Blogging - A new way to discuss...
For the past year I have been wanting to use blogs in my classroom. The county that I work for provides all teachers with space to create a class website. One of the pages that can be created is a Blog page. I decided to play around with creating a blog because I wanted to see how my students would react. To my surprise, they were not as excited as I expected but they did like the ability to read the comments of their peers.
I require all students to respond to my classroom blog. They have more freedom when posting to a blog (as long as it is school appropriate). Traditional writing usually requires students to write in essay/report format. Blogs allow students to get their opinions and thoughts out without having a classroom discussion. The students don't realize that it is a form of writing and can be very educational. Blogs allow deeper thought on subjects. When I post blogs for my students their response must be detailed, much more than a yes or no response is required.
I currently teach Business classes (Banking, Intro to Business, and Insurance) to high school students in grades 9-12. In dealing with the many world issues that arise in the world of business, blogs are practical because students can write reflectively and communicate with their peers.
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Most high school students seem to do the work just to get it done; there are a few exceptions. The students not getting into it now may not change. To get good discussions going the students will need to take pride in the topic. You might want to try and have the students come up with their own topics. They will then feel some ownership towards the blog. Also at their age they might be able to set up their own blogs and start their own discussions in which the whole class participates.
ReplyDeleteWhen you have the students blog on your classroom blog, do they respond to you or to each other? I want to start blogging, but I think that is where I am running into trouble figuring out how to make it more of a discussion amongst the students rather than just them posting a response.
ReplyDeleteFor students in high school, it might be a good idea to have take turns posting a discussion topic. They could find articles or events in everyday life, especially for your business class, and have to begin a discussion thread about that topic. I have been trying to teach my students how to find their own answers and information, as in this day and age, it is important for students to know how to access their own information. Just a thought!
I have my students respond to my blog. I usually start with a scenario and question. In order to ensure that the students post school appropriate content I like to lead the blog topics. I use a school based website that offers a blog page so I can delete unappropriate comments.
ReplyDeleteIn reference to the article/events I have my students do an Article Critique every week on a current issue in Business. Sometimes I provide them with the article and sometimes they choose an article from the online news sites. They are required to then prepare a detailed critique after reading.