I think blogging in the classroom is a great way for students to share feelings, opinions, give and receive feedback and is just a motivating way to get students to want to write. It's also a nice and easy way for teachers to check students' progress and really get to know their students. In my future classroom I would have student use their blogs as journals, in book clubs and literature circles. Blogging is also a great way for the teacher to share their lesson plans and ideas with other teachers and even find new and innovative ideas for their own classroom from other teachers blogs! Pinterest is great site to do this at.
Students using blogs as their journal would be a great way for students to communicate their ideas and feelings with the teacher and other classmates. The teacher may have the students journal about whatever they would like to for the day or give them a question or idea he/she would like them to respond to. Another neat idea would be to post a famous quote or poem for students to respond to. Students would also be encouraged to post questions for their fellow students at the end of each blog posting if they are looking for a specific kind of feedback. Students would be required to respond to the blog postings of each of the members of their group, but the groups would change often so each student would get to know every member of their class a little better. They would also be encouraged to look at other students blogs that are not in their group.
Using blogs in book clubs would be an excellent way for students to share their thoughts and ideas about the certain book they are reading. A student may have a question about a certain part in the book and can find the answer from their classmate who is blogging about the same book. Students could also see if they interpreted any parts of the book differently from each other and discuss why they feel the way they do about the part in the book. For any students who may be interested in reading a book their classmates are blogging about, they can go to the blog about the book and see if it's something they would be interested in reading.
In literature circles, I think blogging would be very beneficial. Usually in literature circles, each student in the group is assigned a certain job. Whether it's questioner, illuminator, summarizer, etc., blogging would be a great way for students to post their findings on-line with their group. Then, the group can refer to the blog when they get into the discussion about their book. Students can bounce ideas off each other and if a group member is having trouble with their job, another group member might have a great idea to give them. For example, if the questioner was having trouble thinking of questions for the chapter they read and a different group member thought of a great question for the chapter. They would be able to give ideas and feedback to each other.
Kristin,
ReplyDeleteI like your idea about using blogging for literature circles. In one of my student teaching placements I did literature circles with fifth grade students. I could tell it was boring for them to keep writing down thier thoughts everyday in their literature packets. I think using a blog would have been very engaging and interactive for them. I also think it was neat when you said students can give feedback to eachother on the blog. I know sometimes students learn best from their peers. This is a great idea!
Kristin,
ReplyDeleteYou have a lot of great ideas!
I, too, plan to use blogs in my future classroom. Like you said, it is an awesome way to get students excited about writing and is a creative (and ecological) way to share their work with others. When I first learned about literature circles I fell in love with the teaching strategy. I enjoy having students choose what book they want to read and then discussing it in a group with other students. I think adding blogging into the mix is a great way to innovate technology into the curriculum.
I also liked your point about using blogs as journals. Although they have been neglected for the past few years, journals are a great way to let students express their emotions and reflect on their daily lives. They can be used to see growth in more than just the quality of a student's writing but also in their character and their maturity throughout a school year. Older teachers I have talked to about journals all agree that when their students look back on their own journals they are surprised and entertained by what the 'younger them' wrote! Our students now-a-days are not as motivated to do writing but using a blog would definitely spark their interest.
Great ideas shared for using blogs --- it really is a nice tool (and easy) for students to use to share their ideas and thoughts. I really like how you shared details of how you would manage it as well. That's important - you are thinking ahead and need to do that!
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