Promoting connective reading & writing through blogging

This week I begin teaching junior students about Blogging. For most of them it will be their first time using Web 2.0 tools. We will be using the Kidblog platform because it is easy to administer and use and I like the variety of privacy settings they have in place.

Our classroom discussion will focus on any experiences they have with blogging (posting or reading) and why someone might want to blog. Students will discuss their ideas in small groups or partners and I will record their ideas on my Blog so they get a sense of how it works. The discussion will evolve into topics for blog posts based on their personal interests. Naturally, this will lead them to consider their audience and who might be interested in reading about topics they post and issues around protecting one's privacy (i.e. personal information). We might also consider some of the ideas for integrating blogging into the curriculum.

This is the point where I will provide a couple of examples so students can see the 'big picture' and what we will be striving for in our class. This will give the students some ideas of the different kinds of information, layout and multi-media elements that can be included in a blog post. I will refer to the examples from the Edublogs Teacher Challenge.

Having looked at a variety of class blogs we will discuss internet safety using Mrs. Ripp's analogy of why the internet is like a mall. Subsequently, we will also review the Blogging rules we will observe throughout the year (adapted from Discovery Blogging rules) and hand out the parent consent letter.

In order to prepare for our next session I will have the students learn to blog using paper. The rational and logistics of this lesson has been provided by Sue Rockwood. This activity helps students to understand the art of commenting which is important for creating a collaborative, respectful community.

Some excellent ideas on 14 Steps to Meaningful Student Blogging.

Stay tuned for our progress on this project.

The video below is a group of 10 and 11 year old students at Heathfield school talking about why schools should blog.

My subsequent posts on the blogging activity;

Student responses to Blogging activity

Creating the first blog entry