Blogging4Kids: QuadBlogging: Creating Social Networks for Your Classes. Keeping Communication Open Year-Round. As teachers, we are always looking for new, motivating ways to get our students to read, not only during the course of the school year, but during the summer when sun is high, the pools are open, and the kids are presented with the extra time in which they have to just lay around, play video games, and do a whole lot of “nothing.” That is how we created an engaging, creative way that goes beyond the teachers', tutors' and parents' summer reading "requirements," and the tireless read-a-thon programs that certainly motivate some with prizes and an award at the end (if the student happens to meet his/her goal without fuss and forcefulness).
Typically these programs only hit those with intrinsic motivation and/or those students whose parents sign them up to take the onus of being the “bad guys” when it comes to getting their kid to keep up their reading over the summer months and not lose everything they gained in the previous school year. From a future third grader: What is QuadBlogging? QuadBlogging Connects Student Writers with Global Audiences. A blog without an audience is like...a library without books, a car without an engine, Beyonce without a ring.
Those were some of the responses David Mitchell (@DeputyMitchell) got when he asked his Twitter followers to fill in the blank. "We all understand the importance of audience," says Mitchell, an educator from the United Kingdom and vocal proponent of using blogs to engage student writers. His latest strategy to connect students with readers around the world is the online phenomenon known as QuadBlogging. The idea is deceptively simple. Mitchell hatched the idea almost by chance with three other schools in the UK. Measurable Benefits Mitchell, deputy headmaster at Heathfield Community Primary School in Bolton, England, isn't exaggerating when he says blogging leads to better writing.
Along with measurable results, Mitchell has gathered plenty of anecdotal evidence. Global Replication Follow Gwaltney's QuadBloggers in the coming weeks on The Age of Exploration Blog .