Yesterday, during my Reform Symposium presentation on the use of backchannels in the classroom there were some questions about the appropriateness of backchannels for elementary schools. Having not been in an elementary school since I was an elementary school student, I referred the audience to some resources that I thought were appropriate for that age group. I also mentioned Silvia Tolisano’s work with using backchannels in the fifth grade.

This morning when I checked my Twitter account and found that Ira Socol had sent me a link to a great blog post about using backchannels in the first grade. That post written by Aviva Dunsiger includes an explanation of how she used Today’s Meet with her students. The post also includes her reflections on how the students communications changed as they spent more time using Today’s Meet.

If you’re an elementary school teacher wondering if using a backchannel chat is appropriate for your students or you’re not sure how to implement its use, please check out Silvia’s post and Aviva’s post on the topic.