Currently, I am teaching 4th grade reading, social studies, and math. I think that getting my students involved in blogging would be a great way to motivate them. They would learn so much from each other and have a chance to express their opinions. The blog that I will create will serve as a place for my students to discuss topics that are relevant to the standards. In reading "Web literacy for educators", Alan November (2008) explains that this is a way to integrate blogs into the classroom. I integrate many of my reading skills into my social studies lessons. A social studies blog would allow my students to express what they have learned about the material that we have discussed in class. I could incorporate various reading strategies such as summarizing a reading passage and writing an opinion. For example, I am currently teaching the American Revolution. This week, we have been discussing what factors caused the war. I could have the students write an opinion of how the colonists could have persuaded British Partliament from taxing them. Then, the students could comment to each others' opinions on this topic. I would like to also include interactive websites. I have found a great interactive website for my 4th grade students. This website was creatied by the eMints National Center. It includes videos, pictures, games, work searches, etc. about the American Revolution. My students will love it! http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00000025.shtml
Please check it out and let me know your thoughts!
References:
November, A. (2008). Web literacy for educators. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.Copyright 2008 by Sage Publications, Inc.
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ReplyDeleteTeaching student cross curricular content through the use of blogging sound like a great way to spark student interest and pique their curiosity to learn more. Having taught fourth grade, I do see a challenge regarding keeping students motivated to participate with just utilizing written commentary. Have you thought about having students create reenactment videos or a newspaper from a specific day in history? Visual Thesauru is another tool according to Dr. David Thornburg that can be used to organize content into manageable chunks using word webs(Thornburg, 2004). The possibilities are endless and as a pre-k teacher I envy you. Let me know when your class blog is up and running. I would love to read what your students have to say.
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Thornburg, D. (2004). Technology and education: Expectations, not options. (Executive Briefing No. 401). p.9. Retrieved from http://www.tcpdpodcast.org/briefings/expectations.pdf
jsorg1,
ReplyDeleteI am actually having my students create newpaper articles this week. Each group will be given a different topic (Stamp Act, Boston Tea Party, Boston Massacre, etc). They will have to research their topic, write a summary, and add a picture to go with it. Any suggestions that would add to this assignment would be greatly appreciated. I will have to check out the Visual Thesaurus. Thanks for the suggestion. I will definitely let you know when my blog is running. In "Web Literacy for Educators", Alan November (2008) says that blogs are the "platform in the classroom" (p.84). Hopefully, my social studies blog will become a place where my students feel comforatable to discuss their opinions of historical events. I hope that it will motivate them and get them more involved in learning about their past. Thanks for the suggestions!
November, A. (2008). Web literacy for educators. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.