Here a first-grade teacher in Israel talks about DIALLS Lesson 6 – the first of five synchronous online discussions with another first-grade class from another Israeli school.
In preparation for the lesson, the children were very excited about contacting another school. They were eagerly waiting for the other class to send us their “cultural artefacts” – this is the artwork the children create each lesson, based on the cultural theme of that lesson – for us to discuss and compare with our own. When we received the artefacts, the children enjoyed going over them together and responding to them. We have instructed them to think about what is the same and what is different in theirs and the other class’s artefacts.
In both classes in both schools there was so much excitement that the children did not want to stop the discussion between them and the other class. While the children spoke, we, the teachers, corresponded through the DIALLS online platform which allows us to talk to other classes. Each of the teachers typed her pupils’ remarks. The other class teacher typed in what was said by her pupils during the discussion and what they thought about our artefacts. I read the feedback to my pupils and we commented together.
The children in both classes expressed their desire to continue delivering artafects to each other.
I, as a teacher, enjoyed the collaboration very much. I think this is a step up in this most wonderful project.
I would like to share that I happened to meet this week the mother of one of my pupils, and she told me that her daughter comes home with many impressions and stories about the project. The child says she enjoys the videos, the books and the shared discourse.
This week we continue with great enthusiasm for us and the children towards lesson 8 and we are confident that it will also be an interesting and enjoyable lesson for our pupils and for us.
Here are some of our artefacts:
