Blogging in the English Classroom

Throughout the 21st century, many schools were able to secure more technological resources. More computers with internet access are readily available in school buildings for students to be able to use during school hours. The internet has had such a monumental impact on the teaching of writing. The writing strand of the Common Core Standards for Language Arts acknowledges the impact with the following standard: “Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products, taking advantage of technology’s capacity to link to other information and to display information flexibly and dynamically” (CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.9-10.6). The Common Core Standards acknowledge that the internet has the ability to be an authentic platform for writing instruction because it engages people with cyber citizens across the world. One way that teachers seem to take advantage of the spirit of the platform in a way that can be consistent with the new standards is blogging. The NCTE’s position statement on the teaching of writing also indicates that writers only get better when they practice writing. Blogging is a way to practice writing constantly, so we see that this technological tool is an update to achieving certain learning goals.

In the English classroom, I think that blogging can be incredibly effective. In many writing classrooms across the country, teachers have their students keep a writer’s notebook. Students often write their ideas and a book and only share their notebooks with the teacher. During some workshop activities, some students can engage in a dialogue about the contents of another’s notebook. However, blogging is great because when students write about the content taught in the classroom and their own lives, other students in the classroom can finally engage in a conversation about ideas that would only appear in the writer’s notebook.

When it comes to what kind of work I would have students do on the blog, it could vary. I can have some structured activities where I have students answer questions or complete some kind of task. Students can also complete unstructured activities where they can just freely write about topics of their choosing.  Thus, blogging is a truly dynamic platform that can serve many pedagogical purposes. I can have it serve many different learning goals. Students can also comment on their classmates’ blogs, so there is a free exchange of ideas. The writer’s notebook takes a digital form, and it becomes a much more democratic text. Most importantly, this blogging platform fulfills the Common Core Standard I talked about earlier. Blogging can also be like a formative assessment if utilized correctly because it can provide checks for understanding. If I see that students are struggling with a particular aspect of writing or do not understand a reading I assigned, then I can change my instruction to fit the needs of the students.

I have discussed how Google Drive can be an effective pedagogical tool in a previous blog post. However, students can post a URL to an essay that they uploaded onto Google Drive on a blog so other students can view it. Other students can receive input from their classmates through the comment section of a blog. Thus, blogging is great because it can support the writing process by allowing peer conferencing to take place on the internet. Students can gain support from many other classmates, and this process can take place during any time. Thus, the peer support in the writing process is not restricted to just classroom time.  In addition, students from other classes and people from the world can comment as well. The audience for classroom writings is no longer restricted to just other students from the classroom. When students write in their online blogs, they engage with the real world. Blogging can also be a good platform to teach students about how important an audience is; thus, it seems to serve many useful pedagogical purposes.

One of the drawbacks that I think is possible is that many students do not feel like they want to share their work publicly. Some students do not like showing their work to other students because they feel they subject themselves to ridicule from their peers. Teachers need to make sure that their classroom environment is a safe one where students are able to trust each other. Another issue can be the many parents may feel that they do not want their students engaging in tasks that have to do with the internet.

In addition, many students may also feel that blogging is a chore, so they may not want to do it on their own. Thus, it seems like teachers would need to assign a grade to the blogging; however, that also seems to undermine intrinsic motivation of students. Educators definitely need to address this paradox because it is not an easy one to fix. This has always been a problem with assessment of informal writing tasks. Teachers also need to understand that students should know why blogging could help them. Teachers need to make the pedagogical goals very clear. Otherwise, this technology can fail to achieve its purpose in transforming the way students learn and interact with the world. Finally, teachers have model acceptable online behavior. With commenting, teachers need to explain to students how to create constructive comments because when a student says a particular sentence is vague, they could confuse the reader. Students also need to refrain from making cruel comments that border on personal insults as well.

Collaboration Canvas

The canvas that I remixed belonged to a music education major, and I thought that the unit her canvas introduces could directly link to the English discipline easily. Her unit discusses the links between music lyrics and other art forms like literature and film. I searched for a lesson plan that I believed would complement her unit well. I thought that the lesson I found was great because it has students create soundtracks consisting of existing songs that relate to a literary work. Song lyrics are poetry, and students can analyze literary devices and themes. These skills are important for students because they are in the Common Core Language Arts Standards.

I decided to keep her canvas’s original theme of exploring communication barriers because I felt students would benefit from analyzing a very common, strong theme existing in so many literary works. However, I felt that developing a soundtrack to a short poem by Robert Frost called “The Mending Wall” might have been too narrow of a task. Thus, I decided to find a longer piece of literature that related to the theme of communication barriers and their detrimental consequences. I picked Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare because it is a text widely read by students across the nation and it embodies the themes the original canvas discussed. I felt that students would be able to find examples of that theme in the play, and then be able to search for songs that relate to it for the soundtrack.

