Thing #4

After reading some of the blog entries, I notice that they range in the formality of language used. Some of them could be newspaper articles and others look like diary entries. They really seem to depend upon the writer's purpose as to how they look and sound. They range from very simple to very complex. Most of them have a somewhat conversational quality to them, though.

I don't know that I would differentiate blog reading and writing from other types of reading and writing. It seems so diverse that I don't know that it fits into one particular genre of its own. I think it all lies in the intent of the blog author.

The comments contribute immensely to the blogs. Writers can get instant feedback on their ideas. While this can be accomplished with other types of writing (such as newspaper articles) through email responses, that does not allow other readers to see and comment on other readers' comments. Blogging and comments create a "conversation" between the writer and ALL the readers of the blog.

These are the five blog entries that I read:
5th Grade http://itc.blogs.com/patrick/2005

Teaching Brevity
http://students2oh.org/2007

Why I Don't Assign Homework
http://blog.mrmeyer.com

Questions For One of Our Favorite Authors
http://blog.woodward.edu

Spies Like Us
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com

There were 3 blog entries in particular that stood out to me as being useful in facilitating learning. 5th Grade and Teaching Brevity were both written by students. In both of these posts, the students were reflecting on their own learning. 5th grader, Patrick, wrote about his desire to do well in school and he gave some very personal insight as to his own fears and concerns about why he was having problems and what he wanted to do about it. The comments that people wrote back to Patrick were so supportive and served to let him know that he was not alone in his feelings and that he could succeed. This was so much more motivation than just his teacher or parents could give him.

The entry entitled Teaching Brevity was very interesting to me because it was written by a 14 year old student. He really grasped the concept of writing with quality and not just quantity. Sometimes, especially with pre-teens, these ideas may not be easily expressed through conversation or even when writing a traditional paper. But, when a student knows that his thoughts are "out there for everyone to see" perhaps it pushes him/her to a higher level. Then, when their ideas are commented on by others, they receive immediate feedback and this fosters even more ideas.

The article/blog entry Questions For One of Our Favorite Authors was a very cool idea. I do author studies with my students every year. In particular, we study Patricia Polacco. We read many of her books and we watch a video of her talking to us, telling us and showing us how she gets ideas and how she writes/draws her books. She talks about her life and family. Every year my students get so excited about her because they start to feel as if they know her. This teacher takes it a step further. The students are formulating questions that they can ask this author and they get answers quickly. It becomes a conversation between the students and the author.