You want to write poetry . . . in a spreadsheet?!!!

Been working with a colleague and her pupils on Haiku. The brief went as follows:

“I want the pupils to compose Haiku, but in a collaborative way, where in trios, each pupil will compose one line in each of three Haiku. I’ve always done this on paper, but it can be quite awkward so I thought ICT might be able to help.  Oh and I’d like the pupils to be able to see what the others in other trios are doing, then comment and offer suggestions on each others work.”

We began by looking at how TitanPad might be able to help with the collaborative aspects, especially given its chat facility.  On a single pad, all three pupils in a trio could be working on one line of a Haiku at the same time as their two collaborators were working on different lines in two other Haiku . . . or even in the same one!  Having finished their Haiku, they could then begin to explore other groups’ work and begin to offer suggestions for improvement using the chat window.

Here we can see how that might develop with pupils about to start the third line of each Haiku.

In addition to being able to watch each of the trios as they are working live, the Timeslider feature can be used to explore the ‘history’ of how each line of Haiku was created. Perhaps provides a partial insight into some of the correcting which takes place as pupils compose their lines.  How about if pupils had the chance to explain to others (the class?) what they were thinking when they made some of the changes we see occur as the Timeslider replays their composition?  What if they knew they might be asked to do that at the end, so were thinking about their thinking as they typed?

 

Anyway that’s all by the by because before we used this with the pupils, there was an amendment to the brief:

“Would it be possible to apply a sort of grid or framework into which the pupils type?  One of the things I want to get across is the principle of syllables; that’s something they really struggle with, so could we have a sort of . . . set of boxes in Haiku format – 1^st and 3^rd lines 5 boxes for the 5 syllables and the second line 7 boxes.”

If you’ve used EtherPad-like tools before, you’ll know that facility isn’t available, so we turned to an alternative collaborative tool – Google Docs, or more specifically Google spreadsheets.  The rows clearly provide the lines for the Haiku and the cells can provide the syllable placeholders.

In addition, each trio can have a separate sheet in which to work and there’s a messaging window available so that comments and feedback can be provided between groups.  So pupils work in the same way they would have in TitanPad, but now all trios are working within the same document on separate sheets.

In summary then:

 

If peer feedback is an important learning objective, then go with TitanPad. If the focus is on syllable structure, then Google docs.

Unless of course you think otherwise . . .