My initial reaction to blogging in a Kindergarten classroom was that of uncertainty. How could I possibly incorporate blogs in a meaningful and practical manner? I began to think outside of the box after I read Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. "Blogging can teach critical reading and writing skills, and it can lead to greater information management skills" (Richardson, 2009, p. 36). This being said, I believe a classroom blog, if utilized appropriately, could provide increased motivation for students to increase their reading and writing skills.
The purpose of my Kindergarten classroom blog would be to celebrate students' successes and work. Kindergartners love to receive praise and a blog would provide a wonderful stage for student work to be showcased. After scanning in a piece of student work that demonstrates growth, original thought, and/or quality work, I would have the student dictate what he/she would like me to write about his/her chosen work and why it deserves to be in the spotlight. This requires the students to critically think about how they demonstrated quality work and how to appropriately choose words to express their thoughts. I would encourage parents to visit our class blog and post comments about the students' work. This would provide my students with a greater understanding of how networks function and how people can communicate via the Internet. Most importantly, it would give their writing an audience outside of our classroom.
I believe that by creating a class blog, creativity will surge. Students will want their best work to showcased for the world to see. They will want to use their developing reading skills to read the posted comments and will find that writing is a powerful tool of expression. The creation of a class blog in Kindergarten may help to lay the foundation for how various forms of technology can be used as learning tools for years to come.
Reference:
Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Bad News- The Game
3 months ago
Would you place their work on the blog or train them to do that? I think it is a great idea to showcase your students' work and use a blog for communication with parents.
ReplyDeleteDo you have a classroom website? If so, I think this would be a great place to include the link to your blog. This would make it easier for your students and parents to naviagate (Richardson, 2009, p. 38). You could also create an online student bookshelf. This would show the students what books they have read and suggestions of what they could read in the future.
Resources:
Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Linzie,
ReplyDeleteDue to my students' ages, I would post their work to our classroom blog. My main goal would be to expose them to how they can demonstrate their learning and connect to the world outside our classroom.
I do have a class website and I agree that it would be smart to add a link to our classroom blog.
I am intrigued by your "student bookshelf" idea. Is this something that you include on your class website? If so, does it seem to stimulate interest in reading a variety of books and promote discussion about such books?
Thanks for your comments.
Erika
Erika,
ReplyDeleteThe students in my class are able to click on a link from my website and see what books they have already read, and books under the genre they enjoy reading to make a "to read" list. This is based on AR reading. I am not sure if you are familiar with this or not, but it is a program through Renaissance Learning that allows students to read books independently based on their reading level. It is very differentiated, and students take short quizzes after reading their books. All of which is done online. I think just like with any new program, blogging with your students should start small (Richardson, 2009, p. 44). Create a blog that, as I mentioned before, could be linked from your website and incorporate blogging as much as possible. Hope this helps!
Resources:
Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, wiks, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Thanks Linzie! I definitely plan on linking a blog to my class website and depending on the response, I will take it from there. I agree that if I do too much at one time, it could get overwhelming. Thanks again!
ReplyDelete