Week 2 of my classes new writing blog began with a new addition to our blog family. This week Miss Montambault approached me about having our classes connect via kidblog, and I was hesitant. I was just dipping my foot into this whole blogging thing, and wasn't feeling ready to branch out. Miss Montambault echoed my concerns though, her kids, she said, had only really blogged once so far. Even though we both had reservations, we made the connection anyway.
On Wednesday, I shared the connection with my class, who thought it was "really cool" that big 4th graders would be reading our stories. When I pulled up their blog, we were surprised to see that they had made some new posts, and they were all opinion pieces! Guess what unit we had just begun in our classroom? Persuasive writing through opinion pieces! We were elated to learn that they were studying the same things we were, and we eagerly dove into a few of Miss Montambault's students' posts. Sara had posted a persuasive piece on why we should have school on the weekends. We had a hard time supporting that argument, and were unable to help her come up with more reasons to back up her opinion. However, we were able to provide some excellent counter-arguments!
Next, we pulled open Joey's post- Why we should have extra recess. Joey had three solid reasons, but my students' feedback was that: #1- Joey needed a topic sentence before jumping into his reasons. One of my students suggested he should start with a question, like, "Do you ever feel like recess is too short?" #2- Joey had 3 reasons, but he didn't have details to back them up. Why was exercise and fresh air important? We put ourselves in the point of view of the teacher, who might say that exercise is important so that kids can get out their energy and be able to focus in school better.
After leaving some feedback for Joey and Sara (and giving them praise for things they did well) I asked the students if they wanted to go to the computer lab to make some persuasive posts of their own. After an overwhelming "YES!" we hustled down to the lab, and kids got busy, posting their own pieces and leaving comments for Miss Montambault's class.
Topics my students posted included:
- Why we should have ice cream at lunch
- Should kids be allowed to bring pets to school?
- Why we should have a longer lunch time
- Should the driving age be 16?
- Should kids be allowed to participate in the Olympics?
- Should the US get rid of the penny?
- Why you should play hockey
But equally impressive were the kids comments to one another:
On Wednesday, I shared the connection with my class, who thought it was "really cool" that big 4th graders would be reading our stories. When I pulled up their blog, we were surprised to see that they had made some new posts, and they were all opinion pieces! Guess what unit we had just begun in our classroom? Persuasive writing through opinion pieces! We were elated to learn that they were studying the same things we were, and we eagerly dove into a few of Miss Montambault's students' posts. Sara had posted a persuasive piece on why we should have school on the weekends. We had a hard time supporting that argument, and were unable to help her come up with more reasons to back up her opinion. However, we were able to provide some excellent counter-arguments!
Next, we pulled open Joey's post- Why we should have extra recess. Joey had three solid reasons, but my students' feedback was that: #1- Joey needed a topic sentence before jumping into his reasons. One of my students suggested he should start with a question, like, "Do you ever feel like recess is too short?" #2- Joey had 3 reasons, but he didn't have details to back them up. Why was exercise and fresh air important? We put ourselves in the point of view of the teacher, who might say that exercise is important so that kids can get out their energy and be able to focus in school better.
After leaving some feedback for Joey and Sara (and giving them praise for things they did well) I asked the students if they wanted to go to the computer lab to make some persuasive posts of their own. After an overwhelming "YES!" we hustled down to the lab, and kids got busy, posting their own pieces and leaving comments for Miss Montambault's class.
Topics my students posted included:
- Why we should have ice cream at lunch
- Should kids be allowed to bring pets to school?
- Why we should have a longer lunch time
- Should the driving age be 16?
- Should kids be allowed to participate in the Olympics?
- Should the US get rid of the penny?
- Why you should play hockey
But equally impressive were the kids comments to one another:
"i also love how you had the beginning sentence"
"I think you should add more to why hockey is a good sport"
"i agree with you valli, kids should be able to compete in the olympics"
"I agree it would ripping apart history" (regarding getting rid of the penny)
"I always buy so I completely 100% agree with you" (regarding ice cream at lunch)
"nice reasons but there’s a lot others"
Talk about knocking down the classroom walls to connect to others and to extend learning! Our ability to connect with Miss Montambault's class this week did more than that, it allowed us to dig deeper into our curriculum in an authentic, meaningful way that students genuinely enjoyed! Thanks Miss Montambault!!! We're looking forward to more collaboration!"I think you should add more to why hockey is a good sport"
"i agree with you valli, kids should be able to compete in the olympics"
"I agree it would ripping apart history" (regarding getting rid of the penny)
"I always buy so I completely 100% agree with you" (regarding ice cream at lunch)
"nice reasons but there’s a lot others"
I just posted a similar post about the overwhelming success we have had this past week connecting with your class! I love listening to their conversations about the blogging process. My kids are so eager to get their ideas on their blogs so that they can get comments and make comments! Even my struggling writers are engaged and to my surprise producing some pretty awesome writing!
ReplyDeleteWith SBAC starting next week our class posts will be inconsistent because we will not have access to the computer lab or laptop carts. I am going to encourage them to keep posting from home. I am hoping the excitement from others will spread and the blogging will continue. Once testing is over (after spring break) we will be able to get back into the lab. If the comments are not as consistent make sure you tell your kids we have not forgotten about them and we will be so excited to check back on their blogs after spring break!
Well done! Thanks for sharing the kids Blog info last week. I begin my classroom Blog too. However, We only post several students' blogs. We will share more next week.
ReplyDelete