EduBlog Insights

Ewa McGrail is an Assistant Professor of Language and Literacy from the Middle-Secondary Education and Instructional Technology Department. She came by one day last week and we had a spirited conversation about blogs and the possiblilities it held for literacy and language instruction. She had really taken a deep look at The Write Weblog and some other blogging projects. She teaches a small class of teachers on Wednesday evenings which just happens to be my late night! She asked me to do a session for her students and to address the following:

• the learning that can take place
• seeing the potential
• getting a sense of where to start, where to go
• understanding how to set up a blog for their own class
• realizing the value of comments
• commenting on student blogs
• listening to Zachary’s podcast

I did the session last night - great group! They left some great comments on Neville’s Bloggers.
They were currently working on responding to student writing in their class. All of this fits so well with what they are doing and the professor is interested in some research possiblilities for later. We need that - especially at the elementary level. The texts they are using are Within and beyond the writing process in the secondary English classroom by Rosen and Wilson and Inside out: Strategies for teaching writing by Kirby, Kirby & Liner. I was familiar with Inside Out but not the other. I really like it The one for the secondary English classroom is a terrific read - lots and lots of good stuff. Chapter 8 lists seven assumptiona about teaching composition:

1. Writing is thinking
2. Writing is a language process.
3. We learn to write by writing.
4. Development of our own writing can be facilitated by becoming more conscious of our wrting process.
5. Writing is a socially constructed process.
6. We not only learn to write, but we write to learn.
7. The young writer benefits from some direct instruction.
Now that sounds just like what we’ve been saying about blogging, right?The really neat part is that Ewa wants to meet and do some planning for a course for next semester. She wants to blog also. It looks like this will be the beginning for a great project for next semester. Ewa and I will put our heads together later on and do some serious planning for next semester. Meanwhile I left the door open for any of her current students who wish to have more help on blogging. Then to top it off I received this warm email from her this morning:

Dear Anne,

I wanted to write and express our appreciation for your visit tonight to our theory and pedagogy of composition class (EDLA 7460). The focus of your presentation was ideally suited to our today’s class readings and discussion, which was responding to students’ writing.

Your session showed my students the possibilities of technology (weblogs) for teaching writing. It also made them rediscover again their belief that each student can learn to write, provided we teachers assist him/her in this process through meaningful, strategic, and engaging activities.

You clearly prepared for this presentation with care and concentration. Thank you again for sharing your expertise and knowledge with my students, and, perhaps most of all, for letting us hear the stories about your students and their growth as writers in their blogging adventures.

Sincerely,

Ewa McGrail

I’m soaring again! And just think I get to go work with Miss Neville’s second graders this afternoon!

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…….

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!

I thought I’d give a couple of blogging snapshots of my sessions with the second graders and the high school guys.

I have to say that these second graders are really taking to the blogging. We have gotten a lot done in a short time. This week they blogged their thoughts about writing and drew some cute illustrations. They did this for homework and brought it to the lab to type. They ran out of time to answer all their comments. See their posts on Neville’s Bloggers.I only have this group a little under an hour and they haven’t yet mastered the typing skills but it is pretty impressive what they are getting done. I am orchestrating this project a little different. They don’t have individual blogs. It is all done on the class blog. I think a classroom teacher would be able to manage it. At first it takes a lot of time, just as anything else would as you are setting up the process. The students have had to learn a number of routines quickly. They save to the network drive on a folder entitled blogging inside Miss Neville’s folder. Right now they are typing their post on word, then we copy and paste onto the blog under Miss Neville’s sign in. Right now we are helping a lot with these mechanics but I don’t think it will be too long before the students will take over. They use these titles on their files; for instance, “Brittany’s Post on Writing”. Then when they save it on the hard drive. They are learning to click before their name and use a one word descriptor for the particular post. An example for this session is “writingBrittany”. This routine will help keep us sane, organized and will expedite the process. We even had parents enter the conversations on the commenting part. That was great. We even had younger brothers enter the conversations, too. I know this group is going to take some interesting turns and we will learn a lot. Miss Neville is enthusiastic and sees the potential.

My high school guys blogged about slavery this week. They had listened to the book, To Be a Slave, by Julius Lester. It really moved them. The writing is, well the word that comes to mind is excruciating, but they are coming along. They hang in there. Next session we are aiming to have them listen to actual slave narratives and then blog about it. Check it out at Getting Heard.

To Be a Slave by Julius Lester is a book that Mrs. Baros is reading to the Getting Heard group. It has had a profound effect on them. Getting those feelings written down and on their blogs is no easy feat for these students. They really struggle. Mrs. Baros talked about reflections in class and how you have to make a connection. It can be a connection to your experiences, to a book, or to your personal feelings. Then she worked at taking them to another level encouraging them to think about the past and its effect on today. She encouraged them to think about what happened in history and what effect it had on them now. What difference has it made?  What’s the big picture? When they write they put down words but the thinking piece of the writing is a major struggle.

I don’t think we do a very good job of having our students make connections to their learning. I think we need to start much earlier with this connection process and make reflection a viable piece in our classrooms. Our classrooms have to become places where we honor giving our students time to reflect. As for me, I am going to keep on reflecting on reflecting. Mrs. Neville and I are going to try to see how the second graders fare in this area. She is asking them some good questions on Becoming Authors.

