If Wegener Could Tweet

My 8th graders have been working their way through a chapter on plate tectonics.  Over the summer I saw an idea on Pinterest that has students write tweets about the subject they're studying - just another way of getting students to summarize what they've learned.  I decided last week to take a slightly different approach.. :) ...

So the day after we talked about Alfred Wegener's continental drift hypothesis, my students' bellwork as they entered the classroom was:

If Wegener had had access to Twitter, what do you think he might have tweeted?  Pick up a Post-It note from one of the tables around the room and write down your idea.  (For example, The continents are moving! #imnotcrazy)

I have a few 8th graders who it turns out are unfamiliar with Twitter, but most of them were pretty excited about this challenge!  Here are a few of their responses:

The land used to all be one piece. #true#don'tjudgeme

Nobody believes my hypothesis. #yolo

The continents all fit together. #nojoke

The land is like a puzzle.  You try to connect them! #puzzle#trythechallenge

I didn't have all of the students share with the whole class.  Rather, I broke them up into small groups of 3-4 students, and asked them to pick their favorite tweet out of the group to share with the class.  This is a great way to not take up the whole period, yet still be able to hear several students' ideas.

I can see myself working this in one or two more times during the year, but it's also something that I don't want to overuse at the risk of losing the excitement. (But I guess that's really true of any activity, right?!)

Rachel