Langwitches... Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano

Langwitches Blog is an invaluable resource about teaching language, including but not exclusively about blogging. She has written over 130 posts dealing with blogging in the classroom.  The following links to her blog give some blog plans for teachers.

 

Blogging Unit Plan

• 1. Blogging with Elementary School Students
• 10. Web Design for Student Bloggers
• 2. Outline Blogging Lessons
• 3. Introduction to Blogging
• 4. Online Safety
• 5. Commenting
• 6. Writing
• 7. Setting up the Blog
• 8. Logistics of Formatting Post
• 9. Connecting Your Class to the World

How to Tie Your Shoes... Think outside the box.

Comment Starters

From Edublog Insights

A while back I posted about comment starters…….

This made me think about…….

I wonder why…….

Your writing made me form an opinion about…….

This post is relevant because…….

Your writing made me think that we should…….

I wish I understood why…….

This is important because…….

Another thing to consider is…….

Then I posted “More Comment Starters.

I can relate to this…….

This makes me think of…….

I discovered…….

I don’t understand…….

I was reminded that…….

I found myself wondering…….

Asking good questions is so important in our classrooms. We use them to guide our discussions and push our students to a higher level of thinking. So the questioning and the discussion part is crucial when blogging. Then, the comment feature on blogs has the potential to really push those learning connections. I discussed these comment starters with my students and encouraged them to use them in the beginning of their comments. It was not required. I just encouraged them to try it out and perhaps add to the list themselves. It seemed to help the students get to deeper type thinking. I think the important thing for us to remember is that we’re fostering cooperative work and guiding the process. We teachers have to be knee-deep in this process. We can≠t just say, “Get in groups and critique each others posts or comments.” We can’t just expect our students to know just what to do. We have to model it, teach it, guide it, discuss it and most of all have fun with it. Show them the joy of language. I often share parts of my blog with my students and walk them through how I have replied to someone. I read a post and then share my thinking as I prepare to respond. I show them great examples from other blogs.

I focus on the need to be sensitive to others’ feelings and the need to place the emphasis on the writing and not each other. I give suggestions on how to word responses. We talk about it. We share good thoughts. We support each other.

I want to come up with a list here. I’m looking for another word other than guidelines because we want it more open-ended. We need give and take. I don’t want rules. Suggestions is too weak. Possiblilities, I overuse. Any thoughts?

I also encourage them to write thought-provoking questions at the end of their posts. Hopefully this will be an enticement for those reading their posts and may spur them on to commenting. Those thought-provoking questions are an art. I work at steering them away from empty phrases like “This is good.”, “I like this.” We work at being specific.

I think I’m a better writing teacher now than when I previously taught it in my classroom. I was bound within 4 walls and had been taught to work at getting a good final product. I was not a writer myself. That’s the most important part I was missing. Blogging myself shows my students that I value writing and I realize the hard work it requires. I also have learned how the larger community can be a powerful motivator. I want my students to know that feeling. The other missing piece in my writing classroom was a truly authentic audience for my students. I have found that blogs help us move away from thinking of writing as a 5 paragraph essay or a set of steps to move students through. Blogs give us an avenue to teach writing (blogging) as a cluster of complex thinking and writing behaviors that provide ownership to the student and the possibility of getting a multitude of responses from others. We have to orchestrate that. Yes, it takes time but we can truly model this process through our own blogs and provide the type of environment to support young writers and give them the challenges necessary to foster writing development. What a joy!

The Art and Aspirations of a Commenter

The Art and Aspirations of a Commenter

I believe in the power of a free exchange of ideas. I also recognize that words or access to some information can be of harm to others, intentionally or unintentionally. As a commenter, I therefore aspire to participate responsibly in the great online conversation by:

• treating all bloggers with respect.

• seeking first to understand what is being said.

• celebrating another's accomplishments.

• using school appropriate language.

• rephrasing ideas in the blog that made me think, made me feel, or helped me learn to let the blogger know his/her voice has been heard.

• commenting specifically and positively, without criticism. If I disagree, I will comment appropriately, politely stating my perspective.

• being mindful always that I may be a role model to my audience, especially if they are younger than I.

• making no reference to, link to, and/or giving access to any information that may be inappropriate for a school setting.

• asking at least one question in my comment with the hopes of continuing a conversation and deepening thinking.

• using a triple check before submitting any comment: Would I be happy to have my mother read this comment? My grandmother? My favorite teacher?

Larry Ferzallo's Best Sources for Advice on Student Bloggin

Here are Larry Ferzallo's choices for The Best Sources For Advice On Student Blogging:

