Students in Mrs. Schmid's 7th grade English class used a shared Google doc to retell and react to the story of Orpheus and Eurydice through tweets and hashtags. In addition to sharing their knowledge of the story (paraphrasing), students could also question, reflect, and – at the end – synthesize what they've learned. Other guidelines included:
- Use your initials and a colon before each tweet.
- Each partner should write between 5-10 entries.
- Check length - be sure it is 140 characters or less.
- Hashtags must be abstract adjectives or abstract nouns which directly relate to the concrete actions and characters just mentioned in the part of the story you are paraphrasing.
- Put all hashtags in bold.
This lesson took the traditional book report and made it relevant and engaging for students by connecting it with a popular form of social media. In addition, Twitter's 140 character limit reinforces students' skills with condensed and impactful writing.