URL to Remixed Canvas: http://www.play.annenberginnovationlab.org/play2.0/challenge.php?idChallenge=2592&mode=view

Lesson Plan I Used: http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/musical-note-exploring-reading-861.html?tab=2#tabs

Is Facebook Going to Ruin Students' Writing? Or Is It a Good Thing? The Pedagogical Uses of Facebook in the English Classroom

After commenting on a couple of blogs by my fellow students in this class, I decided to do some research into if social media has a negative effect on our language capabilities. Many teachers express fears that this particular communication technology makes it much harder to teach the rules of proper grammar. However, according to this article that I found on the internet, many teachers express that social media actually makes their students better writers.

I agree with this paradigm of social media being effective in helping students become better writers. The National Council Teachers of English wrote a position statement on the teaching of writing. Their position explicitly states that the only way students will get better at writing is if they have opportunities to practice it. I think that social media definitely gets students to write much more than they used to in the past. Students constantly write on social media. As 21st century educators, we want to try to get the students immersed in these technologies motivated to learn. We should try to embrace it in the classroom because education should not be isolated from the real world.

As I reflected on my technology autobiography, it got me thinking. I mentioned that social media is one of my personal most influential communication technologies. I said this because I feel that Facebook brings us back to this notion of the historical democratic public sphere where people came to deliberate. I post political links, and I get to engage in dialogue with people who do not agree with my views. Outside of Facebook, I often do not get the opportunity to engage in debate with people whose views differ than my own. I feel that engaging in these debates have significantly improved my writing skills because it has taught me the importance of coming up with a logical argument. I even go on pages that suit my interests in order to engage in debates about interests that matter to me.

I think that if a teacher has a clear pedagogical strategy, Facebook becomes a powerful tool to help students learn. Teachers can have their students go on public fan pages for news organizations. The news organizations will usually post links about the current events, and people generally engage in a debate in the Facebook comments since people have generally find points to disagree with. A teacher can have their students enter these debates and engage other users with logical arguments. Teachers can assess students based on how well they managed to debate. When teachers assess these students, they can base their judgment based on how well students met some of the Common Core Standards.  Since students can customize their personal Facebook experiences, students will find no shortage of groups of people who disagree with them. Students can even go on political pages with people who primarily hold the opposite beliefs as them and do their debates there. This would be much more challenging. However, what could they learn about persuasion? Can everybody be persuaded?

Even though I think that this is a great exercise for students to get into since it gets them to be involved in the kind of writing that they will have to do in the 21st century, it has its downsides. Many parents would not support this kind of activity because they are concerned about their child’s safety. I could say that students can come up with fake profiles in order to conceal their identity, but many parents object to social media all together and do not want them on it. Students can also become very distracted if they are participating in this kind of activity during classroom time. Thus, it is pivotal that teachers explicitly state what behavior will be unacceptable and monitor their students to make sure that they stay on task.

Facebook demonstrates the changing landscape of writing. Throughout the 21st century, we will probably see writing becoming more public. By getting students to engage in writing endeavors that involve Facebook and other social media, we provide an authentic experience that gets them involved in the real world. I think that Facebook helps foster not only critical thinking, but also democratic habits. It is the teacher that will be able to gear social media as a platform for learning.  Social media is here to stay, and its effects that it had on our country will be there forever. I think many of the teacher-students in our class are very concerned that social media might affect spelling and grammar, and that article that I talked about expresses that it is indeed true. However, I think that English teachers sometimes focus too much on conventions to the point where we do not focus on ideas. If the errors are not bad enough to make the reading difficult and the ideas are great, I think that makes it a good writing. I think that grammar is important, but I think that Facebook can get students to engage in dialogues with ideas they are not used to seeing. If teachers were so concerned about grammar, they can use Facebook as a platform to teach grammar. They can have students go on pages, find instances of people writing with bad grammar, and correct it. Everybody knows that there would be no shortage of errors for students to find and improve, and by focusing on the correction, students get valid practice on fixing errors. Facebook can really help students learn the same Common Core Standards, and maybe students may not even realize they are learning. It may be complicated to integrate due to its possibilities as a distractor and opposition from the community, but I think that we should start thinking seriously about using Facebook because I think it does more good than harm to students.

Unit Plan Canvas

    The unit that I did a canvas on is about digital literacy and its importance. It also has students use their literacy skills to evaluate digital texts.  In order to create my canvas, I conducted many different Google Image searches in order to come up with images that I thought students would find helpful. For one of the image galleries, I wanted to provide several easy-to-read visuals to help students understand digital literacy better. I felt that this would be helpful because they could use those pictures as an easy reference. I used the other image gallery as a way to provide students opportunity to practice their critical evaluative skills and to turn the canvas into an experience that promotes students’ thinking.  

    I provided two videos with different purposes. One of the videos shows a presentation about digital literacy and its significance. I felt that the video would be helpful to auditory learners. The other video is a segment from The Young Turks where two hosts discuss the racist implications of a KFC advertisement in Australia. I found this to be important because it models the ideal dialogue style that students should have during this unit. I came up with the question and the brief explanation last because I wanted to have the canvas done so that my summary is effective and I provide a relevant question. The standards came from my last spreadsheet. I felt the resources provided should supplement the canvas and allow students to self-assess their abilities.

   
URL to Canvas: http://www.play.annenberginnovationlab.org/play2.0/challenge.php?idChallenge=2378&mode=view