"social media" English homework

[Anonymous]

Haven’t there been recent congressional hearings on the harm that social media is doing to our youth?? Could these school assignments have been submitted as evidence of the pervasive cultural sway that social media has on our society, to the extent that ELEMENTARY SCHOOL teachers are incorporating into their lesson plans?? How can we wean our teenagers off of social media where we’re normalizing it and even teaching how to use it within our elementary schools? This is unreal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m a middle school English teacher. I sometimes have my students write pretend Tweets or Instagram captions where they pretend to be the character of the book we’re reading.

Oh, boy!

[Anonymous]

To the English teacher, I completely defend you. Writing a Tweet from a character’s point of view is a great comprehension activity. My middle schooler isn’t on Twitter or any social media but obviously knows what a Tweet is.

To the parents complaining… this media is out there, and while kids shouldn’t have social media accounts, they should have a degree of literacy surrounding it so that they can consume it critically.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To the English teacher, I completely defend you. Writing a Tweet from a character’s point of view is a great comprehension activity. My middle schooler isn’t on Twitter or any social media but obviously knows what a Tweet is.

To the parents complaining… this media is out there, and while kids shouldn’t have social media accounts, they should have a degree of literacy surrounding it so that they can consume it critically.

First teach kids a bunch of facts, then teach them logic, then we can worry about understanding social media's ins-and-outs when they're in early high school and old enough to need to understand it.

[Anonymous]

I think it's great to meet kids where they are to engage them, but I don't like expecting them to do work based on a bad habit.

Teachers, please,. Be inclusive and offer reasonable choices:


Submit a page of text in one of the following forms, or a similar one of your own design, expressing a conversation between these two characters.
* a spoken dialogue
* a Twitter exchange
* back and forth notes passed in a school class.
* Google docs comments chat


Create a picture and write a paragraph caption, in style similar to one of these:
* an Instagram post
* a photo print with a description
* framed gallery art with a placard.
* a book front and back cover

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it's great to meet kids where they are to engage them, but I don't like expecting them to do work based on a bad habit.

Teachers, please,. Be inclusive and offer reasonable choices:


Submit a page of text in one of the following forms, or a similar one of your own design, expressing a conversation between these two characters.
* a spoken dialogue
* a Twitter exchange
* back and forth notes passed in a school class.
* Google docs comments chat


Create a picture and write a paragraph caption, in style similar to one of these:
* an Instagram post
* a photo print with a description
* framed gallery art with a placard.
* a book front and back cover

My kids utterly hate assignments like this. They want clear instructions on one style of writing so they can improve their skills in that style. They don't want a menu of options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I tell the kids teachers and principal at the start of the year that my kids don't do homework as long as their test grades stay at an A. They will do group projects but that's it until 6th grade. If they were asked to do social media homework in 6th grade I'd email the teacher and let them know how detrimental social media is to young kids developing minds, include some studies and say I hope in the future they will pick more appropriate assignments but I've excused my kid from this one.

Oh my.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To the English teacher, I completely defend you. Writing a Tweet from a character’s point of view is a great comprehension activity. My middle schooler isn’t on Twitter or any social media but obviously knows what a Tweet is.

To the parents complaining… this media is out there, and while kids shouldn’t have social media accounts, they should have a degree of literacy surrounding it so that they can consume it critically.

Teach them to write a proper email or letter, but many elementary school kids aren’t on social media.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's great to meet kids where they are to engage them, but I don't like expecting them to do work based on a bad habit.

Teachers, please,. Be inclusive and offer reasonable choices:


Submit a page of text in one of the following forms, or a similar one of your own design, expressing a conversation between these two characters.
* a spoken dialogue
* a Twitter exchange
* back and forth notes passed in a school class.
* Google docs comments chat


Create a picture and write a paragraph caption, in style similar to one of these:
* an Instagram post
* a photo print with a description
* framed gallery art with a placard.
* a book front and back cover

My kids utterly hate assignments like this. They want clear instructions on one style of writing so they can improve their skills in that style. They don't want a menu of options.

