Blog in the Classroom
My name is Chea-Lene Tan and this is my third year teaching 5th grade. This year, I am teaching 5th Grade, and want to try to create a blog for Social Studies Writing. I have already created a blog this year mostly for parent communication. The blog that I already have was created mostly to give updates and information about what is happening in the classroom. However, I want to create a blog that has a focus on student learning as well.
The purpose of a social studies blog would serve in my classroom is for
students to be able to share their writing for social studies about current
events. I want to be able to create a collaborative space for students to be
able to share their writing and give feedback to one another through the
comment section. As Richardson mentioned in the list of classroom uses of
weblogs, I want to be able to “create a
dynamic teaching site” that is filled with “discussion topics, links to
additional information about topics they are studying in class, and readings to
inspire learning” (Richardson, 2010, p 39).
ISTE Standards for Teachers:
Citizen
3a. Model and promote
management of personal data and digital identity and protect student data privacy.
This blog will allow me
to model what a digital citizen looks like. The blog is a tool that will help
students build a digital identity and be fluent in navigating the web in a safe
and productive way.
Facilitator: Educators facilitate learning with technology to support
student achievement of the ISTE Standards for Students. Educators:
6a. Foster a culture
where students take ownership of their learning goals and outcomes in both
independent and group settings.
This blog will also be
able to meet the standard of 6a as an educator as I will be able to use the
blog to keep students accountable for their learning. They will have a shared
space where students can access and complete assignments through the blog.
ISTE Standards for
Students :
Global Collaborator
7d. Students explore
local and global issues and use collaborative technologies to work with others
to investigate solutions
The
blog that I want to create for my classroom will meet the standard of 7d for
students as they exploring different primary and secondary sources that I will
be posting of “global issues” and using the blog to share their ideas, opions,
and thinking with one another.
Knowledge Constructor: Students critically curate a variety of resources using
digital tools to construct knowledge, produce creative artifacts and make
meaningful learning experiences for themselves and others.
3b. Students evaluate the accuracy,
perspective, credibility and relevance of information, media, data or other
resources.
The blog that I want to create for my classroom
will meet the standard of 3b as students are examining news articles and
stories from various sources and will be engaging and collaborating with one
another through the comments section. They will be able to “evaluate the
accuracy, perspective, credibility and relevance” of resources together as a
classroom community through the blog.
References
International Society for
Technology in Education (ISTE). (2016). Standards for students.
Retrieved from https://www.iste.org/standards/for-students-2016
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other
powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd ed.).
Thousands Oaks, CA:
Corwin, pages 23-24.
Your idea of creating a current event blog sounds fun! I have always tried to stress how important current events are to my own sixth graders. As a core teacher, I teach social studies as well. I think having our students use various methods to study current events in the classroom using blogs would be aiding in their responsibility of becoming strong digital citizens. Options we have for current event blgos include question and answer, research post blogs, online discussion, and – my favorite for middle schoolers – role play (Deveci, 2007). Possibly introducing the idea that they could create diary entries as current world leaders in the form of a blog would be an interesting way of studying world effects.
ReplyDeleteDeveci, H. (2007). Teachers' views on teaching current events in social studies. Kuram Ve Uygulamada Egitim Bilimleri, 7(1), 446-451. Retrieved from https://ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Fdocview%2F236995762%3Faccountid%3D14872
Blogging in 5th grade works great! I love that you have taken advantage of the virtual learning and have already incorporated blogging in your classroom. Social studies blogs offer a unique way to study other cultures and locations (Jerles, 2012). Creating a blog for the parents to communicate is great, but I definitely think you can extend that to meaningful student learning as you stated for your plan. You can do this by creating worldly prompts for students to research and jumpstart their professional writing skills. I think your plan is appropriate for 5th grade and is something I wish I had when I was that age.
ReplyDeleteReferences:
Jerles, J. (2012). Blogging in Elementary School: Why, How, and What Teachers Can Do To Encourage Writing. National Teacher Education Journal, 5(3), 85–88
Chea-Lene Tan,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your ideas surrounding blogging in your social studies classroom. There most definitely is an increase in student learning and engagement through blogging (Garcia, et al., 2019). An idea I have to foster even more creativity with your students is to have them create their own country. They could collaborate with their peers through blogging to determine what type of government, laws, customs, language, flag etc. would be found their county.
References
Garcia, E., Moizer, J., Wilkins, S., & Haddoud, M. Y. (2019). Student learning in higher education through blogging in the classroom. Computers & Education, 136, 61–74. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2019.03.011