Taking a Leap into Blogging Transcript
Maria: My name is Maria Perryman and I teach 6th grade at the George B. Armstrong School of International Studies in Chicago.
Good morning. Make sure you're sitting with your partner that you're going to work with.
My "Getting Better Together" project this year is on technology with an emphasis on blogging.
Our purpose today is to figure out what is a blog, why do people write blogs, and what makes a blog different from other web pages.
As I'm thinking about myself as an educator for 30 years, I'm not technologically savvy as my students are.
Okay, so he's showing you how to get into the settings.
I wanted to make sure that I was able to teach my students how to use technology for learning and not just for social purposes.
Are you in? There you go.
I started out on this journey pretty much by myself and I realized I wasn't getting anywhere.
Speaker 2 Fem: Hi Maria.
Speaker 3 Male: Hi Maria, how are you doing?
Maria: So I reached out to 2 other Teaching Channel laureates.
Speaker 2 Fem: I do keep an ongoing list of blogs that I want to write ...
Maria: They started helping me gain confidence in blogging and we talked about how to bring my students into the process.
Speaker 3 Male: I think it's about having an authentic audience, people who are really reading it to see what they have to say. I would encourage you to be sure you give your students the time to read one another's blogs and respond to them.
Maria: That really boosted my confidence because I had someone there.
This is an example of my blog. I've never blogged before.
Leading up to today I had them read my blog post and I had them respond to it.
There is a link in there of me talking with another teacher colleague from the Teaching Channel who got my confidence up where I felt like I could write a blog and I wanted you guys to come on the journey with me.
We just began blogging this past week. We practiced using the paper blog. They chose, "What's Your Favorite Food" and they read them afterwards. They responded using Post-It Notes. Once that happened for them they were excited because it wasn't formal writing and instead of it just being written for me to see, I think that makes a big difference as well.
Speaker 4: It said, "The broad red brush [inaudible 00:02:57]. Where's the heart supposed to be?"
Maria: My students just finished reading "Stargirl" by Jerry Spinelli and they truly enjoyed the book. They enjoy talking about the characters in the book, so today I'm taking a turn and bringing in a text and having them write from the characters perspective, not from their own. It took a twist and I was a little nervous about if they could turn that quick after just having a paper blog post and we dug right in.
So you now have to become that character.
For this lesson, the main reading standard is citing textual evidence to support the thoughts of the student in their blogging, and then for the writing standard, I was really looking at the production part of it because they are going to produce something that will definitely be published.
So everyone's blog must have all of the following, so I want to read that.
Speaker 5: The post should be at least 200 words.
Maria: We started with the blog requirements and we chose a character that they wanted to blog about.
Speaker 6: I chose Kevin ...
Maria: Uh-huh (affirmative).
Speaker 6: ... And I'm going to write about his relationship with Leo.
Speaker 7: I'm doing Hillari and I'm going to write about how she didn't like how Stargirl's being different.
Maria: Okay, anyone else? Alan?
Alan: Leo Borlock.
Maria: Leo Borlock. Tell me what you're going to write about?
Alan: I'm going to write about how challenging his life was during the start of the book to the end.
Maria: Woo, okay. So you're going to take it from beginning to end? Wow, okay. We're going to continue on now and you're going to go to kidblog.org. Those that are already in, you can tap on "new post" and you can get started.
As you're working with your partner, discuss what you're going to be writing, get help from one another, and make sure you get some points written down. I'm going to give you maybe about 15 minutes.
Speaker 9: I'm going to write how Stargirl changed bit by bit because she...
Maria: Because my class periods are so short, a lot of the work has to be done at home and then we come back in and we work on it as a class and revise it.
Speaker 10: What would you think that Hillari...
Speaker 11: I don't think Hillari would like Stargirl because Hillari was still a nemesis to Stargirl. I think that she doesn't really care.
Maria: Okay. Think about the "why". Why is she like that? Then talk about it from her perspective.
Speaker 9: I think she wants attention because I don't think she really gets attention from her parents.
Maria: As I walked around the room I noticed that the conversations were rich. Some of the conversations were so rich that they weren't writing and they weren't typing in anything.
Did a lot of talking, now we should be able to put some words in.
Time was ticking and I had to steer them back.
Quick observation I made while you guys were working, what ...
I noticed some groups were having a hard time with perspective.
First person point of view ... Someone explain that. Yes, Michael.
Michael: We're going to be using "I".
Maria: Okay. You're going to be using "I", remember?
Speaker 13: My?
Maria: Mm-hmm (affirmative), "my". What else ...
So we had to get them back on track and then they had to go back in and change some wording.
Speaker 14: Okay, so I'm supposed to write, "Hello my name is Hillari Kimble ..."
Speaker 7: "Hello, my name is Hillari Kimble. I have a boyfriend named Wayne Parr. He is popular for nothing."
Speaker 15: When [Neil 00:07:12] first moved to Arizona ... Should I say, "When I first moved to Arizona?"
Speaker 16: It's first person, I. You write "I thought things would be weird ..." or something.
Speaker 15: Different.
Speaker 16: I'm reading it ...
Maria: Uh-huh (affirmative).
Speaker 16: ... And then I'm translating some parts into my own words.
Maria: Okay, so are you still going to go from the exposition to the [inaudible 00:07:31]?
Speaker 16: I think I'm just going to go halfway around.
Maria: Okay.
Speaker 16: I'm still thinking, to the college reunion where they break up and Stargirl disappears.
Maria: Now remember, there's only 200 words.
Speaker 16: Yeah, I'm going to write little details.
Speaker 17: Okay, I think I have to have, "One day I [inaudible 00:07:55] ..."
