Blogging in the Middle

Surprisingly, most middle school students I've polled, know about blogs, but simply have never tried it. Blogging is a type of informational writing, it can be persuasive/argumentative and it can even be personal. Last year I tried blogging with my students for the first time, but I went the easy route- creating an informational blog page on a topic of interest. While I could have incorporated the technology aspect of creating a blog page, there were many roadblocks. First, Access to technology is not readily available to all students from home and time in school can be constrictive when trying to cover content. Second, my school does not allow my students to go to any ole' website to create a blog since almost all require email addresses and/or have advertising on those pages.  I did come across Kid Blog, which, like Edmodo, has a code for students to enter and no email is required. So, while I will probably try that this year, I still think this activity is well worth the effort for many reasons.

The first step was to have kids brainstorm about a hobby, topic they are invested in, etc. They had to choose something they know a lot about so they wouldn't just go to websites and copy and paste information. While they were aloud to do some research, (great way to incorporate CCS 7- Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.)  they had to provide a link to that information within their blog page and it had to be at a minimum since I wanted it to be their writing and not that of a website.

Next, Students had to write a rough draft of their blog page- I made it a minimum of three paragraphs. From there we investigated various blogs- what are the parts, how are they written? etc. Some good resources to check out include:
LiveBinder of Resources about Kid Bloggin   AND
http://wheretostartwithwikisandblogs.wikispaces.com/Wiki+Blog+rules+for+kidsKids and Wikis and Blogs   Specifics for kids and blogging.

You might create questions that students can answer through a scavenger hunt using these sites.

Once we have viewed blogs online, learned about the parts and how the blog is written, we began to design our own blog page. I have used a template in the past, but the easiest way to go is have students go to Google and type in Blog Page Template under images. Students can model their template after a variety of images without making them all cookie-cutter. In the middle of their page, their three paragraph blog writing had to be the focus. They were required to have a header, a Blog name, at least one graphic, and a sidebar, with links to other sites about their topic. Below are just a few that students created!

Topics such as NFL, Austrian Shepherds, Soccer, Music and ADD, to name only a few, are what's on our middle school students' minds.

I showcase many of the student blogs on a bulletin board with the title : Blog About It! 

My Visual-Spatial and even Kinesthetic kids loved this activity since they were creating something by hand. Obviously my Verbal-Linguistic students loved sharing their fave topic in writing. And since students were able to choose their own topic, all were highly invested in this project.  The Informational CCS 2 was well covered during this mini-unit.
Extensions can include- Commenting appropriately-Grammar Girl Blog Comment Tips

Which leads to another aspect of a blog post- engaging your audience- Students were required to engage their audience at the end of the blog post so that students had an idea to grasp in order to respond. Once our blogs were finished, students received Post-it Notes and they were able to read the blog posts in a gallery walk, posting comments onto the blog with their Post-It. We discussed revision after this activity- what comments surprised you? Did you realize you left important information out? What would you add or change given the audience reaction/comments?  etc.

Blogging with students does not have to be uncontrollable- which is how many teachers see having 130 students blogging on a website. How do you keep up with all that? How do you grade it? You can visit my Technology Resource page which houses many links to blog/wiki rubrics and ideas:
My Site for Everything Blogs and Wikis

 Blogging on Paper is a first great step to introducing the mechanics of a blog and its contents and can be a great stepping stone to creating a blog online.

Mapping in the Middle

 The #CLMOOC I am participating in with the National Writing Project (NWP) has introduced different makes each week. This week’s make has been maps. Several wonderful ideas have evolved and could be used in multiple ways in the ELA Classroom. One such way maps can be used in any classroom- the Google+ Map where students can pin where they are from. I could see this as a precursor to the “Where I’m From” Poem originating with George Ella Lyon. It is simple to do- students can log into Google +, right click on the location where they are from, and insert a placemarker. A box opens for a subject line and some text- students might do as we did in the CLMOOC, we put our name in the subject line and a six word memoir. Take a look at how it might appear:

