Not quite sure what age level I will be teaching, I tried to think of a grade where blogging would be the most beneficial. The younger kiddos don't quite have the experience with computers or have developed the writing ability to get the most out of blogging. I decided to focus on grades 2 and 3. At this level, they are gaining the ability to organize their thoughts while writing. By third grade they are also a little more comfortable with computers (depending on the amount of opportunity they have had).
With 3rd graders, I did a month long unit on Space. In the beginning of the unit, we did research and I gave them computer lab time to take notes on the big concepts we would be learning about during the month. They really loved this and enjoyed sharing cool things they learned, so I usually allowed a few minutes at the beginning of Science time for students to share anything interesting they learned about space. They loved this sharing time and did research on their own at home just for a few seconds to share with their classmates.
Learning about and practicing blogging in this class, I thought that this technological addition would be a great way to extend this sharing of ideas. Many times I had to 'cut' students short in sharing since we had limited time during the day for Science. Having the students blog about this would allow them to continue sharing, but within the realm of a cyber room. I would have to provide plenty of modeling and discuss the rules of an online community as we've discussed in class. I think with the appropriate scaffolding, this activity would allow for increased sharing and learning, while allowing more time during the class period for planned activities. This activity would allow them to also practice keyboarding and computer skills in a way that isn't intimidating. They could share as they wanted but would be requried to have at least one comment/response a week. By having a lab time at least 1 or 2 times a week, this would be very easy to get completed. This is one idea how I could incorporate blogging in the classroom and I'm excited to keep brainstorming and find other ways!
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I had a similar idea to this with my 6th graders. I always had to cut them off when we shared things in the news, so I thought of a way to share through blogging. I will write about it more in my own blog so I don't want to share too much, but I like your ideas!
ReplyDeleteGreat idea and I like how you are incorporating it into the science content. Blog are very interdisciplinary so many possibilities for classroom use. Isn't it too bad how we have to cut students off in discussion? Blogs would also be helpful to hear from quiet students in the class.
ReplyDeleteI think that blogs are another technology that will catch on and play a major role in education in the very near future!
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