Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Using a Blog to Learn About the States
The first few years that I taught 5th grade we used to have our students complete a state report. Each child would choose a state to become an expert on. Each week they would complete a different aspect of the project. The project took forever! Sure the student were proud of their work, but they only people that read it all was me and most likely their parents at Open House. Needless to say, after a few years I decided to drop this massive project.
One of my focuses this year is to better utilize my class blog. I decided to morph the massive states project into a web based blog project. Weekly my students will need to respond to some sort of prompt requiring them to research an aspect of their selected state. Some sample prompts could be, write a paragraph about how your state got its name, or what is the history of the states motto. By turning this into a blog, my students will be able to read what their peers are posting. I will also be requiring them to respond to two of their classmates posts. I believe that students will become more engaged in their learning, and they will have opportunities to learn about so many more states. It is a win win situation.
One note of caution, before instituting a blog in your classroom make sure that it is OK with your school district. Secondly, and most importantly, make sure your students know proper etiquette for blogging and the internet in general. If you can teach your students to be good digital citizens now it will help them out in the long run.
Happy Blogging!
If you are teaching about the states, here's a fun YouTube clip to show your students.
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Great video!
ReplyDeleteIt will be exciting to watch how your project changes as you take it online. Have your students blogged before? If not, I found the concept of "paper blogging" to be a good way to start. It introduces them to digital citizenship without taking them immediately into cyberspace. It is also a very concrete and visual representation of what the internet is like. I saw a great example at Notes from McTeach: http://www.notesfrommcteach.com/2010/09/learning-to-blog-using-paper.html
Ok David that is a great idea. In my fifth grade class we create a Geo Book. This book is a project that takes the whole year and each week the students research two states. It is a long process and I have been trying to think of ways to make it more engaging. I really do like the blog idea and what a great video. I will use this video next week! Thanks for a awesome idea and I will for sure look into how I can implement some new technology into this sometimes tedious project.
ReplyDeleteRobert,
DeleteYour Geo Book sounds very similar to what our state projects where like. I'm glad my post gave you something to consider.
David
David,
ReplyDeleteThis is a fantastic way to transition from a lengthy project to an online journal where your students can share information about their state by responding to your writing prompts. It also allows you to go paperless with the project, while allowing students the opportunity to learn from their peers. The video is a perfect motivational beginning and it will help engage your students to participate in the project. Have you thought about ways to teach your students how to cite their research in the comment? This might be important to review before you start the project and also remind them of plagiarism. An idea could be going off of what Elizabeth said above with starting with "paper blogging" first to show them how to cite their work. This would ensure that all of your students can share their own opinions, while also supporting their research. Again, I think that this is a great integration of technology for a project you already do in your classroom.
Thanks for sharing the YouTube video. I teach the states and capitals to my third graders and I know they will love seeing this video!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea! I clearly remember the state project. I got my 6th choice, Maine, and can barely remember a thing about it! Also, no one really paid attention to each other's presentations, so each one of us really only learned about our own state. The way you make it interactive and having the students make comments, I am hoping they will learn and appreciate more. Also, great video!!
ReplyDelete