Utilizing Blogging for Weekly Journals

As an English teacher, I know and appreciate the importance of writing and writing often.  And like other LA educators, I have my students respond to weekly prompts that connect to ideas or assess the skill discussed in class that week.

In the past, I have used the old-fashioned pen and paper notebooks to accomplish this task, but this year, I am trying something new.

This year, each of my students is going to keep their own blog for their weekly responses.  Every week, I will pose a question to the class on Tuesday and the students will have until Friday night to answer the question.

Once I have all of the blogs, I put students into Blog Buddy groups of approximately 4-6 students.  I scatter students from all of my classes into heterogeneous groups that will change each marking period.  Every weekend, the students have until that Monday night to read and comment on the blog posts of their Blog Buddies.

So far, the students love it!  They have been busy creating their webpages, designing them to reflect their personalities... and honestly, I don't think I'm going back!

The students are excited because they now have an audience to read their work!  A purpose to do their best!  Before, I was the only one giving the students feedback about their writing, but now, it's different and I can tell by their writing!

The students are excited to write, read, and BLOG!

I highly recommend using this!

Want to try blogging in your classroom?

Try these sites below!

Blogger
Edublogs
Word Press

*Note:  I use Blogger in my classroom because it connects with the Google account the students are required to have!