Commentary Across the States

Objective: The student will be able to use correct writing style while communicating with students from other regions of the United States.

Lesson: The first step is to find a teacher from another school that will be willing to have his/her class communicate with yours. Edmodo is an educational form of Twitter that I have found very safe and useful for many levels of lesson preparation and communication.
My eighth graders from Texas are communicating with an eighth grade class from Vermont. The first assignment was to introduce themselves and comment on two other posts. The next assignment was to video and capture your town in words that form a visual image. Again responding to other posts. Students went around the school and town taking pictures and making videos that portrayed the aspects of each town. The next assignment was to read a brief article in a magazine that was posted online and respond to that article giving his/her viewpoint.
My eighth graders have gained many useful tools through communicating with this school. There have been activities mentioned that was unknown until that time.
We are letting students know what other students feel and how they view different topics relative to the region. This lesson is an online educational discussion forum. Students could even begin communicating with students from other countries.