As a high school language arts teacher I would like to use blogs to enhance my students understanding and appreciation of the literature we are reading, as a way for students to interact with each other, and to improve their writing skills. As Richardson (2009) notes, “blogs are only one of many tools of the Read/Write Web, but I would argue they are the most important” (p. 54). Blogs are a great way for people to engage in discussions, and can be an extremely valuable teaching tool.
One way to use a blog would be to post a quote from the literature we are reading. The quote would be taken from the homework reading assignment, and the students would need to discuss it in the context of the reading, and respond to at least one other student’s comments.
I would also like to post discussion questions on the literature we are reading. I think the blog format is a great way for students to express their ideas. The students would be required to make an original posting, and then to respond to two other students’ comments. I think this would really get the students excited and interested about the literature we are reading, give them more experience writing and discussing literature, and jump start the class discussions. Class discussions are often dominated by a small number of students; giving them more time to think about the question, as well as the ability to see their classmates ideas should help to get many more students involved.
Reference
Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, wiks, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
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Allowing students a greater more global audience for their writing could have a wealth of benefits. I see students becoming life long bloggers and better writers once given the chance. How will you go about finding other schools to collaborate with? Would you do it by novel, themes, or something all together different?
ReplyDeleteI agree that blogging would allow all students to add their opinion and thoughts on a reading assignment. I also think it is a good idea to have a minimal response requirement, so that the conversations continue and do not stop after the initial posting. This would work well for an ongoing week assessment. A suggestion might also be to have students ask questions about the book when they are unclear to have deepen understanding or discuss theme, character, and plot.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your statement that classroom discussion is often dominated by certain students; it can be hard for students who are shy, who are less sure of the value of their ideas, and who require more processing time to jump in. Allowing students to write before discussion can reduce these problems, but it’s often a step we skip in the classroom due to time limitations. Taking that writing step out of the classroom and into the blog gives students time to consider the question at hand and formulate a response; this may well enhance the discussion the following day. If you note a particularly strong post from a student who does not usually participate, you can refer to the post during class. That will that help draw the student into the discussion, but there’s the added benefit of validation: the student then knows you took the time to read his or her post and found it worthy of integrating into the discussion.
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