Speaker 10: One day I decided to go to school.
Speaker 17: Correct.
Speaker 18: An unusual girl named Stargirl [inaudible 00:08:06] wearing a dress.
Speaker 19: Yeah, what dress is she wearing?
Speaker 18: She was wearing a white dress.
Maria: When I look at bringing in the writing standards to help out with reading, we usually do write, but it's in response to reading. This time, since they enjoy reading "Stargirl", this was a way that they could incorporate all of their thoughts and make it known, "This is how I feel this character was feeling at that particular time," with citing evidence from the text to support that.
Alan: If I was Leo I should put my first expression was to drag the Spanish teacher to the window and said, "Look, she loves me," but with the expression that, if I was talking to a real person like that. I don't want to do it, copying off the book, because then that's just putting the book into a blog.
Speaker 20: You should probably paraphrase it.
Alan: Yeah. Then I met Kevin. You could say that.
Speaker 20: Wait, at what age did [inaudible 00:09:10]?
Alan: The first day of school, 11th grade.
Speaker 20: So 11th grade?
Alan: Actually, high school.
Speaker 20: Yeah, 11th.
Alan: Yeah. You've been through some weird times ...
Speaker 20: Weird times.
Alan: ... Together. But then my best friend fell in love with her.
Speaker 20: Yeah, but you didn't fall in love with her though, because first, Stargirl, first Stargirl was-
Alan: But then my best friend started hanging out with her.
Speaker 20: Yeah.
Maria: I want someone to share out what they have written so far. Ask the person that's sharing out, maybe one or two questions from this peer question form.
One of the support tools I gave my students was the peer editing question sheet. That was to keep them on track, to keep them on focus.
Speaker 21: The title is "Kevin's Relationship". I have a best friend named Leo. We have been best friends since 11th grade and we've been through some weird times together. The worst was when Stargirl Carraway came to Mica High, like the time she came to school with the long dress and the ukulele, and the pet rat named Cinnamon. But then my best friend started hanging out with her and soon fell in love with her.
Maria: Questions? Go ahead. Just ask.
Speaker 22: I think Leo was jealous. Do you think you were jealous when Kevin had fallen in love with Stargirl?
Speaker 21: Yeah.
Maria: [inaudible 00:10:47], use your peer editing questions. We want to help him move along in his blog and help him to write more, okay?
We had a moment where a question was asked from the peer editing form and the student had to ask, wait a minute, what are you talking about?
Speaker 23: Do you have a connection to your blog?
Speaker 21: Actually I do because ... Wait. Am I Kevin or me?
Speaker 23: Do you have any connection to your blog?
Maria: I thought that was really neat because he wanted clarification on it to answer this.
Speaker 24: After reading the blog, what would you like to know more about?
Speaker 21: I would like to know more about what Kevin was doing while the story was focusing on Leo and Stargirl, what was Kevin doing?
Maria: After the finished product, my students are going to be required to to read 3 different blog posts and comment on those blogs and encourage each other to write more.
Speaker 25: I was a girl who had many feelings and many things I was trying to express. I was different than all the girls ...
Maria: The next time I try this blogging process, I want to have more student samples. I had my example of my blog, but I needed to show them a character perspective blog and maybe that would've helped them.
I wonder what this is about?
I want my students to have a love of reading and I believe using literature as a form of blogging, writing and responding to it, will help a student to want to read more. That's what my blogging journey with my students is all about.
122 Comments
Sonia Dorsey Jan 18, 2022 4:32pm
A seasoned teacher brings many assets into the classroom that can engage students and get them involved in the learning process to help themselves. This teacher utilizes her resources to learn a specific task that will not only engage her student's creativity, but also reinforces reading and writing. Blogging is a skill that, once learned, can turn into a profitable journey when practiced and demonstrates consistency from the creator. I appreciated the educator for challenging her students to write/blogg about a character from literature. Demonstrating time management skills, she provided guided teaching by utilizing a peer editing questionnaire each student used to create their content. Understanding her limitations in understanding how to utilize this tool in her classroom, she leaned on other teachers for input, further demonstrating her teaching skills by locating resources within her own peers (creating a support system) to aid her along this journey. It's obvious her students will benefit immensely from her acquired skills and love of teaching. #Goals2022
ulessa_2013@yah... Jul 13, 2021 2:34pm
Maria is teacher that teaching her students how to blog. Maria was nervous about the lesson because she was not advance in technology as her students are, she decide to reach out to other educators that have the knowledge of blogging for support. Before jumping into the lesson she define what is blogging, she provide the students with information details of blogging. Maria also asked her students some general questions, provide the students with some sample blogs. Finally she had her students create their own blog and share what they have written, then students share what they wrote. The students were able to use Kid Blog. When blogging it may be good to use a topic so it can a guide.
Diane Nelson Feb 22, 2019 11:56am
Blogging is different from other web pages. How do I teach technology for learning? My students are more technological advanced than I. Reaching out to others doesn't always help because I don't always understand their directions. Blogging is important and I need to learn how to blog. Perhaps I need to start with post it notes to take the formality out of blogging. Students dig in immediately. They have no fear. In reading, all blogs need requirements and supporting details. Each student should try to pick different areas of the story to share ideas and open discsusions.
Mallory Brito Aug 13, 2018 8:44pm
It is essential to teach students how to be aware of an audience when composing a piece of writing. Blogs help establish this awareness because blog authors can receive immediate comments and feedback. Blogs can be used across all content areas and give a feeling of "informal" learning. In the process, as mentioned by the teacher, students learn that the internet is more than just a social tool. I look forward to giving blogs a try in my classroom!
Robert Leabo May 27, 2018 3:44pm