My summer school class starts tomorrow, and I’m looking forward to using a blog in class for the first time. For the first day, it’s set up with attachments of the Word documents for the class syllabus and vocabulary words, and I will be adding other documents as the students need them.
This is the first time our school has had a blog. It is completely internal—accessible only to computers on the district’s server. This means, of course, that the students cannot write for an outside audience, but they can still write for each other. One thing I am going to try is having an online discussion of our novel, with students leading the discussion by creating thought questions. Each day a different student will be the discussion leader. It will be his or her responsibility to post a brief summary of the previous day’s reading, along with two questions to promote higher-order thinking from Bloom's Taxonomy. I have already posted an example for the first day’s reading. Since the novel we are reading, Montana 1948, is not extensively used in classes, there is probably not a complete student guide, so I will compile the students’ work into a brief guide, as
Since this is all new, our tech department and I don’t know for sure yet if we can create individual blogs for each student. If we can, I will also have the students create portfolios from their blogs. I plan to have them write a reflection on their learning as their post, and then include the document as an attachment.
I’m really excited to get started. Ideas and suggestions are more than welcome.
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Hello, it is neat that you are planning on using the blog in you summer school class. I like your idea of using the blog for an on-line discussion of a novel. I also like the idea of creating a personal blog for each student. I think that the students would enjoy creating a personal blog and updating it throughout the school year.
ReplyDeleteWhat are your plans for regulating student blogs? Are any other department members considering using blogs for the coming school year?
Good luck
Chad
Rebecca, I found Larry Watson's Justice at a vendor Website several years ago. I've read several of his other novels since, but no one had ever suggested Montana 1948 as a class read. I can't imagine why, however. Watson writes characters who live the American West. Thank you for reminding me of this great novel. Best, Tom
ReplyDelete~Tom Wolsey
Chad,
ReplyDeleteThe blog we're using is completely internal, so I don't need to do much regulating. I review each students' comments after school and respond to them. Here's what was interesting to me: the most struggling student in the class asked if he could be the first summarizer (I think so that he could do it with a section he felt comfortable with). He came up with two really good questions, and the other students had fun responding to him and then to each other. They seemed to enjoy it.
And to answer your other question, I know several others have inquired about it, and this blog is really easy to use, so I hope they will. I'm definitely planning to continue, especially with my business writing class.
Becky
Hello Rebecca:
ReplyDeleteI have a cousin that took classes to become certify assistant nurse this summer. According to my point of view her instructors used the old version of Bloom’s Taxonomy . She only had to acquire knowledge and jump step by step to get a good evaluation. “ Wooow! Old version” . The use of the new or old taxonomy make the difference in educational system . The idea of “create” something in education is the big bridge between both level of classification of intellectual behaviors . Our technology class is agree with new version of the intellectual levels. It is wonderful.
Ruben
Tom,
ReplyDeleteThe students really liked Montana 1948. They said it was one of the best novels they have read in class.
Ruben,
You are right: creating something shows much more learning that just parroting back something that appears in a textbook or a presentation. Of course, sometimes people in nursing and other medical fields do have terminology that they need to know, and then it might be appropriate to simply learn those definitions so they know what the words mean.
Becky