Ways to use blogs in the classroom

Ways to use blogs in the classroom

• 1.
  Ways to UseBlogs in the Classroom By Amary Rivera [email protected]
• 2.
  Weekly Writing Prompts Post a Prompt Post a weekly writing prompt on the blog and have your students respond to it by a certain day.  Ask students to comment on one of their classmates ideas drawing a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students receive a comment from someone.  Foster process writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics (editing) of the other student’s submission.
• 3.
  Weekly Calendar ofEvents and Assignments  The week in Review  Appoint a weekly blog team to write the week’s blog entry describing the events of the week and the assignments.  By posting the weekly events students who are absent will know what assignments to complete and what they have missed.
• 4.
  Respond to Stories Respond to reading  Check for comprehension by asking students to respond to the week’s readings by summarizing and reflecting on how it applies to their own real life experiences.  Post questions for students to discuss and ask them to respond to classmates.
• 5.
  Fact Finding Activities Find the facts  Post a statement with no supporting facts. Ask students to find facts to support or refute the opinion using links to reliable web sites and their own persuasive explanations.  Use this activity to expand scientific knowledge and thinking.
• 6.
  Critique a Website Critique a web site  Post a link to a web site related to a topic your are studying and invite students to give their personal evaluation:  Is the site biased?  Does it seem well-researched?  Is it a reliable source?  What would you add to the website?  Are the images appropriate?  What would you change?
• 7.
  Current Events  Commenton current events  Post a link to a current events story and ask students to comment on its implications in your local community or their own lives.  Ask students to research the news story and post one new fact or update throughout the week.
• 8.
  Personal Experience Reports Report on a vacation or long weekend  Encourage children to share a story about their weekend or vacation from someone else’s point of view and comment on a classmate’s story.
• 9.
  Field Trip Reports Report on a field trip or virtual field trip  Students report about attending a field tip or special event and all photos to the blog. Students can also poll classmates to fond the most popular part of the trip.  Students can pretend they interviewed a person they met through a virtual field trip and can post photos found online related to the field trip.
• 10.
  Community Tour  Writea neighborhood or community tour with pictures  As a culmination of a unit on your community or local history create a neighborhood or community tour blog. Each student (or pair) can take and upload a picture and tell about it.
• 11.
  Hot Topics  Bouncearound a hot topic  Discuss topics such as :  Should rolling bookbags be allowed in class?  Should students wear uniforms?  Should gum chewing be allowed in class?  Should there be school around school?
• 12.
  Wonderings Blog  Questionblog  Invite students to submit a question about course content, related ideas, or “I have always wondered” in advance of starting a new unit.  As the course progresses and students are able to answer their wonderings they will revisit and update the blog.
• 13.
  Organization Skills  Organizationtips  Invite students and their parents to share tips for how they stay organized, not just for school, but for life.  Ask students to try one of the organization skills they learned about and report back.
• 14.
  Collaborative Storytelling  ContinuingStories  Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.  Students can edit the story for grammar and to add more details or clarifying words.
• 15.
  Share new videosand links  Share materials, news, downloads, links and more  Ask students to share a news story, video, or link once a week and write a small summary of it.  Ask students to respond to at least one new item weekly.