We have finally lauched our blogs and the kids are really into it! I couldnt' believe the buzz in the classroom. They were so excited and really wanted to see what everyone else was doing. I had them learn how to post and comment by having them write about their favorite foods. This allowed them to just focus on the process. This way they wouldn't get too bogged down or overwhemed with also having to focus on the content about global warming.
Giving them the writing rubric and having them practice that more really helped to improve their responses. They are producing much better quality work now. Today when they did their first two "official" posts on the blog I reminded them about the rubric.
Monday was our first day where they learned how to post and practiced it. Then, yesterday I was out of the building for half of the day so they had to take a break from it as I didn't want to leave something so new with a substitute. So many kids asked about whether we would be blogging again today when they entered class. They were eager beavers!
I am really excited about how into this they are. I really think that by starting with something more conversational and easy for them it gave them a jumpstart. Today went very smoothly. They commented and posted about what their thoughts were about blogging- why is it good/bad? What makes this different than a usual class discussion? etc. After that the last task of the day was to revisit their positions on global warming and to write a post about that. The room fell under a dead silence as they focused in on their writing! Yippee!
I encouraged them to go onto the blogs tonight if they are able to and willing. Read what other people have written. Comment if you like. Maybe check out the other classes blogs.... Yet, I wanted to keep this optional so that if they do post and comment it is purely out of their interest and desire to do so. Wow! What a great start!
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