Sue Waters’ at The Edublogger (of course!) has an excellent post titled Tips On Blogging With Students. It’s filled with advice from teachers who have successfully done so for years.  Here’s another version of that information.
Silvia Tolisano at the Langwitches blog just this week began posting a series of Blogging Lesson Plans. I particularly like the one on Commenting.  She’s also made all of these blogging lessons available for download.
Bill Ferriter at The Tempered Radical wrote a post about commenting on Voice Thread presentations, but it’s certainly applicable to commenting on blog posts, too. He also offers some good advice in his post sharing Two Critical Tips For Classroom Blog Projects.
Rubrics To Evaluate Classroom Blogging from Enhancing Teaching and Learning offers a variety of useful rubrics.
Sue Waters has done it again with a great post titled Ideas For Student Bloggings From….How Do You Do What You Do!.  It’s filled with “how-to” tips for teachers.
Sue Waters has written another great post titled Quick Start Tips For Student Blogging Part I: Setting Up Your Class Blog.
My Blogging Adventure – Some Ideas For Blogger Wannabes by Burcu Akyol offers great advice specifically for ESL/EFL teachers.
Gail Desler has written an excellent post titled Five Tips for Helping Students Become Better Bloggers.
Student Blogging Guidelines is a great post by Kim Cofino.
Five Borrowed Tips for Helping Students Become Better Bloggers is another great post by Gail Desler.
Sue Waters has announced the winners of a contest for the best advice on student blogging in the classroom. Announcing The Winners Of The “Share your tips–and win BIG!” Competition! is a great source of advice.
Bill Ferriter has written several posts with great tips for teachers who are having their students write blogs.
Here are some good and simple commenting guidelines for students.
What You Wanted To KNOW About Student Blogging is another great post by Sue Waters
“What advice would you give for blogging with ESL/EFL students?” is Sue Waters’ latest post. In it, she shares advice I have offered, and asks for more suggestions.
If you are using Edublogs with your classes, they’ve set-up a great guide called Tips and Tricks For Setting Up a Class Blog.
The Courage To Blog With Students is an article by my Teacher Leaders Network colleague Marsha Ratzel that is a “must-read” for any teacher using blogs with their students, or considering the idea. It appears in Education Week: Teacher Magazine.
Three Teachers’ Answers to Questions on Classroom Microblogging is from The New York Times Learning Network.
As most teachers who have students writing blogs know, kids get very excited when people leave comments on their posts. Of course, we all appreciate it when people respond to our writing, and nothing beats having an authentic audience. I recently learned through Paula Naugle, a teacher in New Orleans, about the ability to solicit comments on student blogs through Twitter by using the hashtag #comments4kids. She relates in her blog post that her students received over 1,500 comments this year. And she told me separately that 70% of them were generated through use of that hashtag. I think that’s amazing. The hashtag idea is brilliant, and I’d love to give credit to whomever came up with the idea. Let me know if you know who did. (Paula writes that “The creator of the #comment4kids hashtag is William Chamberlain. There are teachers and student bloggers all over the world who are so thankful to Will for this innovative idea.”)
Our tips for getting blogs ready for the end of the school year is by Sue Waters.
14 Steps to Meaningful Student Blogging by Pernille Ripp
Sample letter to parents re blogging could come in very handy.
Here is a list of our class blogs.
Here’s a post from Darren Kuropatwa recommended by Derrick Willard.

Quad Blogging Project

An International team of four classrooms partnered to do action research. They asked the questions: Does Blogging support and improve QUALITY student writing?

Each week, one school class focuses on creating blogs.  The other three schools focus on commenting on the blogs. 

Team USA- mjgds.org/classrooms/4thgrade/
Team Thailand- inside.isb.ac.th/rm204
Team Czech Republic- blogs.isp.cz/grade3v/
Team Switzerland- 4s2011.wordpress.com/

View the Langwitches Vimeo video to see the video of this project.

http://vimeo.com/38198490

Some Student Blogging Guidelines

Kim Cofino's (at ISB) grade 4 students created some excellent student blogging guidelines that they have found apply to all grades, they are simple and easy to understand and include rules, but also questions that lead the student to think about the guideline:


Student Blogging Guidelines

1. As a student blogger at ISB, you are expected to follow these blogging guidelines below. Use the questions in italics to help you decide what is appropriate to post on your blog.
2. Only post things that you would want everyone (in school, at home, in other countries) to know.Ask yourself: Is this something I want everyone to see?
3. Do not share personal information.Ask yourself: Could someone find me (in real life) based on this information?
4. Think before you post.Ask yourself: What could be the consequences of this post?
5. Know who you're communicating with.Ask yourself: Who is going to look at this, and how are they going to interpret my words?
6. Consider your audience and that you're representing ISB.Ask yourself: Do I have a good reason/purpose to do this?
7. Know how to give constructive feedback.Ask yourself: What will I cause by writing this post?
   
8. Treat other people the way you want to be treated.Ask yourself: Would I want someone to say this to me?
   
9. Use appropriate language and proper grammar and spelling.Ask yourself: Would I want this post to be graded for proper grammar and spelling?
   
10. Only post information that you can verify is true (no gossiping).Ask yourself: Is this inappropriate, immature or bullying?
    
11. Anytime you use media from another source, be sure to properly cite the creator of the original work.Ask yourself: Who is the original creator of this work?

Kim also writes about the guidelines for commenting. Students can learn true reflective commenting when guided through the process. Instead of the typical 'Great job' comment, she points out the need to leave a comment, that it must consider the purpose of the blog and be constructive, have a personal connection, add meaningful information, and follow the writing process. Comments are not short form text messages; they are a published piece of work. Teaching students to create appropriate and thoughtful comments would make a meaningful contribution to the quality of responses on the web.

Types of Classroom Blogs

Lisa Zawilinski in 'A Framework to Promote Higher Order Thinking', The Reading Teacher (2009) defines four types of elementary blogs: Classroom News, Mirror blogs (Reflective), Showcase Blogs (Highlighting student work) and Literature response blogs.

Blogging... What is a blog?

Observation:  Students are engaged when they reflect on their learning in meaningful ways.  They want others to read their writing!


Check out this video to explain blogging