Literacy and Language in the Elementary School--2009

I really enjoyed reading the article on blogging.  I never would have thought of using blogs for students at such a young age (elementary school) but after reading this article I realized what a useful tool it can be in developing literacy and technology skills in younger students.  We are now in a heavily equipped technology environment, and integrating literacy into technology is a good way to prepare students for these new forms of literacy.  The article mentioned that online communication, such as a blog, is an essential aspect of online reading comprehension.  Blogs can bridge together in-school literacy and out-of-school literacy.  It allows for literacy collaboration outside of the typical classroom environment.  I think this is important for engaging students' interests.  I found it interesting to read about the different types of blogs.  I thought the showcase blogs were very interesting because I had never heard of them before.  I like the idea of teachers showcasing their students' art work and writing.   I also like the HOT blogging.  It would allow for students to share each of their diverse perspectives and collaborate with one another on a high order thinking level. 

After reading this article it seems that blogging is more than just one's thoughts and feelings towards a subject, object, person, or place but actually a learning tool in the new and improving technological society we are currently witnessing. I was very surprised to see that there were some many options for blogs. I was not aware these varieties, as I am new to the blogging word.

One thing that stood out in my mind about the article was when they were talking about blogging actually helps with text comprehension and communication skills beyond journals. The way blogging is set up, it is a "collaborative learning community" meaning that if someone blogs about an article, for example, this one, everyone will interpret the word differently in some ways and that allows for others to think deeper about the subject to analyze how other people are reading the text. This way they bloggers have more than just their opinion but they widen their audience and thoughts.

Blogging in general was a new concept to me but after reading this article it made a definite impact with me. I want to implement it when I become a teacher, i think it is useful and a tool for the comprehension of texts.

Classroom and literature response blogs appear to be useful tools for teachers. Parents can easily check out what their student is doing in class, watch for assignment which should be coming home, and post questions of their own. Literature response blogs encourage students to reflect on what they are reading in class. Students who don't like to talk in class have an opportunity to think longer about their response before answering. The discussion may last much longer than is possible in the classroom.

I have really mixed feelings about blogging, not just in the elementary school, but even up through high school and college.

There are some really great things about blogging. It teaches kids how to use valuable technology tools and using computers and the internet teaches people all sorts of new literacies. It can also help students increase their typing speed and accuracy which will help them later on in school. Being able to type notes or a paper quickly is a very helpful skill. Blogs also allow students to share their ideas with other students and it could be really interesting if different schools paired up and commented on each others blogs.

On the other side of the argument, there are also some negative things about blogs. Often times the only person who sees a student's written work is the student and the teacher. When you publish something online, everyone can see it. Students all have different levels of ability, and some might be very uncomfortable with others seeing their work, not even because of the content but because of grammar or punctuation mistakes. I have had to blog for classes before, and personally I really dislike it. I feel that it is kind of forced and I often don't write as passionately as I would in an essay or personal journal entry. I don't like that anyone in the world can read what I'm writing. I also feel like when it is required that students comment on other people's blogs it seems forced and sometimes not totally genuine.

With my personal dislike of blogs, it is a bit difficult for me to find all of the benefits of having children use them. I do see the good parts and I see the bad parts. I am still completely undecided about this issue and I'm not entirely sure what will finally sway me one way or the other.

I agree with the author's view that blogging is an important skill to understand in today's technology filled world. It is valuable to both be able to write and respond to a blog. However, I feel that the most important part of blogging, at least as far as literacy instruction is concerned, is having an open forum which students can use to respond not only to questions and thoughts from the teacher but from each other. Students can learn a lot from each other and being able to see the persepctives and reflections of others can be invaluable. Through the blog format, even shy students can feel comortable sharing their persepctives. This allows for an open, and hopefully fluid, discussion. The marketplace of ideas opens up and literacy learning becomes more than just a dialouge with the teacher, it becomes a conversation with the whole class. This immersive, diverse environment is essential to developing meaningful literacies.

I found Zawilinski's article on blogs very interesting. She highlighted a few very beneficial points for using educational blogs. I think it is crucial for instruction and learning to be in a meaningful context. Blogging certainly provides a relevant context because students in this generation have grown up in a technology savvy world. Also, it is an effective way to teach students text comprehension strategies that are necessary for communicating and reading online (and in general). These are life long skills and strategies the students are acquiring.   Students using the HOT blogging framework learn strategies before, during, and after reading. Allowing students to serf the web to find articles to help themselves and their classmates build background knowledge is very beneficial.  It allows the students to have responsibility for their own learning, as well as reference their classmates instead of their teacher. Strong background knowledge on a subject makes it easier to understand. It may be easier for some students to make connections, using the internet as a resource.  Reading what there classmates have written about the subject- may make some things easier to understand because the subject in being presented in their own words.  Writing a blog about the subject as well as reflecting on it strengths their understanding.  It is also neat that parents are able to view and read their child's work. Involving family and friends will make the classroom, learning, and instruction stronger. As Mary Kreul explains that the biggest advantage to blogs is that they create an authentic audience for student writing and work in general.

