BlogsForWriting-Heather

==How can blogging build students' writing skills and help them become confident authors? ==



Why is this technology important?
Students are writing now more than ever; however, their writings are at home in front of their computers or cell phone screens. Why are students writing more at home than at school? Are teachers only supporting writing that is written in Standard English and in formal vocabulary? It’s important that teachers recognize that students are authors all throughout the day. Their author title should not only be recognized during a 45 minute writing block in which students are required to write formal essays. If students are writing at home and using various forms of technology, like blogs, to create these writings, then why not bring this technology into the classroom? What features of a blogging grabs students’ attention? Is it the instant feedback that draws students’ in? Does the online publishing make students feel like real authors? No matter what the specific feature is, it’s wonderful that students are active participants of the writing world. With blogs and other web applications, students are practicing their communication and writing skills. Because students are already interested in these forms of writings, why not bring this interest to the classroom just like any other funds of knowledge.

**Personal Connection **
During high school I took several courses with the Florida Virtual School. My teachers required us students to write our opinions on the class discussion board and comment on one another’s thoughts. The discussion board was within the Florida Virtual School website and could only be viewed by my peers and instructor. Blogging and discussion boards are very similar; however, blogging allows students to be part of a global writing society. Anyone can view the blog and leave comments. ====__Things to consider about blogging: __ ====


 * = ** Pros ** ||= ** Cons ** ||
 * = Students can discuss class topics outside of class hours. This gives students who don’t normally participate an opportunity to say their thoughts in a manner that may be more comfortable to them. ||= Blogging creates fear. Some people are afraid their children will be exposed to online predators. Teachers will need to monitor what students are saying to prevent any private information from appearing on the blog. Cypersmart is a good resource for online safety. ||
 * = Students can publish their stories, poems, essays, drawings, videos, and any other writings on the blog. The blogs could be a virtual portfolio of students’ class work. ||= Students without computers at home may have to experience blogging within the class. The teacher would need to consider time constraints if working in a low socioeconomic community. ||
 * = Parents can be easily updated about upcoming events or view their students’ work. ||= Depending on the blog’s purpose, teachers will need to decide if students are writing informally, formally, or both. Just like any other writing assignment, students need to know what is expected of them. ||
 * = ESLs can practice written responses with no time constraints. These students have access to all their peers’ written responses to read or use as examples while they write their own comments. ||= Students say that they get nervous when writing on the Internet!   ||

Common Types of Blogs used in Elementary Classrooms (Zawinski, 2009)   1. Classroom News Blogs:The blog is used as a school- home connection. Teachers usually post homework assignments, reminders, upcoming events, or curriculum changes.

2. Mirror Blog: Students comment or reflect on what they have learned in class. Students may post interesting quotes or ideas from a book.

3. Showcase Blog: Teachers post students podcasts, art projects, or writing. These teachers may use the blog to encourage **ESLs** to write in their L1 in unique ways. The blog may also be used to provide ESLs with an audience that supports their L1 writing development.

4. Literature Response Blog: Teachers may post a prompt and encourage students to write about the prompt. Teachers use this type of blog to encourage collaborative posts among students. Students will reflect on their peers' thoughts and negotiate multiple perspectives.

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Developing higher order thinking in students' writing =====  ====Teachers can use Higher Order Thinking Blogging also known as HOT Blogging to promote better writing skills (Zawinski, 2009). ====  1. //Bolster the background// - Teachers post activities or prompts that promote students' thinking. Students use the blogs to post sites or online resources that help develop back ground knowledge on the class assignment.

2. //Prime the pump// - Teachers post a prompt that requires students to reflect on the assignment or reading. Then students comment on their peers' reflections. Students jot down their ideas when reading their peers' writings.

3. //Continue the conversation// - Students use prior writings, research, and their notes to synthesize the assignment or reading. They post their synthesized writing online. Teachers encourage students to come up with original ideas or connections.

4. //Make multiplicity explicit// - Students post comments and ideas on their blog or on their peers' blogs, but base their writing on evidence. This encourages students to take their writing to the next step and include examples of support in their writing. Students use the evidence to convince others to support their ideas.

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<span style="color: #0d634c; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%; text-align: center;">Talented Texans - This blog has been used to publish students' poems.

Mrs. Hill's 3rd grade blogs - This blog has been used a class resource. Students respond to the teacher's discussion questions. The teacher also uses this blog to share safe, educational websites to her students.

A Really Different Place- This blog is very active. There teacher set up the blog for her 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders. Click on the Recent Posts tab on the left and read some the students' writings. They are really expressing their opinions! Allow students to write what they want and look at what happens! :)

Carol Marit's Class: This blog has been used to display students in action and give students the opportunity to write short entries based on a prompt.

