Developing young WRITERS, THINKERS and PUBLISHERS

Think about this ...

What are the learning possibilities/outcomes if a student had their own blog? and they are able to do the following:

• Post on it in a SAFE and SECURE environment.
• CREATE their own AUDIENCE
• INTERACT with the audience through commenting 
• WRITE on a consistent basis for this audience, DEVELOPING their CRITICAL and HIGHER ORDER THINKING SKILLS
• Develop an e-WRITING JOURNAL that exemplifies outstanding writing and thinking skills through posting and commenting
• Create a continuum of developmental writing and thinking for the entirety of their time at school.

It powerfully impacts READING, THINKING, WRITING and a key factor - PUBLISHING. 

• What would this do for students writing and thinking skills? 
• How many young writers are in our classes? 
• How boring is writing in a book? 
• How intrinsically motivating is it to write and get comments back from your audience about what you have written? 
• What happens when you write knowing that someone is going to read what you have written and comment on it? 
• Thinking changes. 
• Writing changes. 
• It's risky and even scary, but its also real. Kids love risky and even scary. We are the ones have to make sure its right and appropriate.

With the advent of Google Apps for Education (GAFE) all sorts of new possibilities are open to us as teachers and ultimately for our students. One of the possibilities is that a student can have their own blog. Google Apps for Education, remember this YouTube clip?

If you want to know more about this, then ask Rachel Hedges and Deborah Lambell or talk to me when you have a session with me. GAFE accounts have been created for all Y3-6 children at RDS as well as all of the teaching staff.

I recently read this post by Silvia Tolisano  'Blogs and Labels are about Information Literacy'.  Silvia talks about the 'blogfolio' .... "My Middle School is using blogger ... as a platform for our students’ blogfolios. The blogfolio (term coined by Andrea Hernandez)  is part blog and part digital portfolio. Students not only showcase their best work, but document their learning journey. A blogfolio shows student work at a particular moment in time (due to its chronological nature) with a reflective component to show evidence of growth and learning over time."   Read more