Literature Circles & Blogging About Books
Literature Circles
Tim
What is a weblog?
Buckman Elementary
6 years ago you had to be a geek or strange person ˆ html, ftp, teachers eyes glazed over
lowering the bar
making it easier
weblog or blog is a website
usually run by a single person
bits of info are called entries
Ms Leake
It‚s a log, timestamped, dated
Has categories she posts into
Does it for you
Anatomy of a weblog
Title is home button
Banner area has title, nearly always links to entrance page
Blog entry
Excerpt
Permanent link
Trackback
Can have teaser and click more ˆ short blub and then more
Can have comments or not
Sidebar ˆ collection of links
Can syndicate information ˆ imagine 700 students writing so big task to see who wrote
Want to share so movement among folks creative commons ˆ various levels of copyright
Rss aggregator
It is easy publishing with some really neat tools
Will Secret Life of Bees
Uses software Manila ˆ can run over a thousand on one license
There are other solutions that are free
With Manila can do collaboration ˆ mention of GA
Online discussions
Artistic interpretations
Research/links
Author involvement
Parental involvement
Asked students to do chapter summaries, character sketches artistic interpretation, historical events
Symbols and themes, class discussion summaries
2 posts, had grading system
choose significant passages, scanned or digitally produced, depicted symbolism, generated discussion
students created a web site
students researched and vetted links
teacher can add as needed
basis of discussion
1st school in country to adopt book
fired an email to authors rep
any chance author would want to come and talk with us
she said yeah
showed author letter
wrote a long letter
parents online book club/web log http://weblogs.hcrhs.k12nj.us/beesparents
parents read along with students and held their own discussion
similar issues with reading as kids: time
opportunity to bring other voices into conversation
potential ways to bring people in to your classrooms
next year his journalism students will have a professional mentor to get into their space and give feedback
paperless class
talked about experiences of reticent student
effects of weblogs
reflection and debate
it creates a body of work where students can go back to
they either did it or didn‚t ˆ easy access
portfolio links, easy access
Katherine L. Schlick Noe, Ph.D.
Professor and Director of Literacy
School of Education
Seattle University
Seattle, Washington
Literature Circles
Blogs and Prompts
Opportunity for students to create meaning in collaboration with others
Amazingly powerful way for students to learn
In literature circles, students have the opportunity toΣ
Read good books
Picture books can be more powerful than chapter books
Talk about books
Write about books
Respond to books through the arts
How can teachers support students‚ learning where blogs are concerned?
Writing before discussion
Helps students think through what they want to talk about
Provides a way to think aloud on paper
Captures ideas inspired by what was read
Writing after discussion
Helps students synthesize the many ideas floating in the air
Provides multiple interpretations of text
So, what about writing as discussion
Every voice has equal weight
Barriers disappear
Invites thoughtful response
Tools for blogging can be the same as tools used for „in person‰ literature circle discussions
Simple prompts
I noticed, think, feel thought, if I could change, what if ,a connection is, my question is, I predit
Post-it notes
Golden lines
Just a quote ˆ find something beautifully put or something you disagree with, let‚s you start with something the author said
Build community norms for blogging just as you would for face-to-face discussion
List of quality discussions guidelines like
Good eye contact, etc.
Getting Started with Literature Circles and other books
Literature Circles in google ˆ comes up first
To put in teacher‚s hands what they need at the moment they need it ˆ her professional mission
Marion Holland
Copyright
Book covers
Good info at Educational CyberPlayground (http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Technology/THE_LAW.html
She feels book cover use is fair use.
Creative Commons- attribution, noncommercial one
http://creativecommons.org
Tim uses Piles
Tim link to Harry Potter and Copyright Law ˆ talked about fan fiction
Asynchronous Participation
Live online chats
Authors/experts
Student comments
Biblioblogdom Project
Weblogs are good because students feel a virtual presence ˆ like with the author in Will‚s class
Awesome presence
7 middle school students are going to Seattle Children‚s Theatre: Shape of a Girl, the authors and others will be blogging with the girls
Avi
Breakfast Serials; NIE
Seattle Times
Will be blogging
Future development
Productivity tools
Rss feed of student work
Evaluation tracking
Web based
Research
Allconsuming.net ˆ mentions top books
Richard Clark called for research on functional equivalent ˆ what is happening when you use these different tools. Do blogs do this?
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