Honestly, my progress is not as quick as I would like it to be in regards to my GAME plan. I have finished with my surveys, and most of my students have Internet access at home, so this is beneficial. However, I am having to take a little more time in developing this particular unit. I do not want to simply create blogs for my students without having exact guidelines. In addition, we just finished with the state writing assessment last week, so we have not started our literature unit which will utilize the blog. This will be the first week we start. I have decided to integrate the blog into Black History month, and the character they create for their blog will probably be one historical nature. This will require research and a bit more critical thinking on their part because they will have to be certain the particular situations they blog about are historical correct in nature.
I have received great feedback from my administrators as well as people from county office when I discussed the integration of blogs into the teaching standards of reading and writing. I hope I don't disappoint.
Trina,
ReplyDeleteFirst, you won't disappoint. Just exposing the students to this technology and making it available to them is a positive step, whether the results are as stellar as you hope!
Second, I am confused--I've been having comprehension issues this weekend :) --are your students assuming a character and writing blog posts from the point of view of that character? Wow--what an awesome idea! Will the students continue the blogs after the unit?
Great work, Trina. You are one of my heroes!
Debb,
ReplyDeleteYes, my students will be blogging "in character". They will assume the identity of a character and their blogs will demonstrate their understanding of characterization. I also hope this will also help with their reading comprehension as they read about their character and look for aspects that will help them assume the role. Plus, even though they say they hate writing, they seem to have no problem "blogging". :-)
I love the idea of designing a facebook page for a character in a book. I think I am going to use that idea with the next book we read as a class. This is such a great way to engage students and show their understanding of classroom content.
ReplyDelete