NEIT2008-2K


 * Student Blogging**

//Ellen Nickles New Lab for Teaching and Learning Coordinator The Dalton School// toc

=Introduction= I am interested in sharing and learning about ways that teachers use blogs to engage their students.

Blogs are used in several ways at [|The Dalton School]. At this time, most teachers post [|curriculum], [|assignments], [|class notes] and [|student work] on their blogs. Some teachers use blog spaces to facilitate class discussion ([|here], [|here], and [|here]). In one first grade classroom, students from Dalton and a school in England write book reviews for one another on a [|shared blog]. High school students in our [|Dalton Den Haag Exchange Program] collaborate with their Dutch peers on several [|project blogs]. In a fourth grade classroom, student blog reporters are assigned every week to post "[|House News]" on their class blog. In another fourth grade classroom, teacher [|Monica Edinger] distributes blogs to each of students. You'll find documentation of that process for the 2007-2008 year here.

These are just a few examples ([|click here for more]). I hope that we can use this space to explore additional models of classroom blog use and, in particular, discuss a variety of strategies to support student blogging in the classroom. Click the Discussion tab to get started.

=**The Edinger House Story**= For the past two years, 4th grade students in Monica Edinger's classroom have posted their ideas and class work to their own blogs. She plans to start the third year of student blogging in January 2009.

Getting Started
There were several initial factors that I believe contributed to the successful implementation of student blogs in Monica Edinger's fourth grade classroom in 2006-2007 and 2007-2008:
 * In the early fall of 2006, [|Alan November] visited the school twice and met with various faculty groups to discuss Web 2.0 tools.
 * Interested in learning more, Monica began exploring and reading various blogs
 * Eventually, she started her [|own professional blog] in the children's literature community and quickly became adept and comfortable in the blogosphere
 * She then began investigating school blogs and created her own [|class blog] at Dalton
 * Students already had access to shared laptop carts
 * Students were already writing in personal journals on a regular basis, and Monica collected and commented on these weekly
 * Students were familiar with the blog format. Monica started using the class blog in the beginning of the year to communicate assignments and resources to her students on a regular basis. She also published their work.
 * Our school has full control of the setup and customization of the blogs; [|Wordpress MU] was installed and supported

Support

 * Weekly meetings with teacher to brainstorm, reflect, prepare, evolve, refine plans for future blogging activities
 * Teacher dedicated a set time for her students to blog every week
 * Although they had a dedicated blog time, students were given increasing freedom during other periods to post to their blogs for other assignments and an increasinly wider range of topics
 * Implementation scaffold: increased skills and blog ownership, increased personal responsibility, increased choice in writing topics
 * In the beginning, blogs remain private to only students and teacher. Students must demonstrate they are comfortable using the blogs and are aware of the importance of keeping personal information private in an online venue. The decision to open the blogs to the world is a class decision.
 * All blog posts were monitored by the teacher and technology coordinator via RSS feeds and a reader ([|Google Reader])

Outcomes

 * Students wrote a lot more, especially those who were motivated
 * Student ownership and the opportunity for self-publication (independence!)
 * Student portfolios were available on the blogs just in time for parent conferences
 * Parents and family members commented regularly on the student blogs (completely unexpected but wonderful!)
 * Monica networked through her professional blog to drive comments to the students’ blogs. Commentors included well-known book authors and her fellow Newbery committee members (the students were ecstatic!)
 * Commenting on each others' blogs helped students learn how to engage with other in a respectful and constructive way
 * Blogging provided students with a broader platform of skills which they applied on other projects. These skills increased their options for creative expression because they allowed for easy integration of a variety of media, including artwork and audio recordings.
 * At the end of the year, students practiced reflective writing in their All About Alice Series
 * Blogging helped students develop an awareness of how to present themselves in a safe way in an online environment