**<span style="background-color: #0d634c; color: #bef4c1; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%; text-align: center;">Check out these articles! **
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**Witte, S. (2007). “That's online writing, not boring school writing": Writing with blogs and the talkback project. //Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 51//(2), 92-96.**
Witte’s article describes a Talkback Project, a blogging activity in which middle school students and preservice teachers responded to novel readings. The activity’s purpose was to get students writing, provide students with opportunities to build digital fluency skills, and give the preservice teachers opportunities to interpret and respond to student writings. The activity even extended to soldiers in Iraq. However, the Talkback Project ran into some problems. For example, the middle school students felt as if the preservice teachers were talking down to them, and the preservice teachers were frustrated that they were reading and responding faster than the middle school students. Witte’s project even ran into computer limitations. Later the Talkback Project was shut down due to an administrator’s fear of online predators. This led Witte to online legal and educational discussions with her class. Also, this forced the activity to paper use. Overall, Witte’s students found themselves disappointed with the paper activity. Even though the blogging activity had to go through a few problems, the students preferred blogging their responses to hand written journal responses.

The article demonstrates how blogging engages students and promotes students’ interest in writing; however, Witte’s article encompasses several features of blogging that can cause potential problems. When trying to understand the benefits of using blogging in the classroom, it is important to understand all aspects of an educational tool including its limitations. Witte describes how the use of blogs is subject to fears online predators or other dangerous situations if it is not protected and regulated by the teacher. It’s important for educators to be aware of the legal and dangerous issues that unfortunately can follow online blogging.

**Zawilinski, L. (2009). Hot blogging: A framework for blogging to promote higher order thinking. //The Reading Teach, 62// (8), 650-661.**
Zawilinski’s article describes what a blog is and describes multiple types of blogs used in the classroom, such as mirror blogs, classroom news blogs, showcase blogs, and literature response blogs. She also suggests four steps to help teachers find blogs for classroom use and how to set up a blog. Zawilinski explains in detail the stages for HOT blogging, higher order thinking blogging. She suggests that blogging exposes students to multiple perspectives and encourages them to fully support their own perspective by writing clear responses supported with evidence or persuasive language. Zawlinski lists questions that aid in the assessment of students’ blog posts. Overall, this article provides important tips and support for blogging use in the classroom. The suggestions found in the article support higher order thinking and encourage students to build communication skills.

In relation to the inquiry project, Zawlinski’s article provides teachers with information concerning how to help students develop blog responses and comments that are more than simple summaries of the assignment. In other words, Zawlinkski takes blogging to the next step. For example, the article suggests blogging can direct students’ literature responses simply because students have access to their peers’ responses and can build their argument or response on their peers’ thoughts. With blogging, students write with various purposes from describing what they have read in relation to some other texts to persuading their readers to agree with their interpretation of a book. Overall, the article supports using blogging in a way that encourages students to actively think about how to organize their online thoughts in a relevant way. Zawlinkski’s describes that blogs gives students a chance to create original thoughts. It’s important for teachers to find ways to use blogs in a way that will encourage sophisticated language and writings, and Zawlinkski’s article delivers an approach to encourage higher level thinking and writing. This is a useful concept, because students might think it’s useful for their futures if they become familiar with professional or formal Internet writing.

**Cassidy, K. (2008). To blog or not to blog. //Connect Magazine, 21(//4), 1-3.**
Cassidy’s article, //To Blog or Not to Blog//, describes how she used blogs in her primary classroom to encourage her students’ academic development and as a way to publish her students’ writings and drawings. The article stresses that blogging fulfills the importance of an authentic audience and a motivation factor for students. “It is pretty inspiring to be six years old and to see that an article that you have written has had twenty, fifty, or even one hundred reads” (Cassidy, 2008, p.1).Cassidy described that at the beginning not all of her students knew their letters and mostly typed their names, random letters, or random words posted in the classroom. However, Cassidy’s students read their blog entries to her while Cassidy entered editor notes on the students’ blogs that stated what the students were trying to say. As students’ writing skills progressed and their entries could be deciphered phonetically, Cassidy stopped using editor notes. Cassidy suggests several online resources to help the reader learn more about how blogging and online conservations can benefit students.

