Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Thoughts About Blogging With Fifth Graders
This activity was one of my favorites so far. I really enjoyed being able to communicate with the students and get an impression about how 5th graders 'blog'. It confirmed for me that students enjoy "writing" on the computer much more than with pencil and paper! Why not? It's not nearly as boring because it is way more visual, it's more creative, and much faster! This activity reminded me that kids love to talk about themselves and I saw how much they enjoyed communicating with one another. One concern I had was the lack of spelling skills. I think that digital media can help with this. Rather than using the spell checker, students can be taught to proof read their material first. Not having to deal with the penmanship issue could aid in making spelling corrections, and students would learn editing skills at the same time. Blogging is definitely something that I would like to incorporate as an instructional activity with future students.
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Yes! I think teaching proofreading and editing skills is essential. Although some people think spell checker is ruining kids ability to spell, I disagree. Spell checking provides just in time instruction which is very effective. Also kids need to be taught how to spell check correctly which involves using the dictionary or thesaurus to make sure that they are using the right words.
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