Writing 2.0 : Blogging for an Audience

1. Writing 2.0 :Blogging for an Audience Aman Dhanda

2. Technology Today • How do your students use technology in their daily lives. • At home and/or school • Common Theme COMMUNICATION/AUDIENCE!

3. Big Question • Why not incorporate this appeal of both technology and audience into writing in the classroom?

4. Rational • Providing an immediate audience for student work, through blogging, can provide even the most reluctant writers with enjoyment and motivation in writing.

5. What in the world is a BLOG? • A weblog, or blog, is a webpage that can be created and easily updated by adding “posts”, or entries. • Each new post has a date stamp. • Each post has a “comment” section where visitors may leave comments for the author. • Example: http://a3wp.edublogs.org

6. What are the benefits of blogging? • Motivation in seeing words published • An innovative way for students to engage in reflective writing • Students write more credibly, accurately, and carefully for an audience other than their teacher • Allow others to respond and provide feedback

7. Edublogs • www.edublogs.org • Free • Created for educators • Not password protected (yet) • www.wordpress.com (this site has more privacy settings than Edublogs) • Example: http://missdhanda.edublogs.org

11. Other Examples • 5th Grade ELD: • http://mercereld.edublogs.org • Kinder: • http://woodlandrm3.blogspot.com • Junior High: • http://mr-fisher.edublogs.org • High School: • http://central.hcrhs.k12.nj.us/mcjournalism • College: • http://professorluongo.blogspot.com • Many, many, many more: • http://supportblogging.com/Links+to+School+Bloggers

12. Student Work • Stephen- Below Basic • http://dhandastudent13.edublogs.org • Lupita- Basic • http://dhandastudent27.edublogs.org • Alex- Proficient • http://dhandastudent4.edublogs.org • Selena- Proficient • http://dhandastudent6.edublogs.org • Ovie- Advanced • http://dhandastudent18.edublogs.org

13. Blog Comments • Indicate an understanding of key ideas • Provide a quality critique • Share a similar learning or action • Extend a student’s own understanding and learning.

14. How do you teach students to make meaningful comments? • Teachers could help early bloggers use sentence starters to comment on their classmates’ posts. • Having students use sentence starters to comment helps them to avoid words like nice and good in their comments.

15. Leave a Comment

16. Comment Sentence Starters

17. Comment Sentence Starters

18. Assessment • Rubric that outlines the key criteria for determining a student's grade, including use of: • evidence • engagement with the text • whether or not a student responded thoughtfully. • Writing in a Wired World: Improving Student Writing Using a Computer, Stephen Valentine and Gray Smith • forthcoming from Teacher Created Materials

19. Example Blog Rubric http://edweb.sdsu.edu/courses/edtec296/assignments/blog_rubric.html

20. In Conclusion… • “I understood immediately the thrill of seeing oneself in print. It provides some sort of primal verification: you are in print; therefore you exist…Seeing yourself in print is such an amazing concept: you can get so much attention without actually having to actually show up somewhere. While others who have something to say or who want to be effectual, like musicians or baseball players or politicians, have to get out there in front of people, writers, who tend to be shy, get to stay home and still be public. There are many obvious advantages to this. You don’t have to dress up, for instance, and you can’t hear them boo you right away.” • -Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird