Exploring the Writing Medium of Blogging

Students in second grade enrichment classes are learning about blogging. After viewing a few sample blogs  students set to work creating their own 'paper blog'. Here are some of the sample blogs that we explored on our internet journey (of course there are thousands of blogs out there, but these were a few that connected with interests that I knew many students would be excited about):

Mrs Mumford Kindergarten Blog (RES teacher and students)
http://mumfordkindergarten.blogspot.com/

RES PE Blog (RES Teacher)
http://resphyicaleducation.blogspot.com/
RES Blog (RES Staff)
http://resvt.blogspot.com/
Student blog about dot day (US):
http://kidblog.org/JHFIClassof2015/6ce733e4-be4b-406b-8dbb-7787a47018b0/dot-day/
Student blog about Minecraft (US):
http://kidblog.org/weblog14/author/df40390e-9d4c-4e83-9790-9208a4f368d6/ 

Student in UK made a blog about her school lunch because she was unhappy:
http://neverseconds.blogspot.com.es/ 

Second Grade blogger from Iowa

http://hagansworldofawesome.blogspot.com/
Seven Year Old blogger from Australia
http://ameliesanimals.edublogs.org/

Although the central idea of blogging is around using a technology medium to share with others, we are using a step by step process that begins by breaking blogging down into the key components-- many of which are not unique to the use of technology.

We began by first creating a blog title page. We are thinking about the following questions: what should our blog look like? What should it be called? How does the appearance encourage others to read it?  Students used color, pictures and interesting surveys to make the static part of their blog attractive to their reading audience. They mentioned many items that they noticed in the blogs we reviewed to make their decisions.  Classes loved Mr. Godfrey's survey, and pictures to connect with the blog topic were also popular.

Next students created their first blog post on paper. Students were free to write about any topic that was interesting to them. This choice in writing was engaging, and was a great way for both students and myself as the teacher to make connections with student interests.

This week we will use our paper blogs to practice commenting and responding to comments. Armed with all of these great skills we will have a group of second graders prepared to share and learn through blogging! I can't wait to see how these skills translate over time to the development of communication about RES learning with parents, our local community AND a global community!

My goal is to facilitate the creation of an authentic audience that can witness and celebrate the greatness of RES students! I believe that blogging is one avenue to accomplish this goal. Stay tuned for details about student blogging on this blog over the next few weeks!