Written by I have been using KidBlog in my Grade 6 classroom for two years and the feedback from parents and students has been very positive. Students post what they have been working on in the classroom and parents are able to keep track of their progress and see what they are doing at school.
At the beginning of this school year, I wanted to look for new ways to use our class blog to enrich students writing, thinking, and reflection. I wanted to use the blog as an outlet for students to develop their ‘writers voice’. What I thought would be an easy task has proven to be more difficult and challenging then I expected. Students love to post their formal assignments and projects but when asked to comment on a classmates post or reflect on an article I have posted, their comments and reflections are very literal and lack “deeper thinking”.
While researching and reading different strategies of how to enrich student thinking and reflection using blogs, I stumbled upon a couple of articles from the KidBlog Digest. These articles were not jam-packed with educational research but were written by Grade 6 teachers themselves. It was interesting to read about their perspectives and the challenges they face with blogs and their grade 6 students. In one article about titled “Students Voice and Choice” the author notes:
“when students feel comfortable making choices which suit their individual style of learning and interest, we increase ownership and engagement. When students feel like making choices is expected, only then will they venture out more progressive ideas and opinions. Only then will they express their voices.” (http://www.diigo.com/annotated/cf38f8b36e58290efaa5253d60ed04d4)
This article has now led to the formation of my Action Plan: How can I use our class blog more effectively to develop students voice and reflection?
My ultimate goal is for students to change their view of our blog from place where they post their work to an outlet which allows them to make choices, have a voice, and think critically about the writing process as a whole.
Draft Plan:
1) Online Journaling- Students will post a blog entry every week about any topic they would like to write about.
2) Commenting- Students will comment on a classmates blog once a month
3) Consistent teacher feedback
Questions to think about…
1) How can I incorporate the SAM-R model to create constructive ‘commenters’ and reflective writers in the classroom? How do I ensure that the blog is progressing from the substitution and augmentation level to the modification and redefinition level of the continuum?
Hi Amanda,
Great question! I think that if you make the learning real then students will engage. “When they are performing for an audience the work will be good but for an audience of one (teacher) it will be good enough.” Ken Shelton (Google Educator). I think that letting students drive their learning starts to move you up in SAMR if you’ve got edtech in place that will Augment their learning. I think that asking yourself what is the issue you want to resolve in your classroom and what’s the perspective from the learner are two areas to explore that might lead you to a more definitive path.
Hope you had a great time at Bark Lake with your students. We’ll miss you on Friday but look forward to connecting online in the next few weeks!
I really enjoyed reading this reflection, as it so gets at the heart of many of the challenges I encounter as a Grade 7 English teacher. I was especially moved by this quote you wrote, “What I thought would be an easy task has proven to be more difficult and challenging then I expected.” Amen!
The power of blogging, I think, as opposed to just writing in a notebook, is that you can share your writing with the world quite easily. I wonder how inviting other people OUTSIDE of the classroom to comment on blogs would be added layer of authenticity for students? Would having their grandfather, coach, guidance counsellor, or friend from another school read and share on their work help to add another piece to this work? I wonder if parents were commenting, you could “dissect” what getting a great comment feels like for them to model it themselves.
Can’t wait to read where you go with this!