Blogging in the classroom can provide students with so many benefits. One useful aspect of blogging includes internet projects. Internet projects through a blog encourage and motivate students to become interested in writing. For example, from the article, Collaborative Literacy: Blogs and Internet Projects, teachers create collaborative writing projects through the use of blogging. Julia Siporin’s third grade students write blog responses to their buddy, Jefferson Bear who is the host of Ms. Siporin’s class blog. Jefferson Bear writes to students and asks them to share their thoughts and opinions about various class topics such as informing the class about his endangered wildlife friends and what can they do to help the animals.
Another teacher, Betty Collum’s fourth grade students use the class blog for online literature discussions. In small groups, students read short texts and then select and write about a strike (something that stands out) and a wonder (a question) on the class blog. Collum’s class shares their blogs with students that are far away. Another teacher, Mr. Hodgson’s class blogs with students in another country describing what it is like to live in a different climate. Blogging in the classroom can provide students with so many advantages. As stated by Leu, internet projects united classrooms in exploring common topics (Leu, 2001).
After knowing the useful aspect of blogging, it makes me wonder how I can incorporate this into my own classroom. As a teacher of English Language Learners, it’s difficult to integrate any types of technology into my practice due to timing. However, I think blogging will be very beneficial and appropriate for my ELL students. One way that I would use a blog is to do a collaborative learning with my students. A book review is very appropriate for collaborative learning. Students read and critique book reviews by leaving feedback or comments.
The ideas of how a blog is used in the classrooms from this article are very ideal. I would love to incorporate all the great ideas into my classroom. To begin, I will start by doing a book review and take it from there. I want to see what kind of background knowledge my students have first. Another way that I would use a blog is to share information and resources with parents and teachers. Blogging is a wonderful tool for learning, sharing, and collaborating.
For more ideas on how to integrate a blog into your classroom, please read Collaborative Literacy: Blogs and Internet Projects
