ElementaryBlogging. Elementary+Student+Blogging+Contract. How to Blog With Young Students. Blogging -- or Web logging -- most often is thought of as an activity for high school students. Did you know, however, that students as young as kindergarten age now blog on a daily basis in a variety of exciting ways? Read on to find out how elementary blogging works, what topics elementary students and teachers cover in their blogs, which software programs and tools to consider, and cautions and tips for starting your own blog. INCLUDED: More than two-dozen links to blogging software and to elementary blogs across the United States. At its core, blogging -- or Web logging -- is a method of online journaling.
Take a look at any blog and you'll immediately see the connection between it and a traditional diary. Often arranged in calendar format with the most recent post first, blogs contain rantings, wishes, commentary and anything else a writer thinks about, often with graphics and perhaps even with audio and video elements. So, what do students in grades K-6 blog about? Safe and simple blogs for your students. Literacy 2.0:The Joy of Blogging. Anne P. Davis and Ewa McGrail A group of smiling and eager 5th graders bustles into the school's computer lab to check the latest comments that seem to magically appear on their blogs. A feeling of excitement crackles through the air as the sounds of clicking keys and oohs and ahs from the students fill the lab.
The joy of learning surfaces as students exclaim, "I have five comments! " "I heard from someone in New Zealand. " "I got my third comment from Lani. " These 5th graders in a suburban elementary school in southeast Georgia have been engaged in a yearlong blogging project whose purpose was to create a space for the students to converse about what they were learning in class and beyond. What brought about this kind of learning? Anni Argues for Water I strongly believe that we need a water fountain at my school's playground. … First reason we need a water fountain is because when we get thirsty we don't have to run upstairs. Defining Blogging Eddie Explores Math Staying Safe References. The Influence of Classroom Blogging on Elementary Student Writing. Literacy is social in nature, and just as people construct meaning in social relationships through conversations with one another, the world of literacy is one in which we continually respond and react to others.
It is critical that students are given the opportunity to engage in meaningful conversations about writing. Researchers have asserted that teachers need to devote time to explicitly teach students how to engage in meaningful discussions with others about their writing, just as they devote time to writing instruction. More recently, blogs have been used in classrooms as a new approach for teaching writing. Blogs can be a method for focusing on student writing growth, and can be exciting for generating discussion, reflection, social networking, and writing across disciplines.
In McGrail and Davis' study, the researchers selected a case study approach involving student and teacher interviews and classroom observations.