I have used a blog in my American Government and World History classes for the past year and a half. It started out as an online calendar, designed to post in class work, homework assignments, due dates for homework, or upcoming tests or quizzes. The primary purpose was to give parents an outlet as to what we are doing in class. If their child said to them they did not have any homework in my class, then they could always check my blog online to see for themselves. After awhile, I made my Government classes create blogs, so they could post responses to questions in an online forum. This is called "Question of the Week." Every week on Monday, I post an open ended question that requires some outside reading and research for them to answer. I give them the entire week to respond to the question, and on the first day of class, they were given a rubric as to how they would be graded. Thus far, this is how I have utilized my blog, but I am always open for new ideas.
Blogging is a good instructional tool because it allows students that may be shy or passive in class an opportunity to truly display their thoughts, opinions, and feelings in written form rather than orally presented in class. This allows all students to be heard, if the blog is used correctly.
Mike Palo
HS World History/American Government
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I like your idea about the “Question of the Week.” I think giving an entire week to respond helps alleviate some of the challenges kids might face getting access to a computer with internet access. I’m very interested in your rubric. Would you mind sharing it? Perhaps mind sharing it here?
ReplyDeletePalo,
ReplyDeleteThat's wonderful you've been using blogs in your classes. I like how you allow your students one week to answer an open ended question. Have you ever tried posting a question about a discussion you've had in class? This would allow you to assess if students are understanding the information you've covered in class. You can also see if any other questions arise from their discussions.It might help to switch up the blogs every once in awhile, so students don't become bored with the same task.
It's amazing how advanced we've become with techonology to allow students to converse over the internet. Thornburg mentioned in “The Third Wave”, how the internet has allowed us to progress to the “communication age”. He also, explained the more creative we are, the more advanced we will become in technology (Laureate, 2008).
Understanding the Impact of Technology on Education, Work and Society .(2008) Technology and Society (program 4). (Laureate Education, Inc., CD-ROM, 2008 release).
Good luck,
Alison Pietrzak
Lindsay,
ReplyDeleteI greatly appreciate your input. This is something that I will definitely utilize in my classroom. As far as the rubric is concerned, it is very general, but I included the rubric on my students' syllabus, so they would have an idea of what I was looking for when I graded their work. Each response is worth 25 points.
5 Points:
Response has 8-10 sentences, contains viewpoints and arguments that are specific and well organized, contains evidence to support arguments or viewpoints, and has no spelling or grammatical mistakes.
4 Points:
Response has 8-10 sentences, but arguments and viewpoints are general containing some evidence of support, has some minor organizational issues, and/or some spelling or grammatical mistakes.
3 Points:
Response is less than 8 sentences, contains few arguments and viewpoints with little evidence of support, and/or has some organizational issues, and/or some spelling or grammatical mistakes.
2 Points:
Response is less than 8 sentences, contains viewpoints but no arguments with evidence of support, has major organizational issues, and several grammar and spelling mistakes.
1 Point:
Response is less than 8 sentences, contains no viewpoints or arguments and evidence, organization of response is difficult to follow, and contains countless number of grammar and spelling mistakes.
Hope this helps.
Lindsay,
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your input. I definitely like the idea of utilizing discussions via the blog because you are absolutely right. Students may have questions about certain aspects of the topic of study that may be unknown to me. This way, students can help themselves and others by using the discussion blog to help one another. I do not use my blog as much for my World History class, but because of your input, I would definitely reconsider my options. Thanks for your input and help.
Thanks for posting the rubric. Someone paid attention in the assessment class!
ReplyDelete