It boggles the mind to think of all the ways classroom/student blogs could be used, not to mention the benefits of doing so. Helping students to read to learn and to see knowledge as it connects to the "big picture", collaborative learning, creating enthusiasm to communicate through writing and giving them the support tools to successfully do so are just a few examples. Having students blog their assignments not only eliminates "lost" papers, but also allows students to expand their understanding through reading their classmates blogs.
I had never thought of allowing students to read other students blogs during SSR time. Most of my students are reluctant readers and I can easily see how this would eliminate many of the motivational issues with reading independently.
Through Patrick's 5th grade blog entry, my kids could see that there are others with similar struggles who, instead of giving up on themselves, choose to persevere and prove their "doubting Thomas(s)" wrong. In addition, there were several links that would be interesting to my kids. If only we could direct more of our "stubborn" students to this productive use of that quality.Another student's blog on brevity points out that limiting the length of a written response often forces greater thought, discrimination, prioritization and concise word choice than requiring several paragraphs or pages. These two student blogs prove that students reading other students' blogs can very often be both interesting and productive for the student.
The suggestion from Cool Cat Teacher to act as if we, as teachers, are being recorded at all times was somewhat sobering. With editing, almost anything can be made to look questionable or inappropriate. I would suggest reviewing this blog more for the information of how to effectively use a blog in the classroom.
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I'm not sure why some of the links don't work, but the Cool Cat Teacher does. Unfortunately, I first posted this by accident to the wrong blog. (It got mixed up with my Intel.) So I copied it to this new entry. Maybe that's why ?
ReplyDeleteThe links are working now.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of blog reading during SSR time. I know I get caught up in the reading having to be a book but the students do so much reading on the internet. It just might not be what we define as quality reading. Googlebooks might be a good place for students to do some quality online reading. This could be a great place to review a book they are wanting to read without leaving the classroom to go to the library.