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I’m dancing once again. This time it is in Ohio. It’s not the tango, rather this time it is ballet! Did you see that beautiful pirouette I made?

Seriously, Lani Ritter Hall is conducting a workshop at Ohio Connects! Bridging Learning, Technology and Achievement Conference. This is their state technology conference being held in Columbus, Ohio. Here’s a description of her workshop:

Blogging in the K-12 classroom: Real World, Standards-based Learning!

Return to your district with a blog ready for integration into your classroom learning experiences! Examine the educational uses of blogs at all grade levels. Create your own classroom blog. Create a Flickr account to store your classroom pictures and insert them into your blog. Participate in a Skype conversation with Anne Davis of Georgia State University on blogging in the classroom.

Lani has created an incredible workshop, Her presentation blog is Blogging Ballet. Go view the 6 Acts that she designed, then orchestrated and then presented! You will be able to participate online. It is amazing how we can have access to all these wonderful resources. Then having a tool such as Skype to be able to participate and join in on the fun. More bloggers go forth!

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Last Friday I met again with Miss Neville’s second graders. They didn’t get to answer follow-up comments they had received because they were busy posting introductions. We wished we could do this for the whole day but unfortunately that couldn’t be. Miss Neville and I talked as they wrote. We decided that we’d use the class blog for them to post. We posted them under Miss Neville’s name and decided that we would label future posts from the students themselves in this manner:
Cameron’s Introduction (2nd part being whatever their post topic is) These students probably won’t be having individual blogs so we’re going to test-drive the management part of this. I think it will work fine. We’re working towards them being able to post, comment more in their classrooms during the week. We’re trying to come up with a plan that a classroom teacher can manage and oversee during the regular classroom time.

Update:  Thank you, Elizabeth Ditz! (I love the name of her blog and it is one of the most interesting blogs I read!)

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Dear Mrs. Davis

AAAAHHHH!!! I am so excited to see my name in your blog. Thanks for putting me in it!! My writing must be really good. Yay!!!

This was the first comment I read today on my blog. It was from Chloe, a student in Gordon Brune’s fifth grade class in Mamaroneck, NY. To say that it made my day is an understatement. Chloe posted this comment 3 times so I think she was as excited as I am!

Yes, Chloe you writing is REALLY good but you are also one of the best commenters around! I always enjoy your posts and your comments to many other students.

Then my second comment was over at Podcast Playground. It came from Darren Kuropatwa. Darren is at the top of my list of bloggers who are truly making a difference with kids, so his comment put me over the top….

Anne, this is a BRILLIANT idea! It was fantastic to hear the kids describe, in their own words, how powerfully they’ve been impacted by having people from all over the world comment on their blogs. You’ve long said that one of the most powerful experiences student bloggers can have comes out of the comments left by others. The kids prove your point in their own eloquent words. Bravo! What a great podcast!

These comments make me soar! OK, I’ve just upped my “comment-a-day” goal a whole bunch! Have I mentioned lately how much I love being a part of this blogging community?

Tuesday I went to JHH to have the JHH bloggers podcast about comments. I am just learning the Audacity program. I put the individual student responses up so if you want to hear their thoughts check it out here at the Podcast Playground. I love how they spotlighted the people who are commenting to them! I can’t tell you how good it felt to be back at my former school working with these kids.
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Wow! What a great use of blogs! OK, what’s next? This is just going to keep getting better and better.

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This morning I met with the Getting Heard group. They posted their thoughts about what they had been learning in U.S. history. They’re talking mostly about slavery. This group changes each time I meet with them. Students are in and out of the group for an assortment of reasons. It is ever-changing and ever-surprising. We’ve got a long way to go in public education before we meet the needs of many of our at-risk students. I’m glad I have the opportunity to work with this group and their dedicated teacher. It reminds me how many educators we have out there who work hard to make a difference in these kids’ lives. My hat is off to each and every one of them. This is a year for observing and learning for me. I know I have much to learn in this area.

This afternoon I had the pleasure of returning to my former elementary school. That’s J.H. House, of course. Hillary Meeler and I had discussed my coming out to do a podcast with the students.It was a podcast about the commenting feature on blogs.  First they posted their thoughts, then we talked about them, and then tried a “group” podcast. Getting the girls to speak up was quite a task! This was our first try though so it may be a little rough around the edges but the content is good. Some of the commenters these elementary bloggers recognized were  Bronwyn G from Australia (here, here, and here)., Jane from South Korea, Chloe from Mamaroneck, New York, Graciela from Conyers, GA, Mr. Gordon Brune from Mamaroneck, New York, Mrs. Dugas from Conyers, GA, Maria from Conyers, GA

Regarding comments, they blogged about……….

• laughter and comedy
  
• being on top of the world
  
• getting good hints
  
• helping them feel more confident
  
• not giving up
• learning good tips on what they could do to make comments and voice come alive
• commenting being the best part of blogging
• learning that people elsewhere personally knew people involved in world-wide tragedies
• realizing what other people really think
• having their knowledge of something they are very interested in extended

I’ve posted the unedited version over at Podcast Playground.
Wow! What a great day - blogging in two schools. It doesn’t get much better than that!