· Grade Level: 8th/ Middle grades students/ high school students
· Subject area: English-Reading
· What will students do:
I will have a blog for my English Language Arts and Reading courses. The main purpose of this blog is to create a place for students to express their reading and writing vocabulary. A class blog provides students an opportunity to share their reading thoughts, react to what they are reading and write about what they learn from it.
Distribution: The main blog will provide students with different categories and resources. I write reminders, notes, share videos that introduce the lessons. The blog also provides information to parents about the classroom objectives, policies & procedures, assignments and contact information regarding parent-teacher conference, etc.
Discussion: Students are expected to visit the blog to know any update in the course. Students are expected to go to the class blog and participate in their group blogs. They will write reflections about their daily reading and contribute to the class discussions through the semester. Students will be part of literature circles and students must post their response journal in the class prior to the day the literature circles meet. Students will need to respond to questions such as – what connections are you making? What challenges you as you are reading the book? Questions? - they also need to share what reading strategies they are using to comprehend the book and what they learn in their class readings, lessons and discussions.
Demonstration: Students are expected to post into their personal blogs ( students blog addresses will share in the group blog) journal-logs about books that they are reading in the semester. Students will write a plot summary, personal responses, and use three adjectives to describe their opinion about the book.
My example:
I read the book The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain, by Peter Sis. The author shares to readers what was like to grow up during a time period where society was repressed from a government system and ideology, yet there was hope for a better future and change. The theme for this book portrays Peter Sis realistic and unique autobiographical story of growing up a country where government influence and control system over people. I liked autobiography books because they offer a realistic and original perspective from what they lived and learn throughout their life. One of my favorites is Anne Frank and Sonia Sotomayor’s My Beloved World memoir. I liked these books because I enjoyed history and these books provided a testimony from a generation living in this time period. I remembered watching a documentary named How the Beatles Rocked the Kremlin, it gave some background knowledge about what Peter Sis lived as a teenager.
I read the book The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain, by Peter Sis. The author shares to readers what was like to grow up during a time period where society was repressed from a government system and ideology, yet there was hope for a better future and change. The theme for this book portrays Peter Sis realistic and unique autobiographical story of growing up a country where government influence and control system over people. I liked autobiography books because they offer a realistic and original perspective from what they lived and learn throughout their life. One of my favorites is Anne Frank and Sonia Sotomayor’s My Beloved World memoir. I liked these books because I enjoyed history and these books provided a testimony from a generation living in this time period. I remembered watching a documentary named How the Beatles Rocked the Kremlin, it gave some background knowledge about what Peter Sis lived as a teenager.
Hey Jessi (pun intended)
ReplyDeleteThat's pretty cool that you already have a blog for your classroom, you are definitely ahead of the game. I do have a question though, have you encountered a situation of a student not having internet access at home to participate in the blogs? If so, how have you handled it? I raise this question because I am interested in having a blog when I begin teaching, however, I want to prepare for the situation if someone does not have internet access. Thanks for the help and thanks for sharing
Jessica,
ReplyDeleteI also thought blogs are very useful for English Language Arts but you gave a lot detail, I guess because you are already using this method so thank you so much for sharing. I really loved your literature circles and the fact that they post before they meet and the idea of sharing strategies. Students can learn so much from each other and I see you use that to your advantage.