Friday, September 16, 2011
Kidblog.org
Wow, www.kidblog.org has been a tremendous site for my 3rd grade students. It is a free blogging site in which the teacher can control what comments go through for each child's posts. The students have been blogging about activities that they have done in class, their reading, and their favorite parts of school so far. The students are working hard on learning how to comment to one another. Actually, the comments to posts has been the most difficult part so far. Many comments are very short such as "good job" or "hahaha". We are learning to write more meaningful posts and will need to have a full lesson on that. I highly recommend this site for teachers trying blogs in their classroom for the first time.
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Kidblog is a great site for blogging--I researched it for another class. I think it is so wonderful that you are teaching your students how to properly comment on each others' posts. This will be a skill they will definitely need in their future educational careers!
ReplyDeleteThis is a great site. I like the fact that it is a free site and that is also doesn't require you to sign up students with an e-mail address. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a great site and I am all about it being free! I like to hear about the lessons you are doing with your third graders....so cool! Thanks for sharing. :)
ReplyDeleteRobert, I realize your students are 3rd graders and mine are grad students. Still I think you might find some way to re-purpose the tips for posting comments that are in our syllabus. You can toss some of these & reword the rest for whatever you feel would work for 3rd graders. From the Web 2.0 for Education syllabus, page 5:
ReplyDelete"The quality of your contribution is more important than the length of each posting. Ask yourself whether you did your best to engage the topic and your peers in a productive dialogue.
In terms of quality did you:
• help solve a problem?
• lend support?
• challenge an idea?
• offer some alternatives?
• come up with a creative solution?
• ask good questions?
• assist someone in clarifying his or her ideas?
• give examples from your personal experience?
• contribute solid evidence to support your opinion?
• show respect?
• acknowledge and affirm someone else’s ideas?
• bring a derailing dialogue back on track?
In terms of quantity did you:
• dominate the discussion or remain too silent?
• explain yourself well?
• give good examples?
• respond to others as well as making your own comments?"
Thanks for all the feedback everyone. I will have to base my next lesson of commenting off of the notes in our syllabus. That will be very helpful!
ReplyDeleteI use kidblog.org as well! This is my 2nd year using it and it has been a great way to show classwork to parents and for kids to communicate with each other. I also have a hard time with students only commenting two words to each other!
ReplyDelete