I've already used class blogs for writing projects. I decided to use them to encourage process writing. As the article Blogging for ELT by Graham Stanley, British Council, Barcelona (www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/blogging-elt) suggests, the key factor for me were: to allow student's written work to be read by peers - a real audience (not the teachers are unreal - but a rather limited audience).
But, the main reason I used class blogs was to use a tool students were interested in to deal with a skill
they´re usually not interested at all - writing. That´s why I already worked with blogs, despite the fact blogs are still finding a place in my own heart.
Honestly speaking, journaling on a notebook is still quite appealing to me and I believe depending on the area your working with - intrapersonal skills, for example, it is even more effective. So, blogging is definitely a new skill to me and I feel one of my aims with the course is to be able to use them in a more structured way as I have already lost class blogs URLs from the past.
During the creation it took me some time to think of a relevant title and address. Finally and decided to be as simple as possible as simplicity really helps me when dealing with new endeavors.
Looking forward to finding a new meaning to blogging with you all.
Best,
Juliana
Hello Juliana,
ReplyDeleteIt's really nice to meet you, even if this is taking place in the virtual world. :) I congratulate you too on creating your personal reflective blog, which I am sure will be a great source of inspiration to all of us. :)
You have written here that actually you have already used class blogs for writing projects. Could you shortly tell me about them? What kind of projects were those? Were students interested and highly motivated to write on the blog? How has their attitude changed towards writing? :)
Thank you and hope to learn a lot from you.
Jurga.
Hi Jurga,
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, thanks a lot for your kind feedback. Regarding your question, I work at a binational center - whose evaluation system includes 3 compulsory pieces of writings. I decided to use the blogs for teenager courses. I used to notice they would hand in very untidy writings both the way they would write as well as the paper choice itself.
So step was - I presented the project and its steps:
Step 1 - creating a blog - We decided on a name - which one of the students did and everybody was given passwords.
Step 2. created a rubric for writing evaluation, presented it to the students and kept on using it during the process writing experience.
Step 3 - deadlines were presented.
Step 4.- Process writing for each task would take 4 classes time - which in the context I work is about 15 days.
Comments on the experience: It was amazing to noticed how everyone would post pictures together with the text. Students posted at home but in class they could then read someone else´s post and comment.
We could exchange expertise - students would offer help dealing with the blog, whenever the teacher or any other student would have doubts. That´s real cooperative learning.
One thing to bear in mind regarding these steps - is that each student had their own computer in the experiments I did.
We have switched to one-computer classroom which requires all the process to be done at home - which to my opinion is not as funny as the previous versions.
As each group is together for one semester only - the blog tends to be abandoned after the term is over. After the experience in this course I´d motivate each student to have their own writing blog and keep using it, which is a way to keep a record of their own production.
I´m sure we´ll learn a lot from each other,
Cheers,
Dear Juliana,
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on having created your 100% own blog! I understand your feeling of having something of your own, that you can share with others.
You have already shared a lot by giving details, relating to how you used blogging with your students, to Jurga above. Thanks for that.
I hope we will have more interactions, throughout this training, either here or on Nicenet. Your blog looks good!
All the best,
Manda (Madagascar)
Hi Manda,
DeleteTks for your comments. I'm looking forward to visiting your blog o learn from your experience as well.
Dear Juliana,
ReplyDeleteI totally understand the feeling of pride in creating your first 100 % blog. In my case, it was my first-ever blog. I didn't manage to even post the URL correctly on the Blog roll, I hope my blog is visible now...
I agree with the statement you shared that blogging provides a feeling of a realistic audience, it is true. My students would appreciate the opportunity to work on blogs, but I am afraid of the realistic time-constraints. Their work load is already too heavy with other subjects from their core curriculum fields, and English is seen as a skill-teaching subject... I would definitely like to try it even though I cannot insist on it... Thank you very much for the detailed explanation of your writing project.
Best,
Milena
Hi Milena,
DeleteTks for sharing your first blog experience.
Your comment reminded me of ta saying that roughly goes like that- if you need extra help ask someone who's busy. It´s incredible to notice that where there's a will there's a way. I'm sure even busy students can benefit from blogging.
Best regards,
Juliana