Let me start by explaining that I teach 9th and 10th grade English. My school has a daily 15-minutes Silent Sustained Reading (SSR) time at the beginning of the school day. We are in the second year of this program and in the opinion of many teachers it has been successful. My curriculum has an independent reading component as well; therefore my students participate in a substantial amount of reading.
My idea is to provide a blog for students to discuss the books they are reading. The purpose of the blog would be to serve as an on-line book club. I would create the blog. The students would post to my blog their reviews and recommendations about the books they have read during SSR or in class. My intention is for my students to discuss with their peers why a book was great or not so great. I can further develop the discussions by asking analytical questions about a book such as author’s intent or symbolism. My hope with this blog is to (1) create more interest and enthusiasm in reading, and (2) introduce different genres of books to students. Maybe a student who would have not looked twice at a “vampire lore” novel would be interested in reading a particular “vampire” book after reading a discussion on the blog.
I think there are many benefits to the blog. First, it gives the students the chance to interact with their peers in a new way. Everyone has the chance to participate- speak their minds. Too often in class the “shy” students fail to speak up while the out-spoken students dominate the conversation. Also, students have to effectively communicate their thoughts and ideas in a public forum, viewable by not only by the teacher but by their classmates. Hopefully, the discussions will lead to reflection, analysis, and possibility debate. These are only a few benefits of this type of blog.
Since this is my first time developing a blog to use in my classroom, I am sure there are things I am overlooking. Your comments and suggestions are welcome!
Linda
Hi Linda,
ReplyDeleteI think that your idea to use a blog for SSR is very interesting. My school also has SSR, but it is actually its own period, and it last for 28 minutes each day, and students are supposed to fill in a book log at the end of each period to document what they have been reading. I don't know about you, but I find it difficult to keep them sitting silently and reading, especially as this is quite a long chunk of time, and Fridays can really be the worst, so I started to have an informal share-out about what each student is reading. This works pretty well, as students really do want to talk about what they are reading, but since it is informal, they tend to forget about "what was that book that I wanted to read?" This is where I think your blog idea would be so helpful! Maybe this would also be a way for you to put some accountability into SSR. I see students just staring at one page for the whole period sometimes. Maybe if they knew they were going to be responsible to blog about the book, they would really take it more seriously. So this sounds like a good idea to me, both to create a product from SSR and also as a way to put some accountability through a participation grade into it.
Linda,
ReplyDeleteYour online- blog book club sounds solid. It is flexible enough for any student to join, yet has enough specificity to guide students. Since I also am a Read 180 teacher, I wondered if students would be more motivated to connect with other Read 180 students outside of the confines of their school. Would you consider (eventually) expanding your blog book club to other Read 180 classes? I would be very interested in teaming up with this project. I am starting a very similar book club blog with my students, and starting out slow, but eventually would like to "shrink the world."
Thanks,
Rachel
Linda-
ReplyDeleteI love your idea of using blogs for SSR time. I am having a hard time convincing my Freshmen to use their SSR time wisely. The first fifteen minutes of my American Studies course (a co-taught class of English 9 with my history partner) is used for SSR time, but our students waste the time. Will you let me know if the blogging experience helps your students focus their time?
-Becca
Linda,
ReplyDeleteI love your blogging idea! I wish my school would embrace the importance of SSR like yours! I also teach ninth grade English and I have my students complete a final assessment project at the end of the school year reading a novel of their choice. I would suggest using a program such as shelfari.com. One of my co-workers just showed me how to use this and each member has their own personal virtual book shelf on the page which displays all of the books which the student has read. It gives you a place to type in book reviews and also make other comments which would be a good place for answering discussion questions. From personal experience when dealing with multiple students reading multiple novels (some of which I have never read before) I find it quite difficult to figure out a way to assess if the students actually read the novel or not. If you didn't get a chance to read a novel and you ask a student a question such as "what was the author's intent?" how do you planning on checking for accuracy/validity regarding the student's answer?
Rachel,
ReplyDeleteI knew some one else in our group taught Read 180! I just could not remember who. I would be interested in teaming up with another Read 180 classroom. My students think they are the only ones in the world who "have to" take the class. I think it would be a wonderful opportunity for them to speak with other students in the program. I will have to talk to my co-teacher about the idea, but I'm sure she would be interested as well. Like you, I have to wrap my head around this plan and getting it to fruition. We will definitely have to discuss this idea more!
Linda
Linda,
ReplyDeleteYes, lets continue to think on this and expand it. I am excited you are interested too!
Hi Linda, I have to comment on what you said about how blogs help shy students feel more confident in sharing their thoughts or ideas with their classmates. I recently did a blog with my students and was amazed at how many of my typically quiet students posted comments to it. One of my students in particular never talks in class (I think she has only said about 5 words to me all year), but in her blog posting she was creative and thoughtful, and I really don't think she ever would have made such comments had it been a classroom discussion. So I just wanted to compliment you on your insight into this very powerful use of blogs!
ReplyDelete