Post a Prompt

Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have your students respond to it by a certain day.  Ask them to also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students receive a comment from someone. Foster process writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a suggestion for improvement to content and  mechanics (editing) of the other student’s submission. 

If you use the approval process before allowing student responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review

Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary classroom to write that week’s blog entry, describing the events of the week in Room XYZ. Invite moms and dads to comment and watch the excitement grow! Soon you will have students begging to write the summaries.

Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness will not feel as disconnected from their classroom, a great boon during flu season!

So how do I use blogs for my class(es)?

Roll over the title to read ideas for your class blog, just to get you thinking
about it.

I already know what I want to do, so take me to the steps for setting up the classroom blog.

Respond to a reading

Practice good reading strategies and check comprehension by asking students to respond to an assigned reading, reflecting on how it applies to their own experience. For example, after reading a non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era, students could tell about their own experiences with labeling.

Find the facts

Post a statement with no supporting facts. Ask students to find facts to support or refute the opinion, using links to reliable web sites and their own persuasive explanations. This could work well for environmental issues, political issues, or any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site

Post a link to a web site related to a topic your are studying and invite students to give their personal evaluation: Does the site show bias? Does it seem well-researched? Is it a reliable source?

 

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and ask students to comment on its implications in your local community or their own lives. Even young students can respond to stories from the local paper’s online pages.

I am ready- take me to the steps to start my blog!

I need to see more ideas.