BackChanneling

In New Mexico my inquiry instructor, Kristin Ziemke, taught me a lot about using technology with first graders.

She taught me about backchanneling and I decided to try it out with Room 408.  We used the site TodaysMeet and set up a safe chatroom for Room 408 to post our comments and thinking for all to read.

We started by greeting others and introducing ourselves as we logged into TodaysMeet (only students from Room 408 were in the chatroom).  Then we practiced what it will look like when we back channel while reading a book, by reading Just One Bite. (Thank you, Jen Burton!)

The book was full of interesting facts about life-sized bites of animals.  In response to the book, we posted our thinking on TodaysMeet for the whole class to see.  For the next month you can access our 'Just One Bite' TodaysMeet chatroom here.  The comments in the beginning were our practice greetings, next we posted our favorite color(s), and finally we posted our responses to the book. We practiced stretching out words so others can read our writing, and also got to read the thoughts and comments of others.  

What was your favorite thing about backchanneling?