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Blogs

Maintaining their own blogs allows students to practice writting skills and publish their learning in a consistently updated, easily manageable manner. There are many safe, education-focused blog websites available to both teachers and their students. 

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Assessing Blogs
Supporting Examples
Platforms
How to Incorporate in the Classroom

  • K-12 Platforms:

    • Kidblog

      • Free for teacher & students (paid versions for more storage space, advanced features)

      • Up to 50 student accounts

      • Automatic in-class privacy

    • Edublogs

      • Student blogs must be attached to a teacher pro subscription ($40/year)

      • Customize privacy settings with paid version

    • Course management sites (Edmodo, Moodle, Canvas, Lore) that have forum post options

      • Free options, but more complex for students 
         

  • High School Platforms:

    • Blogger, Blogspot, websites (Wix, Weebly)

    • All free, but teacher does not easily manage students' accounts (the two are not linked)

  • Elementary/Middle School Components:

    • Provide scaffolding

      • E.g., paper copies of posts completed before online versions (Val Capel's 3rd grade class)

    • Student responses to peers' posts

      • Structured (e.g., sentence stems)

      • See here to read about how Ms. Cassidy teaches her first grade students  how to post comments on their peers' blogs.

      • Teacher moderation of posts and comments

    • Enlist volunteer/parent support for set-up
       

  • Middle/High School Components:

    • Student responses to peers' posts

      • More open-ended (e.g., prompts)
         

  • ​​K-12 Components:

    • Teacher has a blog persona 

      • For modeling, responding to posts, etc.

Goals: objectives are aligned with state standards and the NETS*S

  • CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.K.6
    With guidance and support form adults, explore a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing, including in collaboration with peers.

  • CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.11-12.6 
    Use technology,     including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products in response to ongoing feedback, including new arguments or information.
     

Rubrics: 

  • Measurable categories on rubrics

    • Format, content, conventions

      • Word count for middle/high school students

  • Elementary: basic posting requirements

    • Title and signature lines, capital letters and punctuation, etc.

  • Secondary: more advanced posting options

    • Adding images, including outside resources, etc. add picture, bring in another resource, etc.

Kidblog: Mrs. Capel's 3rd Grade Class
Hamilton Elementary School

Hamilton, MI

  • Students' blogs used on a daily basis as part of writing workshop/Daily 5

  • Teacher maintains students' usernames, passwords, and approves all comments before they are posted.

  • Scaffolding (printed blogs) decreased during the year.

  • Parents can create ​parent Kidblog accounts to comment on their child's blog posts.

  • See our sample class blog here.

​

Edublogs: Ms. Cassidy's 1st Grade Class

South Prairie Schools

Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada

  • Both teacher and students maintain blogs.

  • Teacher's blog showcases what students are learning (much of which is infused with technology) each day.

  • Students' blogs serve as their own digital portfolios.

  • Students explore multiple technologies (e.g., Twitter, iPads, photo/video uploads, etc.) in their blog posts.

In Practice: Impact of Daily Blogging on Student Engagement

Citation:

Cassidy, Kathy. Ms. Cassidy's Classroom Blog. N.p., Sept. 2012. Web. 3 Mar. 2014.

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