My 7th grade English students have just chosen an independent novel related to the unit theme. They read the books on their own and then meet every so often in a Literature Circle to discuss (with three other students who are reading the same novel)questions related to theme, characterization, plot, etc. Instead of the traditional "sit around four desks and talk about the book when the teacher walks by," discussion, I wonder if students could be assigned a specific question on a blog, asked to respond to the question, required to read the posts of the other students in the group, and then asked to respond to a certain number of comments. It seems to me that the students might be more interested if they actually put their comments where others can see them and then have the opportunity to also put their comments in a public place.
I have several concerns about this:
Is it possible to create a blog that is only used by students in my class? At this time, my school district does not allow for public blogs, so I'm wondering if there is a "private" blog.
To keep it appropriate, do I have to monitor every post and comment before it goes up?
How does a teacher manage this without having to read a huge amount of entries?
The other idea I have is to use a blog to showcase student work. Students choose a writing assignment to post and share with the rest of the class and perhaps the school.
I look forward to hearing from teachers who have done this before.
Donna
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I have not yet introduced blogging to my English classes. I do, however, know that you can create a blog only accessible to you and your students. You can also create a setting that allows you to monitor what is posted.
ReplyDeleteI think your idea is an excellent one, which I would also like to implement. The students will not only get more feedback from each other, but it will be in writing, which students can revisit as necessary to help develop their own ideas.
I think your switch from "sit around four desks and talk about the book when the teacher walks by" to blogging about their assigned book is a great idea! I understand your frustrations with the group discussions. I think that is a universal problem for all teachers. Knowing that their blog postings will be seen by you and their classmates will definitely motivate them to do their best writing.
ReplyDeleteYes, I do believe that you would have to monitor your blog closely and check out each post before you allow it to go up. Because of that, you might want to put a strict limit on how many posts a student can make for a particular question. Maybe you can tell them that they only get one shot at a post and they will be graded on their first post. That way they will need to be very careful about what they write and post.