            The only main criticism I have about this article is that it never mentioned when the students have the opportunity to blog. Does the whole class blog at the same time? Are only a couple children allowed to blog at one time? Each child would need their own computer. Also there is always the issue of technology at home, what about the kids who do not have internet or computers at home? Even if they are given time at school, their parents would not be able to access it. Despite this minor set back I do like the idea of using blogs in the classroom.

            The internet is a great tool for teaching literacy strategies- I think other technologies that would be an useful literacy tool- would be providing school and student with net libraries. Net libraries would enable students to download audio books and ebooks on their computers at home and after school. This would expose children to a variety of text, resources, and engage the students.

I enjoyed this article, by Lisa Zawilinski, for a variety of reasons. Firstly, I feel that this article helped with my internet and blogging literacy. Honestly, I did not know too much about blogging and have never done it myself but I found Zawilinski's information at the beginning of her article very useful. I feel that Pam is doing the exact thing that this article is stating that it is important for schools to use these new literacies and have students become comfortable with them. Since I have never been exposed to this type of literacy, this has helped me with a new learning experience.  I did not know that there were four different types of blogs that were used for classrooms. I figured that it was all kind of the same. The teacher would post something and the students would just respond. It is much more than that and all four of the kinds of blogs really helps the students respond and grow as learners. I find it interesting that blogging not only helps with communication skills but also helps develop essential new literacies of online reading comprehension that emphasize higher order thinking skills like analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. With these four types of blogs, I can see why new literacies are developed.

 I think that HOT blogging is great because increases higher order thinking and really creates deeper conversations between students. I also think it is very important that strengthen students' backgrounds with technology and communication in order to help them in the future.With access to computers at school and even at home, students will really benefit and I feel that it would be easy to integrate blogging into lessons. It is also very nice to be able to monitor what the students are blogging and a very nice tool to respond to their comments and concern.

My reaction to Hot Blogging was that it gave a lot of good information on what a blog is, and how a blog can be used to promote higher level thinking. It also showed real life examples of different types of blogs, and demonstrated how to set up your own blog as a teacher and add to it once you and your students become more comfortable with it.  A blog which is short for weblog according to the article is an easily editable webpage that contains posts/entries placed in order with the newest post/entry appearing on top.  The article lists four types of blogs which are 1. A Classroom News Blogs which are used to share general information with the parents and students. 2. A Mirror Blog which allow teachers to post reflections on what he or she and his or her students are thinking. 3. A Showcase Blog which is used to post students work including art projects, video clips and other assignments. 4. A Literature Response Blog where teachers post prompts on texts and students are required to post responses to those prompts.  This definition of a blog and the types of blogs listed in this article are a few examples of the many good ideas that the article sets forth for the reader. My only concern with the article was that the author did not say what some of the downsides to using blogs might be and how to correct them.  She also failed to explain that not every student has a computer that they can use at home to access the teacher's blog on. Another example of using technology for literacy instruction would be to give students electronic kindles which are wireless readers which would provide students with access to large number of books and other digital media. This would eliminate student's inability to have access to books and could provide them with something that gives them multiple ways of working with texts.

The article "HOT Blogging: A frame work for blogging to promote higher order thinking" by Lisa Zawilinski provided many uses of blogging by the classroom teacher and students to increase comprehension.  In her article, she spoke about the importance of using the blog as a vehicle through which students communicate their understanding of the text and as a way for the class to discuss the topics.  I also liked how the author connected the topic of blogging to the National Academic Standards.  She states that "when students read webpages and posts on blogs in addition to classroom texts, the 'read a wide range of print and non-print texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world" (p658 The Reading Teacher).  Making Blogging relevant, purposeful, and authentic are ways in which to motivate the student to frequent the classroom blog and use its resources.

Another example of using technology in the classroom for literacy instruction can be through the use of a SMARTboard.  Using a SMARTboard, the teacher can engage students in literacy activities.  One example is increasing phonemic awareness.  The teacher could place six pictures on the SMARTboard screen and then have a group of students come up and separate the pictures into groups based on their starting sound.  Barn, bat, and ball would be dragged into one corner of the screen while lake, lizard, and lamp would be in another. Using the SMARTboard to get the student excited about learning sounds and letters is just one example of using technology in the elementary classroom.

The article was a good way to introduce blogging and all the ways of effectively using it. The four types for using a blog in the classroom are classroom news blog, mirror blogs, showcase blogs and literature response blogs. The classroom news blog is helpful for letting parents know what is happening in the classroom and recent news relating to classroom activities. The mirror blogs is way to let bloggers reflect on their thinking. The teachers include their reflections, but also the students reflections. In the third blog, showcase blog, the teacher posts the students art projects and writings in the blogs. The last blog is literature response blog, where the teacher has the students comment on literature they read and allow the students to see what others thought of the book.