BY TALI ISRAELI
Staff Writer
Marlboro Memorial Middle School students Komal Parhar (seated), Chris Landi (l) and Shravan Savant post their opinions about current events on the Internet as part of a class assignment. MARLBORO – Students in Ann Hannah’s eighth-grade social studies class are chatting about more than just relationships and clothes on the Internet.
Hannah, a teacher at Marlboro Memorial Middle School, Nolan Road, has given her students a unique assignment for the year. Hannah has set up a blogs in which her students may debate current events and political issues.
Conversation topics over the past few weeks have included the war in Iraq, diplomatic immunity, the 2006 election and the No Child Left Behind Act.
Twice a month Hannah chooses two students to post an Internet blog entry on any current events issue. The student who posts the blog is responsible for giving his or her interpretation of the issue while the rest of the students in the class reply to the entry. Hannah said the students are graded on the 10 steps of critical thinking.
Although the students are only required to post an entry twice a month, Hannah said many of them blog on their own about twice a week.
“This is a really sharp group and they have a lot to say about current events and I wanted to give them a forum to do that,” Hannah said.
The formal entries assigned to the students count as a quiz grade and the responses from the rest of the class count as a homework grade. Hannah said the entries the students write on their own are sometimes used for extra credit, depending on the quality of the work.
Any individual who has an account with the Web site Hannah chose is permitted to comment on the students’ entries. She said adults and youngster have responded to the students’ postings.
“To have students all across the country blogging about politics, how wonderful is that,” the teacher said. “Kids have a lot to say and if people just listen to them the world might be a better place. So many adults vote without knowing the issues and these kids know the issues and the candidates.”
Hannah said she reads the blog every day to see what the students and others visiting the Web site have posted. She noted that she has administrative control over the site so she is able to remove or block any inappropriate postings. Hannah said there are no identifying characteristics of the students or the school on the Internet site.
The project has sparked an interest in politics and currents events that some students may not have had prior to the assignment.
Chris Landi said although he watched the news before, this project allows the students the opportunity to analyze what they read and watch in the news. He added that it gives the students a chance to see what their classmates have to say about a particular issue as well.
Shravan Savant said before this assignment he thought watching the news was boring, however, now he feels more involved in what is going on in the world.
Komal Parhar said that during class discussions the students have a time limit of only 40 minutes to say what is on their minds. With the blogging, she said they have more time to think about what they read and have a chance to share all of their ideas.
Patrick Buelow added that people all around the world can see what the Marlboro students think.
Janie Gu said the blog site gives those students who are shy about speaking in front of the class the chance to speak their mind.
When asked how they felt when the project was first assigned, many of the students said they were excited about it.
Komal said blogging is a lot easier than writing a five-paragraph essay.
“We are already online all the time anyway,” she added.
Mojin Chen agreed with Komal and said although he generally does not like doing work outside of the classroom, this assignment was interesting because he enjoys using the Internet.
Several students said they get their news from reading newspapers such as The New York Times and The Star-Ledger online, while other pupils said they watch the news on CNN and shows like “Hardball.”
Shravan said he enjoys posting political cartoons on the site for people to comment on.
Chris and Alexis said although they sometimes get their news from talk shows like “The Colbert Report” and “The Daily Show,” they tend to take a topic that has been discussed on those shows and research it for more information before posting a blog entry.
“It’s comedy but it’s still about the issues,” Alexis said about “The Colbert Report.”
Many students said they benefit from reading news sources that may present different sides of an issue.
Pamela Levy said she reads different news outlets before making up her mind about a particular issue.
Kevin Wang said although his views tend to be more Democratic, sometimes reading about the issues from various sources can alter his opinions on certain topics.
Mojin, Pamela and Kevin said this assignment has made them more excited to vote and reading about different campaign issues has given them a strong opinion on how they would like the elections to turn out.
Hersh Bendre and Bhumi Kinariwala said education is a campaign issue they are interested in because it is what currently affects them the most. Other students said immigration and the war in Iraq are campaign issues they are keeping a close eye on.