Key
Pals
Uses for key
pals in the classroom
Key pals
are a great way for collaboration to take place in a classroom that involves
communicating with people (other students and experts) outside of their own
school environment. Here are a list of five ways to
incorporate the use of key pals in the classroom for students in grades 6-8:
Partner research
In this activity, the teacher would
set up a learning environment in which one class would partner with another
class in a different school (local or abroad – but far enough that they
wouldn’t get together physically). Each student would be given a partner
from the buddy school. The pair would be given an assignment and they would
work together, through emailing to locate information and compile the project.
Gathering information
In this activity, students can email
others from different regions in order to gather necessary information about
that specific location. For instance, if a student is doing research in
As a class project to learn about a
specific topic, students can research and gather questions that they have about
that topic and then send those questions to a professional in the field of
interest. This would be best done as a class, since 20 emails to one person on
the same topic would be overwhelming. It is important to note that the
professional selected must be a part of a program that allows for these
conversations, or has otherwise said that he/she is willing to take part in the
activity.
Questions
This is a great way for students in
the class to become familiar with how emailing is effective in schools and
basically in EVERYTHING now!! Compile a class email list, including the
teacher’s own email and suggest this as a means of communicating when out
of class. Here, students can ask homework questions, or nagging concerns. To
ensure the success of this emailing opportunity, students need to be regularly
checking their email (at least nightly) in order for this to work.
Write to politicians
As a part of a social studies unit
on government, students can find a topic of interest and select a politician to
write a persuasive email to in order to state their opinions and give a call to
action. It would be fun to see which politician respond!
Project sites –
Here are two great sites that can be used for a projects
involving the use of key pals:
I really liked this site because it
is an easy way for students to connect with an expert in the field. I liked
that it gave a clear, concise step by step of how to connect with the expert and
use the site. View it at: http://www.askanexpert.com/
This site is a great resource for
teachers. Here, they can “advertise” for key pal opportunities and
connect with other teachers trying to accomplish the same tasks. View it at:
http://www.epals.com/