"KidsBookBlog" We need participants!

Hello,

Jane Krauss recommended that I join this discussion to share a project my students are working on and to look for collaboration and/or participation from the students that you work with. My students have created a "book blog" that is actually much more than what it seems.

We have over 300 books reviewed searchable by title, author or genre. We are also starting an online book club with the first book being "City of Ember" by Jeanne DuPrau. We would love to have students join this club. The discussion for this book starts on September 29.

Rolling out at the end of September will be....
Author Study Podcasts
How 2 Videos
Video Summaries of common books

Please help me spread the word so that my students can see the fruits of their labors. They really want to spread a love of reading around the world.
I would also love any suggestions you have for making the blog better.

here is the site address: http://kidsbookblog.edublogs.org/
You can reach me at dphillip@egusd.net or denise_m_phillips@me.com

Thanks for your time - Denise

Tags: Collaboration, children's, literature

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Permalink Reply by Nancy Bosch on September 3, 2008 at 1:56pm

Your site looks neat, where is the database? Is it blog postings elsewhere on the site or an actual database. I was unable to access it to look around, maybe I didn't look hard enough. I did my first online book discussion, City of Ember, several years ago using Blackboard. I've since switched to Moodle. We actually had the author, Jeanne DuPrau, join in on the discussion but this was right after she wrote the book, I'm sure she's pretty busy now. Good luck with your project. N

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Permalink Reply by Denise Phillips on September 3, 2008 at 3:47pm

Hi Nancy,
The students are simply entering these as blog posts. You can search by categories, or you can type in an author name or title in the search box. The posts are put in as blog posts with categories.

The students are "one entity" as blog creators. We wanted to keep the discussion fairly simple because this is their first experience with it. They are just learning how to manage their blog dashboard and I wanted them to master this. I am mainly focusing on helping them develop relevant lines of questioning that address content standards. How exciting to have the author join your discussion? I am afraid that I am more of a novice than you and am just starting this process.

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Permalink Reply by Nancy Bosch on September 3, 2008 at 4:57pm

I think it's a great site and your should be proud that you took the time to design it and maintain it. I get so tired of teachers whining that "they just don't have time for whatever." Just do it!! Congrats to you. N

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Permalink Reply by Brad Wilson on September 3, 2008 at 5:31pm

Denise,

Wow looks like great work and definately a great idea. Could you please clarify the age/reading levels or range of these that will be covered on the site?

Thanks!

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Permalink Reply by Denise Phillips on September 3, 2008 at 11:05pm

Hi Brad,
I would say that the books are 3rd - 8th grade books although we have a range. My 5th grade students are totally into the Twilight series and so are high schoolers. I hope this helps.