Thing 4 – Blogging Begins with Reading
May 27, 2009 by dswirlk7
I looked at several different blogs before I decided on the five that really interested me the most. The first blog I went to was Mark’s Edtech Blog. He had the students reading blogs instead of reading books during their D.E.A.R. Time (Drop Everything and Read). I thought it was a creative way to get his students interested in reading. The second blog I read, Missing Ducks was about different second graders writing a blog to an answer a question about a missing duck. Related to the 1st blog that I read, it was another creative way to get students to learn. The third blog was by David Truss. This article shows us how the views of children in regards to technology and writing have changed. A student had written in her homework in her agenda for Monday. On Tuesday, since the homework was the same as the night before, instead of writing it again, she circle what she has written on Monday, wrote the work Copy, and then wrote the word Paste on Tuesday. My fourth blog was by Clarence Fischer. He wrote on “Bias in the Classroom”. He had his students look at pictures and try to explain what was happening. On one picture there were two girls whispering to each other. Under the picture there were two statements. One stated that they were telling secrets. The other was, the girl was asking a question and did not want to disturb the other students. It shows that everything has two sides. The last blog was by Mrs. Edmison. Her students wrote a letter to an author. Instead of just writing her a letter and then sending it. The class wrote a blog. The author wrote back to the class on the blog. I also liked the fact that each student was listed and they had their own blog that they could comment on as well.
Reading a blog is different from just reading a web site on-line. With a blog you have the choice to comment on what you are reading. This way the author of the blog can get feedback about what he/she wrote.
Contributing to blogs makes you connected to other people. It is an interactive way to communicate. Also, when people comment on your blog or vice versa, you are getting feedback about what you wrote. Are there others that agree/disagree with you?
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I too was inspired by Mark’s edtechblog. I teach an independent reading class for 7th grade boys. I’ve never thought about letting them read online during class. One of the hardest things for the boys to do is to choose a book. After reading Mark’s blog, I’ve decided to start next September’s class by having the boys read pre-selected blogs containing book reviews in order to help them make a choice. That way they will learn that there are tools online (such as blogs) that are available to help them with their book choices.