Curious about the PA AP boards-

[HollyinNNV]

I've read about the PA AP classes. They sound like great classes! I'm very interested in how the teachers utilize the message boards in these classes.

Last year I taught a lit class and asked my students to respond to literature on my blog. This actually initiated some interesting discussions online. It seemed to improve as the students figured out that they should not only respond to me, but also to each other. I'd like to replicate and improve this process in my next lit class this fall.

So, I'm basically wondering what these PA AP boards are like? Is there a requirement for participation? (once a day-certain # of words?) Are the questions open ended or specific. Do any of the teachers have good tricks for making the system work well?

TIA,
Holly in N NV

[FloridaLisa]

Well, ds has left for basketball camp so I can't get the particulars. But from what I saw, the teacher had a message board which was pretty much the same format as the PA Homeschoolers message board. She did require participation and she rankend the kids in the class. Discussion and participation definitely affected that ranking. She posted a bit, but also encouraged the students to post. In fact, from the little I saw, it looked like the kids were doing the majority of posting, but she certainly helped move the dialogue along.

My ds also used a discussion board for a Bravewriter class. The teacher (Jon Bogart) posted discussion prompts and the students all replied. He was very good about promptly replying back and asking further questions.

HTH,
Lisa

[HollyinNNV]

She did require participation and she rankend the kids in the class. Discussion and participation definitely affected that ranking. She posted a bit, but also encouraged the students to post. In fact, from the little I saw, it looked like the kids were doing the majority of posting, but she certainly helped move the dialogue along.


HTH,
Lisa

What do you mean by "ranking" the kids? Do you mean she gave grades? Or did she rank them by level of participation?

Thanks for responding Lisa!
Holly

[FloridaLisa]

Well, ds just corrected me. There was a ranking but he's not sure whether the PA Homeschooler site did that automatically based on quizzes and homework assignments or whether it was teacher-generated. Ds says the rank did not affect his grade. ????? I'd like to give you more info, but ds isn't a stickler for details and I wasn't on the site every day, especially after the class got rolling and he had a good first semester grade. The teacher did give a grade each semester, but not a ranking.

HTH,
Lisa, who corrected that glaring spelling error after seeing it quoted! :blushing: