GMBA -- Wiki

This wiki is designed to have students, Green Mountain Book Award committee members, librarians and teachers post their ideas on how to improve the GMBA book forums on this site in the coming year. A wiki is an "editable" (if there is such a word) document, meaning any registered user can come in, click "EDIT" at the top, make changes or additions in the "BODY" and then click "SUBMIT" at the very bottom to update the piece. If that fails, just leave a comment.

Young Writers Project worked with the Green Mountain Book Award committee in 2007/08 to set up interactive student forums, book summaries and study guides to help high school students read and discuss these great books.

We had about 140+ posts, which is pretty good, but there are a number of things we could do to improve the project in the coming school year.

We've set it up in two categories, but feel free to add more or to expand on any listed. And don't worry much if you are both stating a problem and a solution; put it in whatever category you feel like:

Problems in 2007/08

• Signing up. Some students complained that it was difficult to sign up. YWP initially activated all accounts manually and sent an email to users when accounts were activated. TWO PROBLEMS: Students aren't using email much these days; activation link was good only for 24 hours.
• Not enough student participation at the beginning. Students are like adults -- they're more apt to swim in a pond if there are people swimming in it already.
• More publicity needed. We're not sure how many teachers knew about the GMBA book forums.
• School participation issues. Some librarians reported that it was difficult to get buy-in from teachers. Why?

Suggestions for 2008/09

• Make sign-up easier. YWP has already altered its method of sign-up. Students can now sign up right away and YWP then double-checks each new account. If all information isn't accurate, the account is blocked.
• Email alerts when there is a response to a post would help (something social networking sites allow). Advantages: 1) knowing when a particular book is being discussed, thereby being able to follow (or contribute to) the discussion, 2) knowing if a book is not being discussed, and therefore being able to find a student to prompt a discussion, or doing so oneself.(Kathy Q.J.)
• School and Public Librarians should put a link from their web pages to Young Writers Project so that students are just a click away from adding a comment. That way they don't have to remember the URL. (marsha m.)
• Students who write comments seem to like to see responses from their teacher or librarian, so after promoting the discussion site, the teachers and librarians should frequently check in to the site. (marsha m.)
• If there were one or two kids who were also checking in on the discussions and acknowledging contributions that might encourage others to participate. ... (skearns)
• My own teaching days are way behind me, but I could see myself working with students to integrate participation in the discussion as a "project" that might be evaluated and/or given credit for, like any other writing project. It would not be "formal" writing and clearly should not be treated as such, but it could be like an informal writing project such as a journal.
  (skearns)