Twitter is a wonderful way to use technology to teach students to analyze and understand language. A teacher can use Twitter to spark interest and increase participation in students by using words and teaching topics in a modern context use in their daily lives. Creating a classroom account can help a teacher stay in control of the students posts and activity. By creating a class account or #, students would be able to post individually or in groups to tweet answers, feedback, and questions. A teacher can use twitter to model correct forms of language in class posts. They can also recommend and have students look up historical, scientific, or relevant figures/topics verified accounts and analyze the language as they learn. For example, they can look at Bill Nye's or Neil Degrasse Tyson's accounts open discussion to science topics, think about questions to ask them, and discuss the language they use in their posts.
In my 3rd grade classroom, which contains many ESOL students, I could introduce twitter as a discussion board. If we were discussing Black History Month, I would show them some historical figures accounts or hashtags to discuss their impact. Since my students have background knowledge on Martin Luther King Jr., I would show them some quotes posted on the account @DrMLKJrWisdom where we can analyze his language and how it connects back to his impact on the United States history. Students would be able to see common phrases and talk about grammar and word choice--why certain words are more powerful than others. We can also discuss how his words relate to us today. I could model making a post or reply to one of the quotes on the account. Then, students can work in groups to come up with three tweets in which they comment on the meaning of a chosen quote. I can pick one of each groups tweets and show them how to post it so that we can use twitter again in future lessons.