One could take this farther and map the progress of a character or characters as they journey within a book. One such book The Watsons Go to Birmingham involves the family’s travels from Michigan to Alabama. As the family travels and places are mentioned in the book, students can pin those places and a memorable event or quote from a character. Rules of the Road is another great book that could be mapped. I have a cheap Webquest for Rules of the Road on Teachers Pay Teachers that prompts students to map the main character’s journey. Of course there are other types of maps and most of us have heard of the life map- where students “map” out their lives and significant events in their lives. This type of life map could also be a great pre-write for a “Where I’m From” Poem or a personal narrative. Students might also create a future life map- like this one on Prezi- http://prezi.com/8j__jhpkccbp/my-life-map/ and they can create SMART goals to get to the future they want. Students might map a character- what he/she sees, feels, thinks, wants, etc. as a pre-write for a character analysis- You can see a sample here- http://prezi.com/kly7hgwbz78x/character-maps/ One other type of map involves a sociogram, where students map character interactions- who interacts with whom within the story. You can see a simple example here using The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey. One might use circles for the main/Round characters, squares for secondary/flat characters, etc. Students can color code with a key that reveals the particular meaning behind each color, solid lines or dashed lines to connect the characters, etc. In The Monstrumologist example below, I could have put a dotted line from Dr. Warthrop to his father- since his father had no real relationship with his son but was the direct cause of the monsters coming into his son’s life.

Finally, many on the CLMOOC have experimented with a learning walk- inspired by Mary Ann Riley’s Blog post found here- http://maryannreilly.blogspot.com/2011/07/being-in-middle-learning-walks.html . Some have created learning walks that show their surroundings- what they see globally, locally and even from the micro level. Some have gone on a “hearing” walk to record what they hear. This would be a great exercise in “noticings” in our school, outside our school, in the community, etc.- helping students to use their five senses to notice what is around them- to practice capturing what they see, hear or smell in words.

 There are so many places to go to experiment with some form of mapping- I was just introduced to www.myhistro.com . Here (for free) you can map out an entire story by dates- insert information, see the place on the map and create a timeline of your life. Here I wonder if students might use this when Interviewing Veterans for a Veteran’s Day project, to map out each person’s or several Veteran’s life story in relation to their lives and/or military service. Of course the life map could also be the focus for this type of app as well. You can take a look at my map using myhistro.com- http://www.myhistro.com/story/life-as-i-knew-it/72106

As I developed my Life Map using MyHistro, I saw a theme develop- the number of times I moved in my life. This could develop into a memoir of my houses and the places I've lived and what I have gained through all these places. I might write a narrative help article on moving and how to cope, etc. The point is that a theme developed for me and may for students as well. If not, students always have individual events they've mapped that might spark an idea for writing.  

Other Mapping Tools- www.mindmoto.com (you can only get 3 free maps and then you have to pay) www.prezi.com – you can certainly create some mapping with several Prezi Templates offered for free.
 And finally maybe you might challenge students to read all the books on your state’s literary map- http://www.ncte.org/affiliates/literarymaps

This Article relates ways that students can create a mental map of where they learn- their "Learning Ecology"  Comes with directions and videos/examples-Mentally Mapping Where Students Learn

Mapping. Who would have thought that so many ideas might be incorporated using the age-old map?

Lego: Writing and Following Directions

Informational Writing - 

CCS: RI 8.4; W8.2

Students often think that following directions are super easy, but we find out just how difficult it can be with our informational Lego Direction Writing Activity.

First we look at vocabulary. Words such as
Horizontal
Vertical
Adjacent
and other spatial words they may want to use. I encourage kids to use the vocabulary in their directions, which embeds the meaning and puts it into practice.

Step One: Each partner group chooses about 15-20 legos and together plan a design.
Step Two: Write your design building down step by step. I encourage one to build and feed direction to one writer.
Step Three- Once finished, you will take the lego design apart (I take pictures of the designs to show the direction designers' version compared to the builders' version)
Step Four- Give the pieces and the written directions to a set of builders.
Step Five- The builders attempt to use the directions to build the Lego contraption as it was originally built.
Step Six- Once built, the designers give feedback if it is incorrect and builders attempt to get it correctly built.
We compare pictures of the two after the second (or third) attempt. 
Step Seven- The builders write feedback on the directions sheet- what was easy, hard, what information was missing, etc. and they give the Lego contraption and their feedback to the original designers, who then reflect themselves on their directions: what was easy about writing directions? What was difficult? etc.

We compare pictures of the two (original and builders) and as a class discuss what was difficult about writing and following directions.