Writing Workshop Everywhere: Keep a Blog or Two

Blogging is a way for students and teachers to connect with each other and with people outside of the classroom too. A blog is an online, regularly updated home for a writer or a group of writers. Student blogs may be kept internal, private, and only viewable by the class and those to whom the teacher gives access. A class may also have a more public blog for parents, families, friends, and the general online population to enjoy.

Some teachers decide to allow students to have their own private blogs where they keep their own work.

Some teachers choose to keep a blog for the whole class, allowing different students to take turns sharing book reviews, classroom happenings, videos, and other news.

You might choose to do both of these things, thus giving students an opportunity to keep a less formally edited commenting space for classroom friends and also a more public, refined blog for sharing with the world.

Student blog posts might vary from day-to-day or week-to-week, or a blog might have a particular focus such as "Sharing Our Reading."

One great thing about blogging is that the very nature and set-up of a blog invites comments. Commenting, however, like any other writing skill, must be taught. Students must learn to make useful and kind comments, comments that contribute to and not detract from the conversation begun by the blogger. Teachers may moderate comments, approving each one so that no feelings are hurt and so that things do not degenerate as they often do on news, YouTube and other unmoderated sites.

Many teachers and other educators also keep professional learning blogs. Such blogs allow adult learners to connect and share around a variety of topics. These sites are usually hosted by Wordpress, Blogger, or edublogs, and teachers create communities in these virtual spaces, often blogging about particular topics on certain days (one example is Poetry Friday) and becoming friends through their comments and posts. Many teachers meet in person at conferences already feeling as if they've known each other for a long time thanks to relationships developed through these professional sites.

A Handful of Educator Blogs:

A Year of Reading

To Read To Write to Be

Reflect and Refine

Primary Perspective

These 4 Corners

Reflections on the Teche

inside the dog

Interesting Links about Student Blogging in General:

kidblog and More

Student Blogging - Sample Prompts for Comments

Teaching with Blogs at readwritethink