Digital Citizenship Leaders

Hi friends!

At the beginning of each year, every student in our district studies digital citizenship, from kindergarten through twelfth grade. I’m in the midst of teaching those lessons right now. I use the curriculum developed by our district. If I didn’t have that, I would use the free curriculum from Common Sense Media.

As you know, we’re also a Leader in Me (r) school, so I wanted to combine the 7 habits of a leader with our discussion of how to be a responsible digital citizen.

After we watched our digital citizenship videos, I asked our students to work in pairs to write about how they could use one of the seven habits online. I took those colorful index cards, combined them with my Leaders in Computer Lab posters, and created a bulletin board in our computer lab. Our students can refer to this board all year as they work online in the computer lab.

Can you see their responses? For “begin with the end in mind,” they responded with ideas like “have a plan on a game,” and “on webkins, make a plan to make your house.” They did a great job of connecting the leadership habits to their online behavior!

You could also create a library center, with students responding to a different prompt each week. For example, “how can you synergize when you’re on the internet?” (By the way, letting them use markers increases the enthusiasm and the beauty of your bulletin board!)

My idea to have the students respond with a “turn and talk” and a “quick write” came from a great book I’m reading and implementing in my library instruction: Total Participation Techniques: Making Every Student an Active Learner.

This book shows you easy ways to make sure EVERY student is engaged in your lesson, not just the few who always raise their hands. I recommend it!

Do you teach digital citizenship in your library? I’d love to hear how you do that in a comment!