After reading the article about Pen Pals or ePals, by Nancy Necora Charron, she says that "Teacher and student comments indicate that the Internet pen pal program facilitates communication through the use of authentic tasks and teaches students about different cultures. Enthusiasm generated by the program translated into student
written-language production. Special-needs students, second-language learners, and general education
students reported enjoying writing to an authentic audience. The program facilitates problem solving and supports critical thinking in written language acquisition and the social nature of learning is evident in the correspondence between pen pals" (pg. 768, 2007). Students are having an authentic audience to respond to and communicate with. The students are learning about other cultures too. This is very beneficial because many students need a purpose to write. They don't just want to write to a prompt. Having an ePal would motivate them to want to write.
I loved that article! I think it would be such a wonderful experience for children to have internet pen pals. They could learn so much! And, it could really be extended into other subject areas as well as being able to use technology for more research on the country/city where the pen pals are from.
ReplyDeleteI too enjoyed that article. It reminded me of when I taught second grade and we had pen pals with another second grade classroom. How exciting to be pen pals with students from another country as mentioned in the article. It would especially beneficial if you were studing the state or country of where the pen palss were from. It also helped with the excitement toward writing.
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