Saturday, January 16, 2010
Idea for Classroom Blogging
Blogging in the classroom is a great way for students to connect ideas and for concepts to be reinforced. I would set up a classroom blog, and students would be required to check the blog every day. Each day a journal question would be posted for the students to respond with an answer. The question or assignment will be centered around a concept from the previous day's instruction. For example, if I assigned a new spelling list on Monday, Tuesday's blog assignment would be to write each word in an original sentence using the word in the correct context. For reading, students will be given a comprehension question that was discussed in class and be required to select a strategy to use to write a paragraph to answer. Using the blog for writing assignments will really be interesting. In writing, my students are expected to use the five step writing process to complete a paper. For the pre-writing step, the students will blog their ideas for a topic and organize some of their material chosen. This will allow all the students to blog ideas about topics that they are considering and gather information about their topic of choice from other classmates, as well.
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Charina,
ReplyDeleteThese are great ideas for incorporating blogs into your classroom. I especially like using blogs for the pre-writing step. If they are having difficulty with a topic or idea, they can get help from other students not only the teacher. I think using blogs for the other steps of the writing process would be good.
Would students have their own blogs to do all of this or would it just be one class blog that students respond to the questions using comments. I think that individual blogs would work best for your ideas. Comments might become to overwhelming.
Lindsey
You have some great ideas for incorporating blogs into your lesson plans. Some concerns I had as I read your post; Do all students have access to the Internet at home in order to complete the assigned blog work? Are computers available before school or after for those that do not have home computer access?
ReplyDeleteAlso, do you allow students the opportunity for discussion in the classroom of the topics you mentioned in your original post? If so, are these blogs really necessary? I am growing increasingly concerned that technology is destroying the ability of our students to effectively communicate in a face to face conversation or to create comprehendible hand written work. I have students that send up to 30 text messages on their phones in a single class period. That adds up to over 250 texts per school day. The result I have seen is that students are now writing like they text. Using abbreviations and acronyms such as "LOL", "ROFL", "BC", and "W". Additionally students omit vowels to shorten words and substitute numbers or symbols also in an effort to shorten words (examples "gr8" rather than "great", "thanx" instead of "thanks", and "gonna" in place of "going to"). My high school's writing scores on the state standardized test have actually steadily declined in the past three years. While I cannot prove it, I believe texting is at least partly to blame. Also, I think that students feel a level of disconnection when communicating on the Internet. I have had students "say" things to their peers online that I am confident they would not actually say to that person's face. With no immediate repercussion, students feel uninhibited and free to say what comes to mind.
Without intending to sound negative, my question is this:
When a teacher sees students in the classroom everyday and these students are allowed at least some time for discussion is all of this blogging and technology really necessary? Does it really benefit our students?
Lindsay,
ReplyDeleteI originally thought that the class would use one classroom blog. But after your suggestion, maybe having individual blogs would work better. Most students will need help from the teacher to set up the blog and that will be very overwhelming. Maybe this would be a great project for the technology teacher to assist with.
B Moritz,
ReplyDeleteI agree that technology is currently taking over the personal and physical communication of our students. Teachers need to continue to instruct the proper grammar and writing concepts that students need to succeed in life. However, the texting world is what it is. We can't stop technology from progressing, so we just have to teach students how to use it effectively.
To answer your question about computers, our district allows a daily 50 minute computer time for each classroom, so the students are allowed to complete the assignment during our computer time.
Hi Charina-
ReplyDeleteDo you think a blog will be as effective as a wiki for the writing process?