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Folksonomy Classroom Activity

Folksonomy Classroom Activity Brainstorm 

This week, I decided to do some self-directed research on the concept of Folksonomy and how it could be utilized in a secondary classroom as this is likely a concept our students have experience with, but could not put a name to. I think it would be especially beneficial to my middle school kiddos to become familiar with this practice as it will help them with research projects in a variety of subjects down the road. 

While doing this research, I stumbled upon this great lesson that involved students studying and tagging a variety of zines, sharing their tags in a shared Google document, discussing their reasonings together as a class. The link to the lesson is below:

https://libguides.williams.edu/c.php?g=1010260&p=8292148 

This is a lesson I would love to do with my middle school students because we are generally the first time they experience actual research projects, be it in the form of history fair, science fair, or an ELA-based research paper. They do some smaller-scale projects in Elementary school, but most have no idea where to start in terms of researching and gathering information and resources on a topic. Taking them through the process of tagging images and resources as a means of organization would be a great way to get them started in the research project. 

The content in this project is maybe not what I would use with my middle schoolers, particularly the incoming 6th graders as the maturity levels are very different from the collegiate-level materials being taught in the given example. However, zines can be found on almost any subject, and if we cannot find them we can always make them! That would actually present a great opportunity to collaborate with the art teachers and get more kiddos in the media center.     

I think Diigo and Flickr would be great additional resources for this lesson as well. For example, students could use Flickr when they are curating images for their history fair projects. By tagging them, they could even share photos across classes and collaborate school-wide, not just in their classes. The same could be done with Diigo, where students doing similar topics or working in groups could share their resources in one spot where they will not be lost to the void that is a middle schooler's files folder on their Chromebook. This methodology will give the students a solid foundation going into high school and college.                                                                   

Comments

  1. nickinickelzJune 8, 2025 at 4:49 PM

    I love how you’ve taken the concept of folksonomy and translated it into such a hands-on, meaningful activity for middle school students. Your zine-tagging idea is great to introduce students to the core practice of organizing and interpreting information collaboratively, while also encouraging creativity and critical thinking. You’re absolutely right that the middle school age group is just starting to get their feet wet with independent research. Learning how to classify and share resources can really demystify that process.

    I also appreciate your point about adapting content for middle schoolers. The idea of making your own zines to suit your class’s maturity and interests, adds another layer of engagement. Thanks for sharing the lesson link. I’m inspired to think about how I can incorporate this into my own curriculum too!

    ReplyDelete

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