I get emails quite frequently about the weblog projects I
have done with students. People want to know the details. I thought a blog post giving some details about each
project might be helpful for those interested in a more specific “how-to”. I’ll
start with my first project where the students had their own blogs.
I used current events with a
group of fourth and fifth graders as a springboard to teach critical thinking
skills and media awareness, and to make connections with the school’s
curriculum objectives. We met two to three hours a week to work on this
project. NewsQuest was the weblog I used to keep a record of our learning
journey, both student and teacher. This was our class weblog. The software I
used was Manila.
After I posted for a short time, students began posting on the class
blog. They
were contributing editors. Manila
software lets you read the contributing editors posts and then
“release” them to
the blog. This software had different editor roles that you can choose
for
participants. The person in charge is called the managing editor. After
another
short time of the students posting on the class blog, they each created
their
own personal blog. Links to these student blogs are on the NewsQuest
blog. Students got to choose the template and do other management
tasks.
For a time I asked them to let me see their posts before they actually
released
it themselves but we progressed to peers checking their work to times
when
there was no checking, except for their own proofreading. The goal was
to get the students writing and thinking.
They discussed the news, wrote about their heroes, wrote poetry,
expressed
their opinions, stated what they liked about using weblogs, and wrote
about a
variety of topics. They had choices within these perimeters. Sometimes
I made
the writing choices for them. Students made connections to what they
were
studying in class as they practiced their writing skills.
Then one day
I
received an email from Will Richardson, a fellow blogger who said, “This is
good stuff, Anne. Don’t you think it’s time my journalism students got together
with your journalism students?” That led to an exciting collaboration between
his class in New Jersey and mine in Georgia.
This was the beginning of the Georgia-New Jersey Connection. The high school
students mentored the elementary students. They corresponded back and forth on
the elementary student weblogs. Dialogue flowed between the teachers, the
students, and the classes.
This kind of dialogue gave the
students a voice they had not had before and led to learning discoveries.
Meredith and Kristen, two resourceful high school students, on their own,
color-coded the different elements of a news article, thus providing a visual
tool to help the younger students clearly see the different parts of a news
article.
The climate we build around the use of weblogs in our classrooms is so
very important. We have to create an atmosphere that promotes a give-and-take
between student and teacher, student and student, and also a give-and-take
between the student, teacher and those responding outside of the classroom.
Students need to feel free to write what they’re really thinking. Then we can
enter the process and counsel students how to write responsibly while they
still can maintain their unique voice. I do think we have to be overseeing the
process. I don’t view that as vetoing what they write. I view it as responsible
teaching and a way to empower students to make their voice count. (Remember
these are elementary students!)
Manila has a comment feature that is helpful
for teachers. All comments come to your email. So the students had blogs but I
was the managing editor. I didn’t write on their blogs but I had access to
them. The students knew this. It is important to spend time talking with them
about your decisions, what you want to achieve as a group, and how weblogs can
be beneficial in education.
Students loved getting comments
from the high school students as well as random comments from others outside
our classroom. I would ask for volunteers as I was out and about. For example,
I had a friend from Paris
post a comment. The students were amazed someone from Paris was interested in their writing. Think
friends, school board members, senior citizens, family, etc. Don’t ask
other bloggers or teachers. they’re too busy looking for the same volunteers.
The blog provided parents with a
window into their child’s school world that coud be easily accessed from the
web. My online record of the journey through the class weblog documented the
process.
