C4T #2

Blogging and the Literacy Curriculum: Kathleen Morris

In this blog Kathleen was talking about how she used blogging in her classroom and the feedback she got from it. She learned that squeezing it in during lunch or transition time for a few minutes was not the way to do it. She soon realized that blogging needed to be prioritized and planned for so she began to integrate it into her curriculum. She states that literacy is a big part of blogging. She says

Our students need to become transliterate and develop the ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media, both traditional and digital.

In integrating blogging into the curriculum she decided to spend class time reading their latest posts and comments. She gives 2 more ways to integrate literacy into blogging. She says to build blogging into literacy rotations. In doing this the students read their peers blogs and leave a comment. This is a classroom activity that helps practice their literacy goal. The next way was to create digital portfolios for her students. She says that this can replace more traditional ways of writing or using journals in the classroom.
My comment to Kathleen was completely agreeing with her ways of integrating literacy into blogging and blogging into the classroom. I told her that I thought it would help the students later on in life when it came to using literacy in technology and in other subjects. I looked forward to seeing the other ways she used blogging in her classroom.

Looking Back, Looking Forward

I really loved this blog by Kathleen. She talked about her preparing to be on maternity leave and her disposing of worksheets. She says that she used to love worksheets and making them, but in creating her new modern classroom she realized that

hands-on, authentic, collaborative, open-ended tasks have a much bigger impact on students than a prescribed worksheet.

I commented that when I was in school, I saw worksheets just as busy work that I could get done with quickly, and would be bored with. I also said that I thought that hands on tasks would grasp your students attention much more efficiently than worksheets. I looked forward to see how this works out in her classroom and her students feedback to her.