Blogging in first grade is an excellent opportunity for my students to share their work as authors. We usually have an authors chair where students can celebrate their work to an audience; their classmates. Now,students can read their finished work on the computer and provide some encouraging words. First graders are sometimes afraid or don't know how to express their ideas and I think this would give their confidence a huge boost. Some may think blogging in first grade is impossible. I don't think it is impossible at all, but just a bit more challenging.
Some ideas that I have for a first grade blog would include my students posting a response to either a question of the day or a journal prompt. Students would be allotted time during the day to post their response. They can then go to the computer lab and read through some responses and be responsible to post a comment or comments to their classmates postings. I can even post a picture and have them respond to a picture prompt. On this blog I would also post various websites where students can play educational games of interest. Students can visit these websites at school, and at home if they have access to a computer. They can leave their opinions of what games they enjoyed, or really did not like. They can also share if they know of any great websites they have used.
Another idea would be for students to blog what they have learned for the day, and if something confused them. These are just a few ideas that I have. It will take them some time to get use to blogging, but they are such a terrific bunch and can do anything-especially if it is enjoyable for them!
Reflection
13 years ago
Posts
How often do your students go to the computer lab? If they get to go every week, then maybe spend the first part of the year teaching them how to type and having them actually write a normal journal in class where they answer a question. That way you teach them to type but also teach them how to respond to a journal prompt. For the second half of the year you could integrate the two as you said you would like to do. Otherwise you'll be spending more time on teaching kids to type and less time on them learning how to write. I anticipate the slow speed of typing to be the biggest issue you will face if this is something you will do only in the classroom. Maybe you could teach the kids in your class the idea of blogging by having a grade level blog for the first part of the year where each teacher chooses 1 journal entry each week to post. If you do this during class time you would be teaching students how to navigate a blog and what to do so they are familiar with the concept by the time you require them to blog on their own.
ReplyDeleteAs I read your ideas for blogging, I thought I could use those in my second grade classroom as well. Children love to share their writing but sometimes have a hard time being motivated when getting started. Using the prompt or picture would really help this. Also, being able to use the computer would also be a motivational piece. I think a challenge to blogging in first grade would definately be the speed of their typing. I wonder if you could buddy your class up with an older grade. That way, students could have a conversation about the topic before typing it with an older student. The older student may already have previous knowledge about a blog and would be able to type for your first graders. This could be a way to incorporate activities across grade levels. Perhaps your first graders' buddies could also respond when they get to their classroom and your students could enjoy reading their ideas as well.
ReplyDeleteHello Kvmartin! Thank you so much for your suggestions. I really appreciate it! My students visit the lab once a week, but we also have free lab hours daily that we can sign up for. My students respond to a journal prompt each morning as their morning exercise. I agree that my first graders typing will be an obstacle, especially if they have to respond to a prompt. I think that I will take your suggestion for posting one entry per week. In addition, after thinking about your feedback, I thought the best thing to do right now is have my students respond to read a louds. We just read Yurtle the Turtle by Dr. Sess in celebration of Read Across America. In this story, Yurtle said that he was the "King of all that he could see." An example of what I would have my students do is write about what other animals might see. Example- What could a bird see when it flies in the sky? or What could a fish see when it swims in the ocean? A possible response could be- A fish sees a coral reef when it swims in the ocean. Students will have the opportunity to respond to the book in one sentence, which will then shorten the time for typing and help them answer a question in a complete sentence. In the mean time, each week they can work on actually responding to a journal prompt in paragraph form. Thanks for your feedback!
ReplyDeleteHello Stacey! I think buddying up my first graders with let's just say a fourth or fifth grader would be great. We have alphasmarts in our school. My students learned to type on these alphasmarts from the older grades. It was a great tool because not only are they able to practice their keyboarding, but it could be used in the classroom and we have so many of them. More than enough for each student. The fifth graders helped my students to edit their responses. I think when my students begin blogging, I will have the older grades come in and pair them. Thank you so much for your helpful advice!
ReplyDeleteCarol, I love that you mentioned alphasmarts. We have some at my school, but don't have any printers for them. Until you mentioned having your students use them to practice keyboarding I was having trouble myself with teaching my students how to use a keyboard properly. Now I can use the alphasmarts to teach them the mechanics of typing as a whole class lesson. Thanks for putting that out there!
ReplyDeleteNo problem Kvmartin! The alphasmarts has a connector for your printer in the classroom. I print off of the classroom printer. Students love the alphasmarts because they can easily edit their work as well. We had fifth graders come in for a few sessions and they taught my first graders how to use it, edit their work, and print their work as well.
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