Busy in the Blogosphere

Oh my. What have I done?

My inbox is four pages long, chock-a-block with myConcordia notifications: "So-and-so has updated such-and-such's blog." This is great. I wasn't sure if kids would take to posting their story outlines and drafts on the class blog, but they seem to be universally enjoying it. Some of them seem to live online.

I'm staying out of it, having learned a lesson from people who try to micro-manage blogs. A couple kids are punching in HTML and tricking out their fonts and text colors, and I'm letting them. I'm glad they're taking ownership. More to the point, though, they are conversing about writing.

I'm seeing a growing sophistication in their feedback requests, from "What do I need to make it better?" transformed into "Is my climax too abrupt? Do I need more detail to make it plausible?"

I had a quick lesson in tagging today. Other than that, they're fairly blog savvy.

I've schedule a workshop session for them tomorrow, so I'll gauge their feelings for the kind of feedback their getting.

I'm nervous that everything they write is potential data, to be sifted and analyzed. I hope it's not that way. I hope that when the dust clears, some results will be apparent.

Am I the only one who feels overwhelmed?

Checking In

I alloted much of the classes this week to writing. I had to do some coaching about the Writing Process and some strategies for effective writing, but the kids are keen to tell stories. They were discussing character names so I sent them to thinkbabynames.com where they had great name searching for meaningful names. Should make for interesting reading.

For my homeroom in particular, the terrific buzz in the room whenever they were sharing their story outlines, and first and second drafts. There is a wide difference between classes, as my other group is every bit as thoughtful, but with less sharing. My homeroom is loving it, really taking social advantage of peer review, but writing nonetheless. I wonder if they will take as well to the impersonal blogging? Then again, some are passing around their laptops, asking for reviewers to read and comment. How blog like.

This is the scaffold I provided to help make reviewing productive. I'll repeat the same when they write next time and review on the blog.

Outline: Ask two specific questions of your assigned reviewer, then choose two others to share with.

Day two: Reviewers should answer:
1. Something I like...
2. Something I'm not sure about...
3. Tell me more about...
4. You might try...

Day 3 of 3: I made each writer come up with a specific question to put to their reviewer. What specific thing do you want feedback on? This was a struggle for my homeroom, as they kept asking, "What should I improve?" It took awhile to get them to consider where their concerns were, but they came up with, "Where can I improve my sentence fluency?" and "Are my descriptions of the time machine clear to you--please say in your own words what you think I'm describing."

Monday they'll hand in hard copies of the outline, the first draft, and the final, so I can see how much revision went on.

One advantage of blogging for me will be my access to the revision notes. I walked around the room while they talked, but what I didn't overhear is gone.

By the way, I cut back my timeline from three writing assignments to two. There's always something cutting into class time, and I need time for grading!

Hope all is well on your end.

Cheers.

Writing Prompts

Thank you, Gaoming, for the timeline suggestion! I really have my ducks in a row.

Here are the photos I'll be using as story prompts, one each Monday for the next three weeks.

Success!

I tweaked my blog settings and now I will receive emails of your comments.

I also figured out how to access previous comments. Good thing, too, there's some good stuff there.

Thank you, David, Gaoming, April, and Fatina for the feedback. I will lay out a timeline for this process.

I am interested in quality more than quantity, except where it relates to students wanting to write. Often when I give prompts, one or two students will write two sentences and then lay down their pencils, so I wonder if blogging will entice them to write more. However, that problem is a bit removed from the question of my TIP, so I'll have to rethink that one.

As far as the tendency for kids to be too nice in commenting, I don't think it will be too great a problem with the current class I have. They do well in overcoming the culture of niceness and tend to give quality feedback, even if it is constructive criticism. I've been working on this with them. Nonetheless, it's something for me to watch; I ought to make sure my questions address that factor.

Thanks! I don't feel so isolated anymore.

Work-arounds

Someone, somewhere used Blogger to post ideas that are anathema to my landlords, so Blogger is blocked in the country of my residence (and home for five years). So I can't access my own blog, except through a proxy server. I can post, though. I will rely on email copies of comments however. So, if you would like to comment on anything, feel free to email the content to me as well. Thanks!

The work-around I'm hoping will work is reading my TIP members blogs through proxies, and then emailing them with my comments. Not the best fix, but better than remaining dark, eh?

Please Fasten Your Seatbelts

OK, the second semester is upon us, so it's time to unleash this TIP on my grade 8 English students.

Just a reminder of my TIP: What effect does blogging technology have on student practice of revision in the writing process?

I'm taking David Wong's advice and incorporating interviews with the kids ahead of time, in addition to online surveys.

I'm going to create a single blog on the school server with each of my students (18) as authors. Most of them have their own blogs, but this one will allow them to post written pieces for everyone to see (one stop shopping).

One limitation of blogging technology in this scenario is that our course management software, with the built-in blog engine, is password protected, so the only people who can read and comment on my student's writing will be fellow students, parents, and other teachers. I'll write to the designer and see if he can generate a limited-access password that will allow you, my fellow travelers on this TIP trip, can view the kinds of things that end up on the blog.

Request: Anyone have a writing prompt that has engaged kids in the past? I have a few, but I'm always looking for something new. (They universally disliked Radiohead's The National Anthem; they universally liked Serat's Sunday on La Grande Jatte The classics never go out of style.)