Blogging in the Elementary Classroom

This has been the first blog that I have ever had and I have realized that it is pretty simple to blog. The only technology skills that you need to have are basic keyboarding and internet skills and the only technology you need is a computer with internet access. This means that it could be easily implemented in the classroom.

Blogging is an excellent way to express personal thoughts and ideas about various subjects. Your ideas are also getting across to a lot of people due to the internet. I have learned that you really pay attention to what you write if you know that a lot people will be reading it. This is why blogging can be motivating for students. Most of the time when students write things in school they are only writing for the teacher. There is not a larger audience that the writing needs to be done for. This sometimes results in students not putting forth their best effort. If students are held accountable for their writing though and they are writing for an audience then there is a greater chance that they will give their best work because there is a sense of positive peer pressure to motivate their writing.

One idea I have for using blogging in my classroom is to use it with literature circles. If it were possible I would do it in a pen pal format by setting up literature circles with another school. Blogging would make it possible to for students to communicate about literature with students from other schools, communities, or even other states.  The other teacher and I would pick out five books for the students to choose from. We would have the students rank the books from one to five for which one they would enjoy most. We would then set up the literature circle groups based on the students’ interest level in the books. The teachers would then conduct the literature circles in a similar format to how they are usually carried out, but blogging would enhance it. The students would read the books and then would do their literature circle jobs, but they would blog their responses instead of discussing them aloud with their group members. In this format the students would have the chance to convey their thoughts freely and would have time to think of their responses. For example, some students may be nervous when they are in a literature circle group so blogging would allow that type of student to express their thoughts that they wouldn’t normally share. The other students in the group would be required to comment on each other’s posts, which would further the conversation about the book. I think that it would be interesting for students to communicate with students from another school through blogging. It is something that they wouldn’t be able to do without the technology. I think that it would be really fun for the students to see what students in other schools are like and what they think about the books. It could also result in pen pal relationships between the students.

Another positive aspect about the literature circle blogging would be that the literature circle discussions would be in print for the teacher to read. This would be beneficial for the teacher because he or she would be able monitor what the students are discussing. In normal literature circle groups it is difficult for the teacher to know what the students are discussing. When I conducted literature circle groups in my fifth grade placement I noticed that the students would be discussing the book great when I was listening, but they would get off topic when I would walk away. The blogs would eliminate this problem. All in all, I think that blogging would be an innovative way to carry out literature circles in the classroom.