4.6 Instructional Strategies Reflection

Instructional Strategies for Blogging

Blogs increase relevancy and meaning making through social construction, giving student voice an authentic audience with which to engage. Blogs work well for cooperative learning groups, both to communicate with peers in your group and to see what other groups are doing/discussing. This works well for the teacher to review and chart the progress of groups as well, based on what students are discussing in their blogs and how they are interacting. Blogs are also a good tool for providing scaffolding for students. For example, I have previously used blogs as a way for students to practice using new writing forms, developing authentic voice, and expressing knowledge about the content. One assignment was to quote a peer’s blog and integrate it into a complete sentence while also fully integrating it into the context of their own writing. Eventually, this skill would build in complexity for the research paper students would be writing. So blogs work nicely to build and support the pieces of small steps that can later grow in complexity and professionalism.

Less Applicable Instructional Strategies for Blogs

While most instructional strategies could be enhanced in some way by using blogs, the only context I can think of that would not work well is a teacher-centered classroom (sage on the stage). One of the greatest advantages of using blogs is the social construction of knowledge, which directly opposes the purpose of this teaching style that relies on the transmission of knowledge from teacher to student. I suppose that this approach to instruction might find blogging to be unnecessary or even undermining the authority with which information is delivered (not created).

Blogs in My Classroom

I have had great experience using blogs in my classroom in the past. My students have used them to discuss literature, share poetry, and practice writing forms. This year I hope to use blogs in three specific ways. First, I am hoping to keep my own blog on our classroom page, updating it on a weekly basis with updates and information of interest to my parents. Secondly, I am going to use the blog site for students to post and comment on peer poetry again, because this has always been very fun for students, while also improving the quality of their poetry. I will slightly alter the comment feature, to insure that more comments on focused on using terminology and discussing more detailed features of the poems, as opposed to some of the more random “great job” comments. Finally, I am considering using blogs as part of my TechQuest project for 812. This project uses an RSS feed and social bookmarking site to develop student informational literacy skills. I am debating between using the commenting feature on Diigo or a blog site for students to post their assignments, which will be short activities focused on informational reading skills.

The Case for Adaptation

I think because I have already manipulated many applications to achieve new goals, I have a very easy time being creative about use. I didn’t include the listed example of understanding math facts as a situation that wouldn’t be benefited by using blogs, because I thought blogs would actually work very well for that. For example, blogs could be used to demonstrate student thinking, as they could explain not only the steps but the reasoning behind the steps required to solve a problem. Or, students could create their own word problems/situations to post on blog entries and then be required to respond to peer problems. Or, students could use a blog for a group review activity (even though a wiki would probably work better), to cover different sections of material to share with group members.

1.8- Blogs vs. Webpages

The main difference between blogs and web pages is the connection between the reader and the content. With traditional web pages, the user is able to make choices about clicking on hyperlinks (as they can also do with blogs) or trying to find the author’s e-mail for additional information. However, the whole purpose of the blog is to engage the reader. There are keywords/tags to help organize blog topics for easy searching, and entries are often organized by most recent posting which helps users to find the most up to date information from the source. Most importantly, they allow for the user to comment right on the page in response to the information presented. This allows for an exchange between author and reader(s) which can enrich the work posted and allow for the connection and inclusion of the reader in creating meaning, which so many other contexts leave out wholly. This feature takes away the authority that usually comes with publishing written material and allows for the reader to give and receive feedback based upon their own insights.