I have been using Discussion Boards with success in the Honors/AP courses for the past couple of years. I have not used them with the non honors. So I spent some time earlier this week (because I thought I was going to get to it today in class) putting together directions for the Discussion Board and a question post. The topic is on the Age of Exploration. They watched episode 2 of Guns, Germs, and Steel about the encounter of Pizarro and the Incas and will read the Requerimiento. I created one Discussion Board for both sections and will allow them to respond to someone not in their section or in their section. I am not sure how the cross section response is going to go, but I thought it would add another dimension for students to hear from someone they have not been in class with all year.
What site are you using for the discussion boards? Do you have criteria for the students? Ex: Being respectful, no put downs etc? I like the idea of them being able to connect to one another outside the classroom. I use Edmodo and the students really like reading other posts and reading what others think. Let me know who it goes.
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