Creating the first blog entry

My reflections and insights on the progress of my class blogging activity are recorded below.

Instructional Challenge: One of the reasons for undertaking the blogging activity is to have students practice writing for a particular audience. They need to keep in mind the perspective of the reader and what kind of information they would find interesting.

Observations: The junior students have completed the paper blogging activity and providing each other with comments on the content and design of their blogs. This was a great way for students to focus on the quality of their writing and the kind of information they could include to capture the attention of their audience. We discussed how to create a great post and how to create quality comments. While students did a good job of providing feedback on the design and content of the blog it became obvious that they will need more instruction on the art of commenting, specifically how to use a blog as a means of facilitating a dialogue between the writer and the reader. Subsequently, we looked at some examples of student blogs and what the author did to encourage conversations with their readers. Below are some examples of the paper blogs;

One Direction Blog

Selena Gomez Blog

Lessons learned: Interestingly enough I ran into some administrative challenges that I had not anticipated. I provided the students with a class code so that they could create their individual accounts according to the convention I had outlined. I did not anticipate that the students would memorize the class code and continue to use it to create additional accounts when they re-visited the site (in some cases 3 or 4 times!!). I now create the accounts myself and provide the students with the information to log in.

Student responses to Blogging activity

The student responses to our introduction to blogging activity are listed below. I used the framework outlined in my previous post.

Why would someone want to blog?

gr 6
-share their life & experiences with other people
- find out information about people and their interests
- share stories about games or sports they play
-share good & bad life experiences
-write a review on a product or a movie
-offer an opinion or point of view
-meet people or make friends online that have similar interests

gr 4

-to communicate with people when we are not with them
-to find someone with similar interests (i.e. music groups)
-if you have questions
-to learn new things
-communicate what you do or your experiences
-express your feelings
-document experiences, places
-recommendation for a book

What would I be interested in blogging about?

gr 6
-celebrities  e.g. one direction
-blog about sports teams i.e. synchro swimming
-video games - reviews, prices
-favorite activities
-music albums - new music videos & songs
-fashion
-pets
-current events

gr 4

-class projects
-recommendations - music
-comics
-trying new things - sports, travel, meet some new people
-communicate with your friends
-exploring the world Hollywood - stars
-class activities

Who would want to read my blog?

gr 6
-teenagers that play video games
-people interested in getting pets
-people interested in doing synchro swimming
-people who listen to specific music groups, go to concerts
-promote celebrities

gr 4
-teachers - get to know their students, experiences, read class assignments
-best friends (any part of the world)
-sponsor a foster child - updates on their life
-family in a different part of the world - videos
-experts who have answers to your questions - author, scientists

Internet safety - internet is like a mall
What would we do to stay safe?

-do not give personal information to strangers
-do not speak to people who approach you
-do not let people influence you to do bad things i.e. stealing
-protect personal belongings
-stay where you are supposed to stay
-don't take objects from someone you do not know
-don't go off by yourself -stay where you are safe and secure

Subsequently, we reviewed the class blogging rules. Student will be working on the paper blogging activity in preparation for our next session together.

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