Do they really need to improve tweeting skills?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's great to meet kids where they are to engage them, but I don't like expecting them to do work based on a bad habit.

Teachers, please,. Be inclusive and offer reasonable choices:


Submit a page of text in one of the following forms, or a similar one of your own design, expressing a conversation between these two characters.
* a spoken dialogue
* a Twitter exchange
* back and forth notes passed in a school class.
* Google docs comments chat


Create a picture and write a paragraph caption, in style similar to one of these:
* an Instagram post
* a photo print with a description
* framed gallery art with a placard.
* a book front and back cover

My kids utterly hate assignments like this. They want clear instructions on one style of writing so they can improve their skills in that style. They don't want a menu of options.

Do they really need to improve tweeting skills?

No. But nor do they need to work on their Google Docs comments, Instagram captions, art gallery placards, or school note-passing skills.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's great to meet kids where they are to engage them, but I don't like expecting them to do work based on a bad habit.

Teachers, please,. Be inclusive and offer reasonable choices:

Submit a page of text in one of the following forms, or a similar one of your own design, expressing a conversation between these two characters.
* a spoken dialogue
* a Twitter exchange
* back and forth notes passed in a school class.
* Google docs comments chat

Create a picture and write a paragraph caption, in style similar to one of these:
* an Instagram post
* a photo print with a description
* framed gallery art with a placard.
* a book front and back cover

My kids utterly hate assignments like this. They want clear instructions on one style of writing so they can improve their skills in that style. They don't want a menu of options.

Meanwhile my kids would love that. They love the opportunity to decide which direction to take their creativity in, and aren't so rigid that they need only one style of an assignment given.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When the school assigns homework to write some content in the style of social media posts, but your kids don't know how because they don't use social media... what do they do?

Eh, so show your kids the Instagram or Twitter account of something like NPR or the NYT. At bottom, that sounds like a lesson in impactful and concise writing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's great to meet kids where they are to engage them, but I don't like expecting them to do work based on a bad habit.

Teachers, please,. Be inclusive and offer reasonable choices:


Submit a page of text in one of the following forms, or a similar one of your own design, expressing a conversation between these two characters.
* a spoken dialogue
* a Twitter exchange
* back and forth notes passed in a school class.
* Google docs comments chat


Create a picture and write a paragraph caption, in style similar to one of these:
* an Instagram post
* a photo print with a description
* framed gallery art with a placard.
* a book front and back cover

My kids utterly hate assignments like this. They want clear instructions on one style of writing so they can improve their skills in that style. They don't want a menu of options.

Speak for yourself. My kids and most of their classmates and parents love it when teachers are flexible with these creative assignments. All these projects are such a pain in the arse as it is.

I'd pick group chat with literary characters.

[Anonymous]

I’m a high school teacher with elementary aged children. These assignments don’t bother me. I’m aware they aren’t the only tasks students are doing, and I know they are aligned to various standards. A Twitter assignment asking for a character’s perspective is likely addressing a standard other than writing. The teacher is likely addressing point of view or indirect characterization. I’m sure another assignment will address writing standards (sentence types, paragraph construction, etc).

I also trust that the elementary teachers know more about writing development at that age than I do. I work with high school seniors, so that assignment clearly wouldn’t work in my class. But I can see the value at a younger age, and I can see why short snippets make sense if accessing reading skills and not writing skills.

As for the social media connection, it isn’t difficult to look at a sample (even printed out) to see the purpose. Even if the children don’t have social media, like my own kids, they can get the purpose: online communication that illustrates personality, etc.

Let’s give teachers the professional respect they deserve.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it's great to meet kids where they are to engage them, but I don't like expecting them to do work based on a bad habit.

Teachers, please,. Be inclusive and offer reasonable choices:


Submit a page of text in one of the following forms, or a similar one of your own design, expressing a conversation between these two characters.
* a spoken dialogue
* a Twitter exchange
* back and forth notes passed in a school class.
* Google docs comments chat


Create a picture and write a paragraph caption, in style similar to one of these:
* an Instagram post
* a photo print with a description
* framed gallery art with a placard.
* a book front and back cover

I love choices!!