In the article, blogging gave students the motivation and confidence to become online authors; even though, they couldn’t necessarily write legible posts. This is relevant to the inquiry questions, because students used their blogs to view and build their writing and language skills. Because Cassidy used editor notes to type what the students read to her, Cassidy was building their emergent literacy. The students could see the words Cassidy typed right there on their blogs. This idea is similar to writing down students’ thoughts on a chalkboard or poster in the classroom. The editor’s notes on blogs can be another way teachers can expose students to words, so they can build their literacy skills. In the article, Cassidy says that her students enjoyed using the blogs to go back and witness how their writings skills improved. This is an interesting feature of blogging that served as a way students could assess themselves. If students are actively assessing themselves and their peers’ writings, then they could use this instant feedback to grow as writers. Also, Cassidy’s use of blogging makes me wonder how blogging fits into the traditional writing process most teachers support. As students’ writing and language skills progressed, Cassidy suggested that her students begin writing rough drafts then posting their final drafts on their blog. Most teachers support a writing process that includes brainstorming, rough drafts, and a final draft. The process seems concrete and structured. Although Cassidy suggests a similar approach, the students’ blogs don’t have to be final drafts, because their peers and other online readers will read and post suggestions that will improve the post. Even in primary grades, students are authors and writers. This article provides a great classroom blogging example that gave young students a chance to be authors and become familiar with letters, sounds, and words.

**Booth, A. (2006, August 25). 5 secret benefits of blogs for writers. Message posted to http://copywriter.typepad.com/copywriter/practice_your_writing_skills/**
Booth’s blog entry briefly suggests that blogs are a great tool to encourage people to write every day. She calls bloggins “your daily writing warm- up” (Booth, 2006, para. 6). She suggests ways to use blogging to improve writing skills. Booth also suggests to her readers and students to write as an act of discovery instead of writing to replicate a famous writer’s style. She believes that active writing, even simple writing, will help people unconsciously develop writing skills. In her post, Booth also suggests using timed freelance writing as a way to develop writing skills. In addition to building writing skills, Booth believes that blogging can encourage a writer’s confidence. The entry explains that blogging gives people the opportunity to write to an audience and hear from people who like to read their blog entries. The brief entry on blogging and writing skills provides readers with solid tips and suggestions to better their writing skills by using blogs.

Overall, this blog entry was very useful. Booth ties ideas that writing teachers already use in the classroom, such as free lance writing, with blogging. This may be a more realistic way to approach our technology savvy students who blog and type on their computer when at home. Booth also supports using blogging as a way to encourage daily writing. Teachers looking for a way to develop their students’ writing skills may find her basic suggestions as useful tools. Although, Booth’s blog entry is brief her main points serve as important ideas to ask ourselves when trying to create a writing curriculum for our students. Paper and pencil still works, but Booth believes blogging can be just as useful when developing writing skills and writing confidence.

** Huffaker, D. (2005). The educated blogger: Using weblogs to promote literacy in the classroom. //Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education Journal, 13//(2), 91-98. **
Huffaker’s article suggests that blogs give students the chance to write informally similar to a personal diary. His article explains that blogs promote students’ self expression because students can personalize their writings. He points out that students’ storytelling can grow through written format just as much as orally telling stories. Huffaker describes how blogs can be useful in the classroom and how it can support literacy. For example, he stresses that blogging provides this support because students are still practicing those reading and writing skills while they blog. In addition, Huffaker believes that “because blogs do not //require// exceptional technical skills, but still offer the opportunity to “tinker” using web programming languages for customization, blogs remain equitable for all age groups and both genders, and still provide a medium for learning programmatic skills”(Huffaker, 2005, p. 93). Another interesting idea that Huffacker presents is that digital literacy may be another skill that we teachers need to teach so students feel comfortable using technology.

This article supports the idea that students don’t necessarily have to write formally to build writing and storytelling skills. This is an important contribution to the relevance of blogging. His ideas help the readers to understand that blogging is still a form of writing and can give students the opportunity to practice communicating their ideas. Helping students have strong literacy skills is our goal as teachers. According to Huffaker, blogging can promote students’ skills that encompass their overall literacy development is more important. In addition, the article helps readers understand that blogging can be incorporated in multiple subjects and collaborative activities.

**<span style="background-color: #0d634c; color: #bef4c1; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%; text-align: center;">Time to Wrap Things Up! **
<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> <span style="color: #0d634c; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">As a whole, my research encompasses many features of blogging. The research includes positive and negative aspects of blogs. In addition, my search has led me to articles that help teachers understand how blogging can be used for multiple subject areas and discussion topics. The articles discuss how blogging can create an environment in which students can collaborate with others and can comfortably write. I found articles that supported using blogs as a way to create formal writing opportunities, such as discussing literature assignments, and informal writing opportunities, such as storytelling. Overall, I tried to collect a fair, diverse perspective on blogs’ importance to students’ growth as writers and authors.

In addition, I found several ways that blogging can be used in several ways that promotes students confidence as authors. From my research I found that blogging can help students with their early literacy development and then later help them develop clear, concise writing with a purpose. Based on my research and on example class blogs, I've discovered that a blog's success in promoting students' writing skills and confidence depends on teachers' active use and encouragement.