This blog post is actually a part of an assignment for a class that I am doing. The post is about using a collaborative and communicative tool to reach different learners in the classroom. Rather than re-invent the wheel, I am choosing to write this about a unit plan that I have tweaked and reworked for different ages and abilities of learners. While there are no names of students listed, I am basing this on an actually class that I taught last year, which contained a wide range of students from a varied learning background. Please feel free to comment on or discuss anything that I have written below!
Mr. Hopper ELA 6th grade Tool: Weebly or Google Sites Learners: Any level- typical classroom with ~30% IEP, 15% Gifted and Talented, 55% Traditional Activity: students will create a fully functioning website in place of a book report, including a blog for communication and visibility Reflection: I tried the website building activity again, and I had similar results the second time through. One of the big things that I found was that, again, not all students read the book! But I'm not going to focus on that aspect of the assignment for now. Rather, I want to look at the use of blogs and the communication therein. I chose to utilize the blogs for several reasons. The biggest factor in my decision was the visibility the students would receive from other classes, the author herself, and their parents and peers. Next was the ability to write over an extended period of time (nearly 2 months for the project) about a variety of different topics. Finally, I wanted them to have the exposure of writing in a different, and less formal, form. Actually teachers report that, according to Kathleen Morris, a blogger for TheEduBlogger.com, "the top three reasons for using student blogs in 2016 were assignments/assessments (34.3%), reflective blogging (29.6%), and collaboration/discussion (32.6% ) (2018). I feel like this accurately depicts the reasons for my assignment. The biggest advantage to having the students maintain a blog is that there is "evidence of student learning over time" (Morris, 2018) It shows me the growth, or lack thereof, that students make as they progress through the novel and how their understanding of the characters and content develops. There is also something to be said for developing one's thoughts from writing in a variety of different settings, formats, and more. It was also helpful to have students working together in proofreading and challenging the ideas of others. The disadvantages that I saw are actually mostly reparable! I felt limited by only getting my own classes to peruse the work of others with any consistency. I would like to try and extend this unit plan to another teacher in my district who is reading the same novel and see what we can get out of it. I think that having people that they may not know read their work would also encourage the students and provide them with some motivation to push themselves to do better. Another drawback that I found is the speed at which different students complete the tasks. I found some great extension activities for this, such as including time for Hour of Code, Typing.com, and learning to code with HTML. All of these activities allowed for enrichment and high interest and engagement. It was also the carrot for many students to push themselves. Morris, K. (2018). Primary Tech. Retrieved from http://primarytech.global2.vic.edu.au/2018/03/14/benefits-blogging/ Morris, K. (2018). The current state of educational blogging 2017/2018. Retrieved from https://www.theedublogger.com/survey-2017-2018/
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