Blogging

 blog: a shared online journal where people post regular entries of creative work or journals about their personal experiences, opinions, observations and interests; postings are usually in a chronological order. 

In classrooms across the world, teachers and students are using blogging as a way to improve students' writing and digital literacy skills.  Just about everything written in a class can be posted  as a blog—drafts, journal entries, response papers, discussions, reflections, podcasts, digital stories and essays.  

Writing skills improve when writing is a regular activity, particularly if students are getting feedback.  Blogging is a great way to get students writing regularly.  Have them write every day about their lives, their interests, thoughts and opinions.  Encourage them to read each others' blogs and comment on them.  Seeing one another's writing helps them learn.

Blogging is also a great way to provide audience for students.  Click here to read more about how having an authentic audience helps students write better. 

The benefits of student blogging don't end here.  Blogging also:

• engages students
• creates powerful, inclusive learning communities
• provides writing practice as students reflect, converse, collaborate and create
• deepens critical thinking
  
• allows students to develop their own voice, as they see that their ideas and views matter
• helps students see that information is interconnected through linking
• suits all learning styles and abilities
• provides increased motivation for writing and reading, as students read each others' blogs
• teaches students to read critically yet respond respectfully
• improves confidence levels
• enables students to create with text, multimedia, audio, images and video
• fosters peer-to-peer learning

Some students are thrilled when they hear that they get to write online in school. Others are skeptical and nervous when asked to post their work for all the class to see. They don't necessarily like to work in public or in groups. They can feel exposed when other students read their writing, especially if they are not as skilled as some of their classmates. It can take time for everyone to feel comfortable sharing. But once students trust one another and themselves, and realize how fun and engaging it is to write “for real” about what matters to them, they find that blogging helps them to become better writers and stronger learners. Learning is, after all, intensely social, and blogs are all about connecting and communicating.

Some teachers shy away from blogging for fear that it will take too much time for both them and their students. They worry about finding time to read, let alone respond to every entry posted. Yes, students need responses, coaching, even correcting, but the more they begin to do this together rather than depending on the teacher to do it for them, the more skilled they will get at thinking, writing, and learning. Respond to some but not all posts every day, rotating through the group so that everyone receives responses but does not become dependent on your feedback.

                                                                                   
(Adapted from Barbara Ganley’s ASCD Express Article: “This Time, It’s Personal: Elevating Creative Discourse through Student Blogs”) 

Click the links below to learn more about how to get started blogging with your students, see examples of student blogs and to read more about assignment ideas and pedagogy.