For my final post I’ve decided to focus on one digital tool
that I am likely to try out in my classroom, and explore a bit about the
logistics of how that should take place. Now that I’ve tried Twitter throughout
the summer I can honestly say that I’m not a fan. Maybe I’m just too long
winded, but I find the restriction of 140 characters annoying, and it’s just as
annoying when someone else’s tweet is really interesting but lacks real content
because of the very concise format. My students have already created their own
web sites (private to the school) so that hardly counts as an exploratory
topic. Also, I want to focus on my grade 7/8 students’ writing skills. They
need to not only write consistently, but even more importantly to focus on
improving their writing through multiple revisions and edits. So …
Blogging:
Since the focus is on writing and editing, the digital tool
has to accommodate plenty of text, be openly available for other students to
read, be accessible for further editing, and provide an authentic audience for
beginning writers. Though I have yet to use blogging with my class, what follows
is some of the preliminary research necessary to do so, along with others’
accounts of their own work with students.
In all cases the feature that most attracts me most to this digital tool
is the editing and revision work that students are willing to do when they know
a real audience will be reading their work. To be sure, there are other ways to
provide real audience, (printed books, school newsletters, local publications,
letters to the editor) but they tend to be labour intensive and/or prohibitively
expensive.
Here is an inspiring story about a teacher transforming her
classroom writing program using blogging. The amount of student writing in
Michelle Lampinen’s class increased and their willingness to revise their work
also increased. This is only one example among many similar stories of students
increasing their writing and editing because of an authentic audience. Not only
did students write more and edit more in this example, but they also began to
think and write more persuasively. (Lampinen, 2013)
In another Edutopia article Jon Schwatz describes the
surprising transformation of one of the non-writers in his grade 4 classroom
into an actively participating writer, producing more than 100 words per blog post.
(Schwartz, 2011) Jon’s description is not only an inspiring example of an
authentic audience adding engagement to the writing process, but also an illustration
of how a blog can work for young students.
Rebecca Alber’s piece on student revision of their work
focusses not only on student writing, but on their willingness to revisit their
work in the presence of an authentic audience. (Alber, 2016)
Finally, Traci Gardner shares a sequence of steps that have
worked for her in teaching students how to blog. (Gardner, 2016)
Examples abound, of success stories using blogs as writing
platforms, and of how-to descriptions of processes for teachers and students.
It would be impossible to visit or mention all of them; the few that I have
mentioned barely scratch the surface of the available information about
blogging and student writing. The point is that there are many potential
benefits to having students blog. Here are a few that I have encountered in my
reading:
- The audience is authentic. Student work is read by more than teacher, and parents, so feedback is also authentic.
- Student engagement increases.
- Students are more open to revisiting, revising, and editing their work.
- There can be an element of student choice in the selection of topic.
- Information is available everywhere about how to begin blogging with students, and how to further enrich the blogging experience once the initial work has been done.
- Blogs can be internal to the school or district to protect student privacy
- There are no “lost papers” in blogging. If a student has submitted his/her work then it is evident without debate.
- Blogging is age appropriate for all ages of writers.
All in all, this seems like a winning strategy. Frankly, I
can hardly wait to try this out in my classroom.
Alber, R. (2016). 4 Strategies for Teaching Students How to
Revise. Retrieved August 25, 2016, from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/4-strategies-teaching-kids-how-revise-rebecca-alber
Gardner, T. (2016). Teaching With Blogs - ReadWriteThink.
Retrieved August 25, 2016, from http://www.readwritethink.org/professional-development/strategy-guides/teaching-with-blogs-30108.html
Lampinen, M. (2013). Blogging in the 21st-Century Classroom.
Retrieved August 25, 2016, from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/blogging-in-21st-century-classroom-michelle-lampinen
Schwatrz, J. (2011). Using Blogs to Engage English-Language
Learners. Retrieved August 25, 2016, from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/ell-digital-divide-jon-schwartz
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