Backchat

Talking about books with other teachers and their classes around

the country

What is a backchat?

• Online discussion• Book selected by the co-ordinator• Different titles available aimed at different class

levels• Takes place over a four week period• Co-ordinator posts a question about the book

each week• Participants can view each others responses

What a backchat isn’t…

• Not primarily about ICT - the book is the real focus

• Online environment opens up the forum - benefit of another teacher’s thinking, both in questions posted and in responses from participants

How the backchat process works in my classroom

• Example: Guji-Guji by Chih-Yuan Chen

• Other titles are available, suitable for a range of age groups from Y1 to Y9

• The start date is specified on the website

Day One of the Backchat

• The co-ordinator emails the first challenge. This always asks the class or group to introduce themselves.

• Ideally the children should be able to see and read the co-ordinator’s post from the website

• data projector• large screen monitor• enlarged print-out

Guji-Guji Introduction• This is how the request for the children to introduce

themselves was put this time:• But first – we need to get to know each other. Tell us

something about yourself, your school or your kindergarten. Just use your first name – on the internet, that’s all we need. If you have a favourite picture book right now, tell us about that too – at Karori West, we’re always looking for great books that we can read over and over!

I look forward to reading all about you,Have a happy week,Janice :)

Options for responding

• On the spot drafting - lead by teacher, text entered by teacher

• Individual responses by children - not recommended, look at examples to see why

• Brainstorm on paper, teacher post response based on children’s ideas

• Brainstorm using Kidspiration or Inspiration, children work in pairs to draft a section of the response.

Planning and writing our class introduction

• Opportunity to reflect on identifying features of class and school - what kind of place their school is and what things are happening that they think are important.

• It also gives the teacher feedback on how the children perceive the school, class and the programme

• Geography lesson! - use the map, learn how to describe where in New Zealand we are.

The Kidspiration Mind Map

Room 2 at Kaipara Flats Sch.jpgNext step: use the writing tool in

Kidspiration and set the children to work in pairs to expand these ideas using the keywords from the brainstorm.

Completed as an independent reading activity in the normal reading rotation.

Room 2 at Kaipara Flats 2.doc

Next steps: Posting the response on the internet

• Collate

• Copy and paste from the Word Document. (able to save in Word from Kidspiration)

• Give the children opportunity to see their response on the screen.

Beginning the dialogue…

• I don’t think we spent any time looking at what other classes had written at this stage. (I find the children are most interested in reading about themselves!)

• The children were interested in Janice’s response to their introduction.

The Book and the Discussion• During the first week we

read Guji-Guji several times so we were well ready for the challenge in the second week which follows:

• Ata Marie Guji Guji Backchatters!

It's lovely to read that so many of you are enjoying this book. Every time I read it, I see something new to enjoy in the illustrations. More about them later...right now, let's talk about Guji Guji, the "crocoduck". Why do you think he feels he belongs to the duck family? What words would you use to describe his character?

Kidspiration Character Web• Once again, I used

Kidspiration as a thinking tool. I wanted the children to use the text and illustrations to justify their ideas.

• The important development at this stage was looking at the responses from other classes.

• One class in particular, had very thoughtful answers and had answered the question I had neglected about why Guji-Guji felt he belonged in the duck family.

Evidence of how well children can think

• Rimu 7 describe Guji Guji as...• Brave, clever, a very fast learner, helpful to his family, kind, a

confident thinker, a great planner, strong, caring, a clever trickster, loyal to his Duck family

• We think Guji Guji belongs to the Duck family because...

the Ducks respect and accept him even though he is different.

when he sees his reflection he always sees a duck shape.

Mother Duck was the first grown up he ever saw when his egg cracked open and she bought him up with her family.

his egg ended up in Mother Ducks nest with out her noticing.

because he has a yellow snout and the ducks have yellow beaks.

Impact on my class and my professional learning

• This response had a direct impact on the children and we took the time to give the Rimu 7 class feedback.

• We talked about how we had noticed Guji Guji’s duck reflection but hadn’t made the link to thinking how that showed Guji Guji’s sense of belonging to the duck family. The themes in this picture book are relevant to the children and thought provoking.

Other Developments• Lumsden Kindergarten -

transcribed discussion, another response option

• Feedback from NZ publisher

4 year olds are great thinkers!• Kia Ora everyone,• WOW, is everyone else just LOVING this book. Our Lumsden

group think it is just lovely.• We had a lot of fun and interesting discussion about the question

Janice gave us and you will see by our answers that we did a little bit of pondering on it too!

• Firstly we talked about him thinking he was a duck;• Jacob; "He just thinks he's a duck cause he doesn't know he

looks like a crocodile."• Harry; "Yeah, cause he rolled in the nest."• Rach; "But Guji Guji thinks he's a duck cause he lives with the

ducks."• Joshua; "But he's not a duck but he is now cause he rolled and

rolled and rolled into the ducks place."

• We then started discussing Guji Guji's attributes;• Harry; "He's a really good swimmer."• Matilda; "He's good at bike riding and he's really good

at saving the ducks."• Henry; "He loves ducks cause they're nice."• Grace; "He's nice cause he saved the ducks."• Josh; "He's nice cause he thinks he's a duck that's

why he's nice. But if he lived with the crocodiles he'd be mean."

• Hmmmm, this question really had our 4 year olds thinking, which is great. We can't wait to see what Janice will have us pondering over next week. Until then,

• Ka Kite.

The reply continues the dialogue…

• Janice Jones says:• Kia ora everyone at Lumsden Kindergarten,• What clever four year olds you all are, to have such a

thoughtful discussion about this book. Josh, your idea really got me thinking - if Guji Guji had grown up with the other crocodiles, would he be mean too? I wonder what our other book back chatters think about that question...

• I'm soo glad that you are all LOVING this book - it really is one of my absolute favourites!

• Ka kite ano,• Janice

Feedback from NZ publisher

• Tena koutou katoa,• I had a lovely email from Julia Marshall this

week, the NZ publisher of Guji Guji.• She LOVED the discussion you've all had

about Guji Guji, and thought that your attention to the detail in the illustrations has been "just extraordinary"! You have pointed out things - like the blue and yellow crocodile snouts - and talked so cleverly about their significance that Julia has been "blown away"!

An example of children’s attention to detail in the illustrations

• When Guji Guji met the Crocodiles, the string that is normally tied to the front of the duck had changed to the back of the toy duck. We think that it shows that the toy duck is scared of the crocodiles. We know this because after the crocodiles had gone the toy turned back to face Guji Guji and the string was back at the front of the duck. This showed that the duck was scared of the bad crocodiles but not of Guji Guji.

How can teachers access a backchat?

• The website address for backchats is: http://english.unitecnology.ac.nz/bookchat/

Barriers?

• Large screen monitor, data projector definitely an advantage

Book not in the school library?

• Go to: www.rodneylibraries.govt.nz

• So far every book I’ve needed has been available from one of the Rodney libraries.

• After requesting the book from the library, I order through a bookseller.

Just one more thing to fit in?

• Replace shared book for the four weeks

• Incorporate the response activities into reading rotation (e.g. Kidspiration writing activity)

In summary…• Book Backchats are a

wonderful opportunity to explore literature and to develop thinking skills.

• For both the children and myself as a teacher, it takes us into a bigger forum and enables us to make connections to the world beyond our classroom and small rural community.