The key is personalizing it with the students to meet their communicative and learning needs. Please take a look at my slideshare about blogging for English-language learners.
Have your ELL students blogged? Please share your results and impressions in the comments section. Benefits of Blogging It's important for the teacher to discuss the benefit of blogging with her or his students, as this will inform how they learn through it. Provides an opportunity for reflection by students and their teacher Opens up student writing to a wider audience Provides an opportunity to practice writing and communication skills Builds a learning support community Empowers student voice Provides a platform for peer feedback Motivates and engages students in higher-level communicative learning.
How to Start Blogging in ELL Classrooms It's probably best to start planning on incorporating blogging in your classroom sometime before the term begins. There are several ways to use blogging in your classroom: Blogging for Students A student blog can have many purposes in an ELL classroom: Discussions Responses Reflections Sharing images, links, and resources Vocabulary and grammar activities Paragraph writing Commentary Storytelling These are just a few examples of what students can do with blogging.
When ELL students work on peer feedback, there are several areas on which they can focus: Share one positive thing about the post. Share one thing their peers can work on or improve. Share a personal story that relates to the blog post. Blogging for Classrooms A classroom blog is also a great idea for most classes. Here are some content suggestions: Information about class, assignments, daily routine, tasks, etc. Discussion and comments forum Class photos and videos Photos and videos of resources related to classwork Interesting articles and stories Vocabulary lists Links to resources, games, and fun ways to learn English Cultural stories written by students The possibilities are really endless when it comes to classroom blog content.
Resources for Getting Started Please take a look at my slideshare about blogging for English-language learners. Robertson's Class Jessica Lifshitz's Mrs. I was totally sold on the idea of blogging after reading of its potential in promoting the writing and analytical skills of students.
I have not set up a class blog as yet but do appreciate your article which verbalized some of my deep seated concerns. I paid particular keen attention to your advice stating to give students detailed instructions and guidelines. I will definitely sell the idea of blogging to them and be clear of my expectations. Very appreciative of your list of free blogging sites as well. Your caution lights have definitely helped me troubleshoot on the way to setting up my classroom blog.
A great post on blogging. We get many ideas on various topics through a blog thereby learning more and more. Great read! This is what I was looking for, Blogging helps teaching and learning both.
Thank you for posting. Thank you for writing such an informative an insightful article on using blogging as a learning tool. I have never written a blog before, but I am currently being introduced to the Web 2. As a result of your article, I have begun doing more research on it and found the article below to be quite interesting. This is a great reminder for us to get friendly with internet and explore our learning experience. I never thought that we can use blogs area a learning platform.
I have started using this technique in my classes, students are getting more and more interested in using blogs for learning and are now aware of the technology trends, news. A good friend of mine is a dean at a private university here in town Rome, GA , and he and I were just discussing some of the interesting benefits he has seen running a blog for his department. Pingback: The Journey Begins — shirleydotlove. Well written content like this restores my faith in quality writing.
The points are presented with intelligent thought and consideration. I agree with many of your views and respect your attention to detail. Pingback: How can publishing through blogs assist me now in my academic studies?
Interesting write up on blogging. Quite educative and inspiring. Have not tried it out before but I will. From every indication, blogging is a useful online tool for teaching and learning if used appropriately. Pingback: Badge 1 — Ally's Learnings. Pingback: 1. Roposh World History. Your email address will not be published. Time allotted, while not necessarily significant, needs to be purposeful and focused. In effect, students create a journal or blog personal or a group site to gather observations, thoughts, concerns, notes, progress, and opinions based on their unique interests and the topic of the project that has been assigned.
Writing projects build rapport between instructors and students, and among students themselves, contributing to a positive and progressive, two-way learning experience for all. In an educational setting, journals and blogs need to be more than simply lists of what the students do.
The process needs to be used to showcase their thinking process and to share their learning reflections. When set up and practised effectively and efficiently, collaborative blogging reinforces the reflective learning cycle , which in turn will hopefully lead to deeper learning and better learning skills.
Within the process of collaborative blogging, beyond the ability to write and verbalise, their thoughts, reflections and learning content, participating students also learn to collaborate and function as a group. Often over time, self-division of roles occur as students organize themselves into tasks that suit both their skills and personalities.
Through this process of team work , it may be that rules based on acceptable and unacceptable practises are discussed and incorporated; whether from top down teacher-defined or sideways peer-defined.
Ultimately, the working together on reflective learning, will hopefully lead to the greater practise of empathy and supportive learning, where shared ideas and thoughts take centre stage and less judgment over right and wrong occurs. A great continuous lesson in how different people think, how to agree to disagree and how to share a united outcome.
This in turn provides opportunity for deep learning to occur. Through the use of the writing process through blogs, students learn to express what they have learnt, alongside their thoughts, ideas and opinions in a context that is larger than a singular audience — the teacher. Through the peer interaction and feedback process, writing and commenting on blogs, they become more aware that their writing is read by an audience; with this in mind, over time, they become more aware that they need to write clearly and in a voice and method that makes their thoughts clear to the reader.
As with all student-focused activity, the introduction and use of collaborative blogging needs to be well designed with specific, focused goals and clear aims, objectives and outcomes. Rules and limits surrounding the language use and personal identification need to be clear, well-defined and communicated to the students.
While blogging as class assigned homework, has often been met with resistance and in many cases, poorly constructed output, much of this can be attributed to the fact that, the Internet itself poses a huge distraction and while blogging offers many potentials and positives, when assigned as homework, there often appears to be less value, than traditionally assigned homework.
Collaborative blogging works best in real time and with specific aims. For example, List the main points; Compare or contrast in point form; ultimately the instructions and purpose have to be specific to the outcome, in which students can be quick, concise and complete the task in a short time. While we all typically associate blog posts with long informative articles, in the practise of reflective learning and more specifically collaborative blogging, all that is required is a specific foothold of the lessons or main points covered, to dedicate a small fraction of class time to both a quick discussion and after that the expectation of a specific output ensures that the task is completed in class.
Following up the in-class writing time with a peer feedback process that incorporates the reading and commenting on articles submitted allow students to read and learn how others may view the learning content or even how focus and perspectives may differ. Ultimately, whether or not to assess collaboratively written blog posts, may be the key in creating value in the reflective learning journey.
Peer evaluation and assessment may be considered to encourage a more thoughtful and specific outcome.
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