I have found an interesting student blogging project at John Spencer’s website. I was most impressed with the level of versatility built in to the project. It can be used as a one-time project to get-to-know kind of lesson in September, a wrap-up kind of project for the end of the year. In fact, it really fits any time of the year to the point that it could be a weekly installment. His project idea is step-by-step and takes one through setting up a student blog one phase at a time. When it is time for the students to start commenting on each other’s posts, there are suggestions to get them started writing. This project even has students reflecting on the project and the process itself.
The other 7th grade math teacher and I have used Genius Hour as well, but using it in collaboration with a blog is a really neat idea. I also like that John Spencer gives suggestions on how to get students commenting on each other’s posts. I think this can be one of the hardest parts of blogging.
Jerry –
Taking students step by step through the blogging process is definitely a must. Even though they are tech savvy, they many times still need the basics when it comes to using tech for assignments!
Chris