First off, I must issue my apologies for being gone so long. I’ve been busy with school lately and nothing has really struck a chord with me lately to make me write.
I’ve been thinking about having my students blog for a while now and I’ve talked to various colleagues about it, but I never get the same answer to my questions. How to do it and what to have them write about.
One of my initial thoughts was to have them write about current events articles they’ve found and how they relate to our World Geography curriculum. I’ve also thought about giving them topics and having them write. The next question was how often to have them do it. We are on a six weeks grading period and I was thinking maybe three times per six weeks, but I wonder if this too often or not often enough.
This time around I need to know what you all think! Give me some ideas please! I’ll be looking forward to your comments. 
5 responses so far ↓
drawingfromlife // October 18, 2007 at 3:26 am
Keith,
I know our curriculum is very different, but here’s what I’ve been doing: I post a link to an artwork, and have the kids view the image and write a 2 paragraph critique about the work using a rubric that they developed in class. It has gotten them more comfortable talking about artwork. I also make comments about the class from time to time and have them post comments about what I’ve said. I have had them post comments about what they think about the class, and I have commented to those. I have also had them post project ideas, and things they would like to improve on, to help my planning. As we complete more work, I will start having them photograph their work, and post the images on their pages for others to comment on.
As far as how often, it can get to be a LOT to read, so I started having my kids do it once a week. So I think 3 per 6 weeks is plenty since your kids will probably have more to write than mine.
They aren’t using them on their own as much as I would like. If you have some ideas on how to get them excited about using them outside of class I would love to hear them. They are only using them when I tell them to.
Hope I’ve helped. Check out the class site at http://hollandart.wordpress.com I have pages with links to all of the kids pages also.
Brandon
musingsfromtheacademy // October 18, 2007 at 1:22 pm
Keith,
Are you thinking about a class blog of which your students are all contributers or individual blogs for each of them? I think you need to figure this out first.
If it is a class blog, you can stagger the “due” dates for the kid and have them respond to the articles so you are getting something published somewhat frequently in one given location which is an upside. The downside is that since it is not “their” own blog, they may not have as much motivation to publish their without your prompting.
No “answers” from me… just some things to think about.
kwyrick // October 18, 2007 at 1:25 pm
Thanks for the input…it does give me something to think about.
My initial thought is to have them create personal blogs so that they do have some ownership over it. I would love for them to become motivated enough to write on their own without prodding from me. But I’m getting ahead of myself there…
jwitter // October 18, 2007 at 5:37 pm
My question would be “How is what you are attempting to do better than if you had them do the same assignment, but with a different tool, like the discussion boards on Blackboard?”
kwyrick // October 18, 2007 at 6:17 pm
I want them to be able to have their blogs read around the world rather than just to elicit comments from their peers.