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Lesson Plan for Teachers

 Hobby course lesson 7 

This lesson aims to get students to know Reddit, to become familiar with the discussion forums dedicated to their hobby, and to understand the different type of posts in the discussion groups.  

Task 1: Introduction to Reddit (Step 1: Gaining an overview of Reddit pages)

Purpose: The purpose of this activity is to introduce Reddit to students. 

Background information: Reddit is a community based around people's shared interests, with subscribers (or Redditors) from all around the world participating in each discussion forum. Registered users can upload and comment on posts and discussions about issues and topics that they are interested in. 

Activity stages 

  • Ask students to share what social media platforms they know and use regularly 

  • Remind students that they are going to use Reddit as the forum for online discussion about their hobby 

  • Discuss general information about Reddit with students (e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reddit)  

  • Set up breakout rooms and ask students to discuss (1) whether they have used Reddit before (2) how well they are familiar with Reddit (3) What they know about Reddit 

Handouts:  

Answers/models/note:  

Task 2: Gaining an overview of a Reddit page (Step 2-6: Gaining an overview of Reddit pages) 

Purpose: The aim of this activity is to help students gain a general understanding of Reddit  

Background information: There are different main sections on a Reddit page (e.g., weekly discussion threads, about the community, and group regulations). 

Activity stages 

  • Explain to students that they are going to explore the different sections of the forum, and that they are going to explore the Origami (r/Origami) subgroup to start with. 

  • Ask students to open the Origami discussion group (https://www.reddit.com/r/origami/) 

  • Ask them to spend 5 minutes to look through the page and try to identify the main sections. 

  • Ask for some volunteers to share and discuss what they think are the main sections. 

Handouts: Working in a Reddit page (https://3d527928-cc79-4ee7-9c10-b738b111b2fd.filesusr.com/ugd/c7cbef_9e7f54ed275849c1b9b4c95056e40443.docx?dn=Working%20on%20a%20Reddit%20page.docx) 

Answers/models/note: The main sections of each Reddit page usually includes (1) Weekly discussion (with some comments) (2) Number of members and the number of online users (3) filter function for types of posts (4) Group rules  

Task 3: Getting insight into students’ discussion groups (Step 7-11: Gaining an overview of Reddit pages) 

Purpose: The aim of this activity is to help students gain familiarity with their Reddit discussion forums. 

Background information:  

Activity stages 

  • Ask students to open the Reddit subgroup related to their hobby  

  • Give students 10 minutes to look through the Reddit page and identify basic information about, and main sections of, the group 

  • Encourage students to pay attention to the group rules. Then, check whether students understand their sub-reddit rules 

  • Set up breakout rooms and ask students to share that they have learnt, to compare each other’s sub-reddit, and to ask their groupmates for help in understanding the Reddit pages 

  • Give students an opportunity to ask questions or share interesting aspects of their Reddit groups 

Handouts:  

Answers/models/note: (1) The main sections in their Reddit group may be different to those in the origami example. (2) Students can use Google Translate to help them understand the group rules. The Thai version of the ‘Model attribution’ rule for origami is a nice example of the need to be careful using automated translation. 

Task 4: Analysing an existing Reddit forum: A case study of r/Origami (Step 1: Identifying types of posts) 

Purpose: This activity aims to help students analyse types of posts on their subreddits that can successfully elicit responses from other hobby enthusiasts. 

Background information: On Reddit, there are different types of posts. For example, in the Origami discussion forum, the most common types of posts include (1) asking for advices (few replies), (2) asking for motivation (many replies), and (3) report of plan (very few replies and no replies) 

Activity stages 

  • Explain to students that they are going analyse types of posts on Reddit 

  • In the handout, illustrate the most common type of posts on the Origami discussion forum. Point out that the different types of posts can elicit a different number of responses 

  • Ask students to open their subreddits dedicated to their hobby, and browse through existing posts to identify categories of posts. Encourage students to pay attention to the number of replies in each type of post 

  • Ask students to analyse how questions are asked in their subreddits 

  • Ask for some volunteers to share the results 

Handouts: Categorising types of questions (https://3d527928-cc79-4ee7-9c10-b738b111b2fd.filesusr.com/ugd/c7cbef_c5a80e4acedc471e9d4ec0eec274de8a.pdf) 

Answers/models/note: Some examples of how questions are asked: Straight Q “What websites do you recommend for beginner origami tutorials?” Indirect Q “Does anyone know how quickly origamishop.us restocks?” Statement “just wanting to know whats easy paper to get in bigger sizes to complete this model” 

Task 5: Identifying useful chunks to start posts (Step 2: Identifying types of posts) 

Purpose: The aim of this activity is to help students explore useful phrases to imitate to successfully start their posts. 

Background information: Vgotsky (1997) distinguished three types of copying: imitation (understanding how the means can be used to reach the goal), emulation (recognising the goal but not the means), and mimicry (blindly copying without understanding the goal). As this activity focuses on discussing the purpose of the copying, the means and how the useful phrases can be used to achieve the goal (successful communication on Reddit), this activity is an instance of imitation.   

Activity stages 

  • Ask students to open their subreddits and explore existing posts in the forums 

  • Ask students to find useful phrases to write posts 

  • Set up breakout rooms, and ask students to share and discuss the phrases with their groupmates 

  • Ask students to categorise the phrases/questions 

Handouts: Useful phrases (https://3d527928-cc79-4ee7-9c10-b738b111b2fd.filesusr.com/ugd/c7cbef_4da595915295471abdcc3b107f889447.pdf) 

Answers/models/note: Some examples of useful phrases: Seeking better understanding “can anyone help me understand…” Asking for tips and tricks “What’s your secret to…” 

Asking for opinion “want to know your opinion about…” 

Task 6: Language issues (Step 3: Identifying types of posts) 

Purpose: The aim of this activity is to encourage students to analyse how other hobbyists used language on their discussion groups. 

Background information:  

Activity stages 

  • Illustrate issues related to language use on Reddit discussion forums using the Week 7 worksheet 

  • In breakout rooms, with the Week 7 handout, students analyse language issues in the example posts 

  • Ask for some volunteers to share and discuss the results 

Handouts: Wee 7 worksheet (https://3d527928-cc79-4ee7-9c10-b738b111b2fd.filesusr.com/ugd/c7cbef_b9357fa4903045aca9061bbd55237afc.docx?dn=Week%207%20worksheet.docx) 

Answers/models/note: Language issues: (1) Start with key question (in title or opening) (2) Make it personal (talk about “I”) (3) Give a reason for the question (4) Give detailed sub-questions (5) Be informal but polite (6) Some mistakes acceptable (amd, ive, attmpt)          

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