I am happy to introduce a very exciting learning tool in our classroom; our very own student written blog. A weblog, or blog for short, will function much as our classroom journals except through posting and creating work online, we will be able to solicit comments from students across the globe on our work, as well as classmates. This new writing opportunity affords us the chance to develop our writing while exposing it to a potentially global audience, thus leading to in-depth discovery, reflection, and redirection in our literacy skills.
The blog’s main function will be to promote a continual writing process, featuring book reviews, poetry, journal reflections as well as a chance for students to develop critical thinking skills as they comment and guide each other. Not all work will be graded, however, all work will be assessed for effort made and progress shown. By having a real audience, we will learn to focus our writing to target specific groups as well as continue to develop our own unique writing voice, all in an e-portfolio format.
I will set up our student blog and students will be given access to post their finished work and comments. All comments and posts have to be approved by me before they are made visible to the public, however, students with at-home web accessibility will be able to post assignments and comments from home, too. Parents and family members are encouraged to also get involved and will be given the website so that they become part of our learning conversation.
Before proceeding with this blog we will discuss proper Internet usage, blog etiquette, as well as how to comment constructively and not critically.
All of these skills developed through this blog are part of our lifelong learning and I hope to set the students on a wonderful path of Internet exploration and usability!
