Kids have always had a special understanding of monsters. They sense them under beds and in closets, and occasionally catch a brief glimpse. Monsters have the reputation of tormenting young people, but recently, monsters helped local 5th graders improve the writing process.
Students participated in the Monster Exchange – a collaborative project where students draw a monster and share the descriptive writings with other students who have never seen the original drawing. They recreate the monster based solely on the description supplied by the artist. Once redrawn, both images are posted to the web for comparsion. Since the 4th graders aren’t quite finished, just scroll down to see the 5th grade monsters!
We took this activity to the next level today when we video conferenced with the mystery classroom.
Students had the oportunity to meet each other and discuss the writing techniques that were helpful in the redrawing process.

They had positive comments and helpful suggestions for each other. Attention to detail and proof reading were the suggestions that the students mentioned most frequently. In the end, they all agreed that they would write differently the next time and that they’d like to collaborate again. The students generated a list of topics that they might want to write about next time and plan to vote on the topics once they are posted to a wiki.
The Monster Exchange is just one example of how teachers can bring 21st century literacies into their classrooms. If you think you’d like to give this type of project a shot, email me and we’ll get you started!