In the book "Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms," it states that we are becoming a "society of authorship" and with "two new blogs being created every second" that certainly seems very true. A couple of years ago, my colleagues and I discussed ways to share student writing with parents throughout the year. (We have student-led conferences in May to share writing portfolios.) We tried to set up individual password protected sites on a teacher website for parents to log in and see just their child's work. Only two teachers tried it for a year or so but did not keep it up.
As I was thinking about ways to utilize blogs in my classroom, my first thought was to resurrect the sharing of student writing. Currently we have a publishing center in our library where children can bring a processed piece to the center and a parent volunteer helps transform that story into a book with an about the author page, dedication page, etc. We also share student work by hanging it around the room and the building but I think it would be very powerful for students to publish their writing to a class blog and open it up for feedback. My concerns are with the kinds of feedback students may give their peers, and parent comparisons between their child and others in the class. I also worry about some of the content of the stories. For instance I have a student who recently wrote a very sad story and the main character is based on this student and her feelings. If the power in this tool is the interaction between readers and writers, how can a teacher not post a particular piece? Should there be controls on who can view and comment on student work?
I can definitely see your concerns. I too thought about posting student work on a blog. My idea was to share different pieces on the same topic and explain grading practices while leaving the child's name off the work. That way there wouldn't be the issue of parents making comparisons and connecting to a name. Instead they would be able to see what the expectation is for their child.
ReplyDeleteTo address your concerns about inappropriate feedback, maybe you could set up a blog where posts have to be approved before they can be published. That way you can monitor posts and prevent something hurtful from being posted in the first place.
As far as the work itself, instead of requiring students to post every bit of writing, maybe allow them to select 1 of 3 papers to post. That way students can choose whether they want something emotional posted for many to see or not. In leaving it up to the student, teachers do not have to make that decision on whether to post or not. However, if you believe that something should not be posted, you can talk to the student about your concerns and let the student and/or parents make the final decision.
As far as controls on who can comment, you can always require that people can sign up, but have to be approved before they can post a comment. There are ways to restrict access. If it is connected to your site, you might be able to ask your district/site technology team to help you out.
Christina, I understand your concerns. I wouldn't worry too much about parents making comparisons. Out of the pocket of parents who will actually read several writing samples from several different authors, probably only a small few will read the selections, note each student's progress throughout the year, and compare that information with the writing skills of his/her child. And, even if they do, they will only either feel proud or concerned. And if they feel concerned, maybe it will motivate them to help their child improve in his/her writing skills.
ReplyDeleteNaturally, we should always get the permission from the student to publish a piece of writing. Perhaps the student that wrote the sad story would be proud to have his story published on the blog, and perhaps the readers would not even know it was based on his own experience.
It sounds like your biggest challenge will be to train parents and students in how to offer appropriate, positive comments and feedback to the blog posts, focusing on the strengths of the writing.
Thank you for your feedback. I forgot to mention that I teach third grade, and I agree that the real challenge will be training students how to offer feedback based on the strengths of the writing. Recently I read an article about a teacher that used blogs for reader's response. She felt the blogging was very powerful at first but then students fell into a routine of similar, canned responses. Perhaps the feedback on writing could be directed to focus on specific writing traits or on whatever was the minilesson objective during the week.
ReplyDeleteMy high school does student-led conferences in April. Every teacher has about 20 students in their advisory period. The students stay with the same advisor for all 4 years. To prepare for conferences, we currently gather all the needed documents in a file folder. I have heard about e-portfolios in schools before. I think that would be great way to show parents not only what their child has learned in the content areas but also what they have learned in technology. My concern is that only several teachers would make an honest effort at it. Then, like you mentioned the idea/concept would disappear in a sense. I feel it would need to be a school-wide effort. However, that raises two issues for me. Not all my schools' teachers are comfortable with using technology so it is not used in their classrooms and not all our classrooms have student computers so more strain would be put on the need for computer labs.
ReplyDeleteI really like idea of posting the student work for parents to see and comment about. I plan on continuing to investigate a way to make this work.
Christina, I think your idea of having directed feedback for blog posts would solve the potential problem of students losing motivation and only submitting canned responses. The students could be challenged to include some of their weekly spelling words in their response, for example.
ReplyDelete