Thing #4

I love blog writing and reading. It's like the DVR of conversation after a lecture. You can become part of a conversation on any topic you'd like. You can check in as often as you like or just enjoy the information at your own leisure.

I especially liked reading Is This SSR 2.0? because it tapped into a genre of reading that I love. I share with my students that reading is reading. Although I'd love for all of my 6th graders to read grade level chapter books of all genres, I have to also teach them about other reading resources that might be more appealing. I read something on the internet daily. Sometimes it is a quick Facebook update, other times it is a newstory that I'd like to follow and not have to watch 45 minutes of morning news, and still other times I read complete strangers blogs on a variety of topics. Any way you look at it, reading blogs gives students much more power and ease to find a topic they are interested in. Reading blogs in class would also be a great opportunity for students who do not like reading for short periods of time and not getting far in their chapter books. I explain to my students that I read for different purposes. I read on the computer in the morning while drinking my coffee to pass 10-15 minutes. I read magazines and easy reads on school nights so that I am relaxing before bed. On the weekends is when I read for my Masters class because I can read for longer periods of time and really process the information I am reading. I would love to use blog reading in my classroom because I think most students would become interested in commenting. I have students who do not truly put themselves into literary responses after we read in class. I would be interested in seeing if students would give more quality literary responses to a blog topic that they were really interested in.

The English teacher on my grade-level has used blogging in class before for their writing assignments. I love the idea of students combining writing and blogging. This would open up their writing for peer review and teacher review. This could also open up their writing to be read by a bigger audience. I think students would create more quality writing if they knew that anyone could be reading their writing. If students were given purposes for writing, blogging would be no different than what we already ask the students to do in class. If their writing was blogged, it would also be easier to edit. Commentors could copy and paste text sections to give ideas on how to correct grammar, organize an idea better or add more details to a confusing topic. I think students as commentors would make the writing process more meaningful to both the writer and reader. It is such a safe way to share ideas. Plus students could be trained on the appropriateness of word choice when criticizing someone else' work. I struggle in my class with group assignments sometimes because students lack the social skills to disagree appropriately. It would also be cool to use anonymous posting because then students would care less about WHO is giving the criticism and focus more on WHAT the criticism is. Students do not know how to make good judgements on who has better advice most of the time because they would rather listen to a friend that they know is inattentive in class than the student who pays attention but might be slightly considered a teacher's pet.

I think blogging for different uses as readers and writers gives students some of that creativity back that How to Prevent Another Leonardo da Vinci talked about is being abused and taken away. I have frequently been upset about the pressure on grades instead of student growth. We are more concerned about assigning numbers to names for accountability instead of what is the most important thing in learning. It is more important to our education system to judge students before they are ready than judging them based on if they got the concept. We start assigning grades from the first exposure to a topic and take away the life lesson of learning from your mistakes. Even if the kids learn from their mistakes, their grades have already suffered and even new grades in the six weeks that show mastery will be averaged with the grades when mastery had not been yet met. Wouldn't it be wonderful for a student to blog through their learning and be graded based on the end product each six weeks instead of worrying about collecting ten grades before the six weeks is over. If students were blogging about their learning, reading others blogs about the same concepts, and being reflective while reading comments from the teacher or other students there would be a history of the learning. Plus, I'm a firm believer if a student can't talk about what they are learning, then they aren't processing the information enough to learn it. Blogging gives the opportunity for students to talk through writing.