Blog Activity in Detail

I thought I might try doing an activity in more detail.

I thought that a Student Portfolio is a great idea and is something that could be used across all primary year levels.  Unfortunately, it doesn't quite fit into the engagement theory's relate-create-donate as it doesn't involve collaborative team work, but I think that this could happen by having a number of small groups maintaining a group portfolio.

Purpose:  As most parents are not privvy to what goes on in the classroom and what their kids are up to during the school day (and students don't always get to show off their hard work), I thought it would be great for students to develop a blog to showcase their activities, achievements, events etc to family and friends over the course of the semester/year.  It would also allow the student and the student's family, friends and peers to comment and provide feedback about the student's work, and the topics/activities/events in the classroom.  It may motivate some students to do their best work as it would be available for public viewing.  The portfolio would also be used as a form of formulative and summative assessment.  The students progress can be reviewed periodically and at the end of the unit.

Declarative Knowledge:

• Definition, characteristics and purposes of a blog - an initial activity could be brainstorming with students to work out numerous ways of displaying work, but leading into the use of a blog.  Students could then do a KWL - a group discussion regarding the KW parts, then research the internet to find out about blogs using advanced organiser questions.  During this task, the teacher could stop students for a "3-minute pause" to determine something new that they have learnt.  Upon completion the 'L' of the KWL can be completed as a class.  Students can then create a graphic organiser or pictograph for a blog.
• How to set up a blog - watch video.
• Definition and Characteristics of a Portfolio - again using a KWL strategy, students can then brainstorm the types of things that would be suitable for  putting on a portfolio.  The teacher can then demonstrate an example of a student portfolio using a blog.  A graphic organiser which could then be put on the wall as reference to the types of 'artefacts' that they could put on their site.
• Definition of Habits of Mind (self-regulatory thinking, particularly responding appropriately to feedback and evaluating the effectiveness of your actions) as described by Marzano and Pickering (1997).  As an introduction, the teacher might give students a hypothetical situation whereby they are receiving feeback for a project they had done or sport they have played.  Using the Think-Pair-Share, the students can think about how they would evaluate their actions and respond to feedback , share their responses with a partner then feedback to the class.   After reviewing all the responses, discussions can be made regarding what constitutes good habits of mind.

Procedural Knowledge:

• The ability to setup a blog and use it's functions for the purpose of a student portfolio, including making frequent posts using a variety of media e.g. powerpoint, video, photos, texts.  Initially, the setup of a blog would be demonstrated using a 'think aloud' approach with the computer projected onto a whiteboard for all students to see.  The students would then use step by step instructions (which would include images of webpages, buttons to click) to create their own blogs.
• The ability to apply the habits of mind as demonstrated by appropriately responding to feedback on the blog and evaluating the effectiveness of their blog but also evaluating the activities/tasks that they were involved in -  answering questions such as:  What did I do well? What could I do better?  What did I like/not like about an activity?  What could I suggest to the teacher to do next time?
• For shaping their learning - brainstorming, discussing and providing examples of the other purposes of blogs which may be in the work place (e.g in the form of a community for practice), or for private use (e.g. a person's personal journey through life event).  The pitfalls could also be discussed.  For example, if you don't post regularly, if the content isn't interesting or uses the same format, how this may impact on the number of visitors to a site.  How the use of text, pictures, videos, avatars, photos, links to other sites of interest can influence how the audience perceives the blog.
• To internalise: this will be done by providing students with opportunities at home and at school to add to their portfolio on a regular basis. 

References: 

Bloggerhelp. (2008, Jan 4). How to create a blog with blogger:  [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnploFsS_tY

Marzano, R. J., & Pickering, D. J. (with Arrendondo, D. E., Paynter, D. E., Blackburn, G. J., Brandt, R. S., Whistler, J. S.). (1997). Dimensions of learning teacher’s manual (2nd ed.). Alexandra, VA: ASCD.