Session 3 - Literature Circles EduBlogs
Today is the final training session for my Literature Circles group. I met with half of the class this morning and will meet with the other half in about an hour. The groups switched times today so the group that came in the afternoon last week came in the morning today. We reviewed last week’s lesson. The students who had had the opportunity to read their books began to post. I had handouts ready on the different reading roles. We discussed these again, pointing out that based on their input we may change existing roles or add new ones. They said that was very helpful to have to refer to as they were posting.
Next, they created Navigation links. Those are sooooo easy now!! Thank you, Jake! Students created links to each other’s sites. They named their sites the name of the Newbery books they had chosen. I explained pictures and stories although I am not sure that will use either of those features for this project. I encouraged them to really think about weblog possibilities. Sometimes this is hard when you are new to weblogs but if we get them thinking, I know these students will come up with good ideas. I asked them to keep the students in mind as we were working on this project. What do they think will work well, what will not? I suggested they think ahead to when they would be student teaching.
It has been wonderful to have three sessions to teach this. In the past, I have been lucky to get one hour and that just is not enough time to do it right. Thank you, Mrs. Jordan! All these students know they can come to me or email me with any questions, ideas, problems that occur.
So we’re off and running! Please feel free to comment to them. You can link to their sites through the Literature Circles EduBlog. One of them had a comment today from someone none of us knew. They were so excited even though the comment was to use a larger font! It’s interesting to see the reactions of all the different age groups to getting comments - it runs pretty much the same no matter what the age. Doesn’t that show us the importance of feedback from an audience that cares?
Lynne Jordan and I will be continuing to post on the Literacy and Technology Teacher’s EduBlog.
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