Blogging with Blogger this year has been a success for me and I'm looking forward to what's next. Currently, 63 seventh and eighth grade students are using blogger on a regular basis (I'm not modeling this very well ;) to write personal and academic reflections and respond to writing prompts, in my English classes. We started with navigating the blogger settings; privacy, layout, adding authors (me) and readers (their peers), eventually arriving at authoring posts.
Google docs and google forms to log student writing wasn't working for me. I found entries weren't organized to my liking, I couldn't comment as readily nor could the students. And eventually, I wanted a platform that could be shared easily to our school community at large. Blogger made sense. In a 100 words the students are challenged to stay focused while attending to crafting a tight post with minimal grammar mistakes and use vivid, detailed language. They have a bank of 75 writing prompts, which they created.
Here is what I found:
- There is true interaction-they are interested in what their peers are writing. Though I require positive, critical commenting on peer posts, in many cases they comment freely on another student's post. Additionally, during our 'blog times' I can hear the interaction: "It's spelled this way, not like that!" or "Is that an appropriate comment?"
- The entries are organized and easier for me to access, though I'm looking improve this further
- Posts are evolving, they are more engaging, detailed and smoother ranging from playful to profound
- Choice in prompt has helped to keep interest
- Sharing via G+ to our domain adds another level of accountability compared to when the post is shared only with their peers
What started as a means to organize journal entries, evolved into a consistent practice which is showing results.
