The most basic and obvious way to implement a blog in my classroom would be to assign the students the task of creating one and then writing a weekly post and response to their fellow classmate's posts. Because I am a big proponent of self reflection/expression I'd allow the blog to be written about literally anything. I want to get my students excited about writing which I believe can be accomplished if they are allowed this freedom. Not only will the blog get my students writing, which is integral in an English class, but will also help build more of a community in the classroom.The blog will allow students to get to know one another better, and studies have suggested that students oftentimes put more thought and effort into their writing if they know their peers will be the audience.
Another interesting way I think a blog could be used in an English class is by having students write a post as a character from a particular novel they are reading. For example take the novel A Separate Peace, I'd ask the students to create a post as any character, and to really embody that character by writing in a style or about a subject that that character might write about. If they chose Finny, the ultra athletic nice guy, they might want to keep their writing upbeat, positive and lighthearted and perhaps choose the subject of sports. I believe this will be a great way for students to understand character and also help foster their creative skills.
In short, I am a big proponent of blogging in the classroom and will most certainly be figuring out new ways to add blogging into my future lesson plans!
These seem like great ways to use blogging in the classroom. I also feel like writing is a crucial part of education, and any way you can get students writing is wonderful! I particularly liked your idea of having students write a blog post as a character in a novel. I could use a similar tactic in a history class by assigning my students to write as a particular person from history. Social history is one of my academic passions and an assignment like this would require students to think about this (often overlooked) topic.
ReplyDeleteThat is a really great idea you have for your English class. I would have loved to have done something similar when I was in school and it seems like a good way to get students to interact with each other because I can tell you from experience that sometimes students find it easier to interact at first electronically. Good idea.
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