Student blogging and writing...

I'm about to embark on a inquiry looking at student blogging and whether or not I see an improvement with their written output. I know this is a huge topic but I'm trying to keep focused and look at the depth or quality of their responses and/or writing tasks when they are able to make a post to our class blog. I am also going to be encouraging students to comment on the posts of their classmates.

I guess I find that when some students are given the paper and pencil they are often quick with their writing (seems I'm often encouraging more detail, thought...), however they love to share it. So...posting to a blog provides an audience and more of a purpose for their writing.

I plan on teaching about comments, expanding writing and providing details so that they have some understanding of what I'm looking for.

If anyone has any scholarly articles or research links I would really appreciate it. Also I would love to hear from colleagues who have had experience with this and their students and what they felt were successes, obeservations, experiences etc....

I teach grade 3 & 4 students...

Thanks!

Tags: blogging, writing

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Permalink Reply by Frank Virzi on August 24, 2010 at 7:33pm

Hi Sue,
Well it's not a scholarly article, but here's a link to my Environmental Science class blog that I ran for the first time last year that might give you some concrete ideas about what works and what doesn't -

http://fvirzi.blog.com/

Good luck!

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Permalink Reply by Mr. B on December 20, 2010 at 6:29pm

I just started a group to discuss these issues. I hope you'll join.

I'll send invitation. It is called Student Blogging.

Robert

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Permalink Reply by Colleen Young on December 21, 2010 at 10:38am

Are any of these of interest Sue?

On this page blogs / wikis /docs, benefits of collaborative learning and hand it in teaching...

and on the blogs page - Scott Huette's article and Kim Coffino's blogging guideleines.

I have certainly seen that my own students are motivated by publishing online so others can see their work.

Something else that has worked very well in that respect is Storybird. See links here.

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Permalink Reply by Sue Scott on February 23, 2011 at 9:22pm

Thanks for the links...haven't been here for a while...lots going on at home and work. I have set up a classroom account on storybird but am disappointed that at this time am not able to invite another class as I would have like my kids to be collaborating on a story globally...with a class.

They are inviting classmates to write at home and signing in without an email address has bee awesome!

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Permalink Reply by Amy Hollinger on December 21, 2010 at 4:02pm

Hi Sue,

I teach 4th-12th graders and we have the 4th and 5th graders post all of their assignments on a personal blog. They know that anyone in our small 4-12th grade community as well as parents have access to look at their blogs and make comments on them. Our elementary students have to write about all of their learning throughout the day including their inquiry based math. They use their blogs for formal writing, reflections and posting projects etc. It has been very successful and I am happy to share with you what we do.

Mainly I just wanted to say that I think it is great that you are embarking on your inquiry. The more creative you let them be with their blogging the more ownership they will feel. Have fun!

Amy H.

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Permalink Reply by Jill B on December 21, 2010 at 4:19pm

I do a weekly math blog. I post challenging problems that require discussion. The students had a hard time at first with just wanting to solve the problem, but with practice and constant reminders that the blog is about discussion and collaboration, not getting the answer right, they began to show some improvement in their comments. I constantly praise those responses that are questions, explaining thought process, asking for help and those that question others thinking. However, I have to monitor the blog daily and talk to students about how to comment without offending. We did some whole class preparation, but there are those who always push the envelope. Good luck on your journey to blogging. You will love it and so will your students.

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Permalink Reply by Katy Scott on February 25, 2011 at 5:08pm

I've seen a few studies showing that blogs can increase students' writing scores, quality, motivation, and variety. I recently wrote a blog entry about it and included links to much of the research. I also have some articles listed on the PD section of my website, if you're interested.

Let us know how your research goes!

Katy Scott

Stretch Your Digital Dollar

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Permalink Reply by Sue Scott on February 28, 2011 at 8:29pm

Thanks for your reply. I very much enjoyed reading the your blog post and appreciated the research links. I am using edublogs for my class blog and had intended to get the kids blogging but was reluctant to start as I thought many on the steps and menu items might be too much for my Grade 3s. I checked out kidblogs, one of the sites you wrote about, set up my class and linked it to my class blog. Awesome! Today they started on their first blog post and all were successful.

Thanks!

Sue

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Permalink Reply by Veronica Gutierrez on February 28, 2011 at 10:00pm

Although I am a college student, I think blogging for 3rd and 4th graders would be so beneficial for them. Blogging is something that my professor tried out for the first time last semester to see how it could help us as students and future teachers. At the end of the semester, she asked for our feedback and it was for the most part very positive. Students loved how we were able to see each other's writings and feelings about the class through our postings each week. It sort of felt like we became a closer community at the end of it all.

Here is an article discussed in one of my educational technology classes about blogging:

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2008/04/30/blogging-helps-encourage-teen...