My class tends to see blogging as a requirement and not as an opportunity to learn further. It is beholden upon me to turn this around, to embed it into our work and also to get them to reflect better.
We have sentence stems laminated and on every single chromebook.Nearly every time we blog, I get the same questions “how many stems do we have to do” (nothing has changed, still the same amount), “what does this mean?” (explained EVERY time) and the waiting for me to type it out for them (which I do not). They see it as a chore, as they do a lot of work in the classroom. “Do we have to read ALL of this?”, YES.
Another issue is the lack of participation and commenting from whānau despite notices, posts online on different platforms and discussions kanohi ki te kanohi with them. We aren’t particularly good at commenting on others’ posts either. I feel this will be a focus for term 4, learning to comment better and setting aside time each week to visit others’ blogs and to give good feedback on their peers’ posts. It doesn’t help that our teachers aren’t particularly good at commenting either on each others’ professional blogs or those of our tamariki, although we are changing this.
The tamariki do not see blogging as part of their learning. Being able to write coherently and reflectively on their blogging is reading and writing! To express themselves and to think about what they are learning is the cherry on the top and a way to accelerate learning if done often enough.
The biggest thing I need to do as a teacher is to actually timetable the time to A) complete a blog and B) to comment on other’s blogs. It is not enough to say “blog your reading” in the response to text or elsewhere because if they do not manage to complete the mahi, that is the first thing that falls off. It needs to NOT be a perfunctory “here’s my work” and that’s it.
Research shows those tamariki who blog at a "high" level (2.5 posts on average per week) actually gain levels in asTTle writing scores. By writing and reflecting, they become better writers. This could be a game changer for some of my tamariki.
I currently have non-negotiable blogs (they HAVE to blog about something) but they are perfunctory reflections based on sentence stems we have provided. I am going to show them blogs from other schools that show how much more thinking has gone into their blog reflections.
I will also make a concerted effort to comment on their blogs more often. It is something if I don't timetable it into my life, it will not happen except in random bursts!
Another aspect of sharing we looked at today was collaboration. Completing "creates" with other tamariki in the class. I can see this sometimes going pear-shaped so I will need to set some ground rules with input from the tamariki as to how this will work and how they are held accountable in their pairs or groups. I will also be asking them how they would like to collaborate and creating success criteria with them around their dispositions and expected behaviour.
We blog about once a week at the moment and it happens at odd times. I will formally timetable these into the day and also have a time for them to post comments on others' work. Some have completed how to write a good comment, but I think all will actually benefit from another round of lessons on how to write great blog comments (along with blog posts!)
As the diagram shows, commenting and responding is not linear! But it hits all aspects of the curriculum with regards to English (as the curriculum currently stands anyway!) It is one way to help increase literacy time while doing something the kids usually enjoy.
My biggest area of concern though is the whānau engagement. i have two parents who comment on blogs. One is a high school teacher who understands the benefits of commenting (also a Manaiakalani school). How do I get others involved? I liked the ideas of sending home reading "homework" to do as a whānau. I will think long and hard about a few activities that whānau do not find difficult or time consuming to ensure they do want to do it and get it done. The kids won't be hard to convince but I don't want meltdowns at home if there is raru about having to do it.
It is the final day of the course, I am happy in one sense that I have achieved a lot on this course and that it is done. But I am also unhappy as there goes the accountability, learning, collaboration with teachers all over NZ and the myriad of other benefits being on this course has meant. I can't wait to get on the MPI and hopefully a writing version of this same course. Excited!!
