Someone posted a request on the Class Blogmeister list yesterday, asking for readers to come and comment on her students’ bloggings. It’s a common request. It’s one of the reasons that you blog, to engage in conversation.
I frequently go in, read, and comment, but not nearly as much as I should, considering that one reason for building Class Blogmeister was that I could learn from teachers and students, some interesting ways that this conversation might be used to learn. Alas, there’s only 24 hours….
It occurred to me, this morning, while I should have been sleeping, that a logical audience for students blog writings might be last year’s 4th graders. If a 4th grade class blogging teacher could arrange for a 5th grade class to periodically read and comment on her students’ writings, it could be a unique learning experience for both classes.
- Students’ blogs are being read regularly (or at least predictably) and responded to.
- The blogs are being read by students who, if they hadn’t written on the subject the previous year, at least they have considered it before.
- Students are reading the reactions of readers who have the benefit of one (or two or three) year’s maturity.
- Students are reading the reactions of readers who are considering the same topic with slightly more depth and sophistication. Slightly is good!
- The upperclassmen are revisiting topics that were covered the previous year(s) from slightly more maturity and sophistication.
Just an idea, from the change in my pocket!
My grade four kids have been posting their stories on one of our blogs titled “Write On!†(http://monsonswriters.blogspot.com/) for the past two months. We are slowly acquiring willing participants to leave comments as well as the students themselves. So far we have a 9th grade English class from our attendance area signed on to comment on our writing as well as various school and community members. Even more amazing is that my mother is leaving feedback from time to time! I plan to utilize my current students next year as peer teachers and writing mentors when a new set of kids enters my room.
After 12 years of teaching elementary school and all of those years with innovative (or what I thought to have been innovative) uses of computer technology, this application of computers is by far the best I used with kids. Even in the infancy of using blogs in this way, my students are motivated, engaged, thinking critically, and most importantly…learning.