2007-2008 Timeline
Teacher uses the [|class blog] regularly to post assignments, resources, and student podcasts. || **November** **December** = = ||  |||||||||| Regular meetings between teacher and technology coordinator to prepare and plan. Student blogs are built and tested (checklist). || blogs are private ||  || [|Students respond to student blogs from previous year] ||   || [|Your Very First Blog Post!] ||
 * **September** ||   |||||||||| Students start journal writing.
 * **October**
 * ~ **January** ||~  ||~ Events/Skills ||~   ||~ Topics ||~   ||~ Teacher Post ||
 * > Week 1 ||  || Introduce student blogs,
 * > Week 2 ||  ||   ||   || [|Oral history immigration project] ||   || [|Your Second Post] ||
 * > Week 3 ||  || [|Add Images] ||   || [|Historical fiction book post]

(Students add images to their posts from the previous week) ||  || [|Your Historical Fiction Book Post] ||
 * > Week 4 ||  || [|Learn to Comment] ||   ||   ||   || [|Commenting on Historical Fiction] ||
 * ~ **February** ||~  ||~   ||~   ||~   ||~   ||~   ||
 * > Week 5 ||  || [|Link to other sites]

Blogs made public to world ||  || [|Middle School Play] ||   || [|Your Next Post: The Tempest]

[|Great Posting and Commenting!] ||
 * > Week 6 ||  || Personalize: decorate blog banners and add taglines

[|Learn to scan] blog banners (2 Labs) ||  || [|Partnered with 3rd grade buddies to write about a New Orleans school]

[|Response to historical fiction reading] ||  || [|A Visit to the “Old Country”]

[|Margru Post] || [|Amistad Poetry: Part II] ||
 * > Week 7 ||  ||   ||   || [|Students write poems and create collages, which they scan and post] ||   || [|Amistad Poetry: Part I]
 * > Week 8 ||  || Choice

[|Categorize posts] ||  || [|Students given the option to write reviews] ||   || [|Reviews] ||
 * ~ March ||~  ||~   ||~   ||~   ||~   ||~   ||
 * > Week 9 ||  || [|Upload audio files] recorded by teacher with iPod

Publicity! ||  || [|Students write short posts to introduce their recordings] ||   || [|Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! post]

[|Our Podcast of Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!] ||
 * > Week 10 ||  || [|Record themselves in FirstClass] ||   || [|Student post their Cinderella stories along with a recording of their favorite passage] ||   || [|Today’s Post: Your Cinderella Stories] ||
 * ~ April ||~  ||~   ||~   ||~   ||~   ||~   ||
 * > Week 11 ||  || Discuss and show [|examples of a post series] ||   || [|Students write their first post in a new series, “All About Alice,” in which they document their learning and project progress]

[|Forced Immigration] ||  || [|Alice Project] [|All About Alice: What We Did First] ||
 * > Week 12 ||  ||   ||   || [|Second Alice post]

[|Mourt's Relation] ||  || [|All About Alice: What We Did Next]

[|Mourt's Relation] || [|Some write letters from the point of view of a fictional character they created for another Language Arts assignment.] ||  || [|Pilgrim Life in Plimoth: Letters Home] || Week 17 ||  || [|ComicLife] ||   || Students work on Alice comics in school and may write book reviews on their blogs during Lab or at home ||   ||   ||
 * > Week 13 ||  ||   ||   || [|Third Alice post] ||   || [|All About Alice] ||
 * > Week 14 ||  ||   ||   || [|Students write about a recent field trip to Plimouth Plantation.]
 * > Week 15 ||  ||   ||   || [|Fourth Alice post] ||   ||   ||
 * ~ May ||~  ||~   ||~   ||~   ||~   ||~   ||
 * > Week 16
 * > Week 18 ||  || Review audio recording and uploading to blog ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
 * > Week 19 ||  ||   ||   || [|Fifth and final Alice post]

[|Students are interviewed by their third grade buddies. They record the interview in FirstClass and post them on their blogs.] [|(Introduction to the interview)] ||  || [|Final Alice Post] [|Alice Comic]

[|About-to-Be Immigrants Interview New Citizens of Big Dalton] ||
 * ~ June ||~  ||~   ||~   ||~   ||~   ||~   ||
 * > Week 20 ||  ||   ||   || [|The Wizard of Oz Post] ||   || [|The Wizard of Oz Post] ||
 * > Week 21 ||  ||   ||   || [|Your Final Blog Post of the Year] ||   || [|Your Final Blog Post of the Year] ||
 * > Week 22 ||  || Blogs closed to students, read only access ||   ||   ||   ||   ||