've always been impressed by your creative ways to engage the kids. Miss you all!

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  5. Just wanted to say great job. You do a lot for your kids and it is nice to see you getting this attention. Keep up the good work.

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  6. I introduced this site to my students yesterday. I have been trying to find a good site with current events that my students would want to read. IT worked! They had to find at least one article and connect it to the Constitution which we are currently studying. Many of my students even got on last night. I would strongly recommend it for Social Studies. Thanks for sharing!!

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  7. These are fantastic. I teach special needs kids so these are stories that are short yet interesting and will get my students interested in reading news. I really love it!

    Beth
    Houston, TX

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  8. How do you set up a blog just for your students to respond to and what do you do about kids with out computers? So you assign the news stories as homework, right? This is a great idea and something I would love to try. You may have to offer a crash course in how you set it up. Great job!
    K. Hatch
    Bloomfield, NM

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  9. http://tweentribune.com/teachers

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  10. Sounds like a great idea. I'll have to let my teacher know how you've worked this into your classes. Hopefully my classmates will get fired up about it. Im kinda beta testing this site for our teacher Mr.Metcalf at St.Micheal Albertville knights academy here in Minnesota. Any response or ideas thrown back would be great!

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  11. hi I'm in 5th grade and i don't think my teacher would approve of tween tribune. I like it but how do i get my teacher to?
    -vv

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