Hyperdocs are gaining some popularity in education circles. It is my understanding that a group of teachers in California popularized the Hyperdoc in their classrooms and through the use of social media, it has spread. I have looked at many examples, but never seen one in practice in a K-12 room. When a teacher approached me about working on a primary source document my head thought let’s try a Hyperdoc.
The document was the Declaration of Independence, and the teacher typically broke the document into sections and jigsawed the activity. We tried it. You can check out the document below.
I found that the Hyperdoc was a lot of work, especially with the sections. We spent time curating and trying to find the right resources for the activity and asking the right questions. My thought process was to expose the students to Locke and his thinking on social contracts between the people and the government. Overall, it was a lot of work for a short period of class time.
As a practitioner of reflection, I see the glaring issues with the activity. For one, the goal was to develop more questions and have a unique activity for the students to do and come back for the discussion. The activity needs a lot of work and will go back to the drawing board, and if I continue down the Hyperdoc road, this will be a starting point as I move towards the ever lengthening finish line.