I set up blog accounts for Jeff’s Year 10 English class. We booked the class into a lab last Friday whenthey logged in to their blogs. Initially we reviewed the blogging rules and then they started recording their movie reviews in the blogs.
Unfortunately, there were problems with some of the student accounts. It was the learner blog accounts again. I will steer clear of them in the future. I was able to create accounts quickly while those students used MS Word to start their reviews. They then cut and pasted them into their blogs.
The larger problem was when I discovered that wordpress.com was blocked. Some students were unable to login half-way through the class. Fortunately there was a work around we could use as I couldn’t contact Kevin to update the Dan’s Guardian filters. (They have since been updated)
Jeff was very happy with the amount of work produced in the class. This week we had a quick review on using Bloglines and how to add comments so he is off and running. The class is booked in again this week. Their motivation and engagement was evident when they asked Jeff when they could return to do more work.
2 responses so far ↓
1
Jeff
// Oct 24, 2006 at 5:34 pm
Mr K’s first lesson using a blogg site for students work in English- a movie review- outline of structure already taught and exercises on present tense and peer evalutation of students written reviews already completed prior to the lesson hereunder, plus setting out of topic sentences, attention grabbing openers. Students had own choice of what movie to do-
The first lesson for the yr 10 class (mixed- aged 15yrs) was a real professional eye opener for me. For the first time I was able to go around and view over/read students work without them having to hand their written work to me. And I didn’t have to take it up and shuffle it into a file to lag around with- and the chance of misplacing it, or leaving it on the desk, or in my car, or where ever. And certain students could not choose to ‘ forget to hand work in’ Accountability!!
I found students calling me over to read their work and ask me what I thought- and because it was read on the spot and they were in charge of correcting my observations or responding to my suggestions or open questioning without me having to use biro, well, they liked that. I was never so busy running around and helping facilitate creative written responses. And the fact that they could go and check a fact on the net for inclusion/re-worded into their insitu work was a god send. No waiting for a Library period.
The students were engaged, minus three recalcitrants who were intent on wanting to remain lost to the work ethic as was happening before, in the old classroom that was overcrowded and without any IT in the class. These students were able to hide their non-work because of the classroom set up, and now, low and behold, their peers were busy, busy, and not paying attention to distractions caused by the recalcitrants.
Students have passed comments to me around the school when I was on duty re the class, asking when they were going back to ‘ do more.’ Great to hear.
I need to have some clearer outlines re the outcomes and tasks and a rubic of completion etc for them on the class blogg site, and then, I think, they will truly be flying.
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