Sunday, March 04, 2007
Internet Tool: Adopted, Used and Analyzed #1
Use of Blogs in English 10 classes
Problem-Solution Essay Unit at Tartan High School on blogger.com
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~hatt0047/tartan Student blogs located on links to the left or directly at http://www.tc.umn.edu/~hatt0047/blogs
By Jim Hatten, University of Minnnesota (CI 5361)
I chose to analyze the use of Blogs in my English 10 classes at Tartan High School. This analysis is for CI 5361 taught by Joan Hughes.
Blogging as a media literacy (sometimes called a new literacy) is something I became fascinated with two years ago when I first discovered the technology. With many of my students already blog-literate via their MySpace or Xenga personal blogs, I was looking for a unit to tap into this resource as a manner of sparking student interest in a "traditional" writing class.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT
The unit utilizing blogs is a traditional 5-paragraph essay unit in an English 10 writing-centered class at Tartan High School. Previously, all other teachers used the textbook and a series of worksheets and in-class read-and-write responses. The activity culminates with a 3-5-page paper that is of the problem-solution format as laid out in the text.
This is the fourth major essay in English 10 this year and I decided to try an internet approach to the unit. The first part of the lesson included an introduction to media literacies and a trip to the computer lab. Each student -- regardless of internet connection at home -- was put on a computer and walked through the process of creating a blog on Blogger.com. I chose Blogger.com because it is one of the blog hosts that is not currently blocked on the school district's filter. It also requires no direct access to an email account -- again something that is filtered in our district (ie. no hotmail or yahoo accounts can be seen on district computers).
Upon logging in and creating a blog, students were given a short task found on our textbook's online version and were to make their first post. After posting, students commented on my blog with the URL of their blog.
Eventually, we would do three major writing pieces on the blog, directed by both me in class and via a class website I created using my U of M server space. The unit entailed 16 days of posting or other media literacy development ranging from blogs, to a wiki, to a webquest, to discussion boards, to surveys and other various internet-based design.
The blog, however, was the anchor.
REASONS FOR USING TECHNOLOGY IN THIS WAY
Aside from the aforementioned rationale for utilizing blogs in this unit, I also found the public capablity of the blog to be useful for creating strong pre-writing work. Each student was required to comment on a fellow students' blog a total of four times with a directed task. Jenkins says the public nature of blogs (tied together with the student as publisher/author/active member) creates a depth of learning and involvement than with traditional literacies such as pen and paper and teacher as audience. Further rationale for teaching came from a paper I wrote for CI 5331, which can be read at http://www.tc.umn.edu/~hatt0047/Hatten%20CI%205331%20paper.doc
PRE-TEACHING USE AND REFLECTION
Prior to teaching the unit, I felt we were in a rut in English 10B. We have the same routine in each English 10 class in the whole school: Grammar instruction on the whiteboard; textbook and worksheet assignments for essays; vocabulary packets each week. I felt it may stimulate the students to do something different and to do, as J.T. Grabill and T. Hicks wrote in English Journal: “If we want to teach writing or help students learn how to write more effectively, then we have to see writing in the same ways that they do and be with them where they write.” I felt the technological aspect of the unit would appeal to students -- in large part due to the technological deficiencies of the English Department at Tartan as well as the overall technology drought throughout the school.
I also hoped there would be positive effects from using the comment function of the blog. Finally, I felt strongly that students need to at least be introduced to media literacy training from the Jenkins focus of Ethics Training, teaching Transparency and narrowing the Participation Gap.
POST-TEACHING/PROJECT REFLECTION
Delightedly, my project grew enormously as I discovered students would work twice as hard on the internet as they would in traditional literacy approaches. I developed a class website with numerous other media connected. The blogs, as the main cog to the machine, drove discussions in class, gave me a quick look into student progress, developed literacies in those who had none in blogging previous, and provided a base to build strong papers as well as internet skills.
The problem-solution analyses were stronger than those done in classes taught by other teachers in my department -- primarily due to the public postings of the blogs. Students were critiquing and commenting more than I requested and much of that was constructive and polite. My work load as a teacher seemed to decrease and paper was saved by keeping the work digital.
I was not ready for the school climate part of the equation. The comments sections led to a social nature intertwining my three classes and 96 overall students. This social nature led to friendly competitions over designing blogs and commenting on class discussions in my differing hours. There was good-natured razzing of me as the teacher as well as many posts commending me for "letting them do this."
Undoubtedly, students' output was significantly better and more voluminuous due to it being online. I would refer to a class discussion board created for further interactive social behavior online at http://www.voy.com/210043/
In addition, my work with these students online grew into a discussion outside of class, the school and the school district. The Minnesota Department of Education caught wind of my project somehow and I was asked to present to 35 metro district Curriculum Specialists in Language Arts and Literacy on February 26, 2007. MDE was looking for a realistic approach and practical application of new literacies. I presented for nearly two hours and the response was overwhelming. I have been asked to put on workshops for teachers at MDE, was questioned by two districts as to my availability to present at staff development, and am slated to be a part of a commission to look into implementing media literacies into a statewide curriculum.
As a teacher, I needed to know how to create a blog and various other internet literacies, but for the most part was able to create the project from a general public/consumer level. It cost the district nothing in money nor in server space. I anticipated problems in the digital divide, but found those issues much smaller than the participation gap outlined by Jenkins. Use of a computer lab once a week was helpful.
Lastly, this project promoted a level of social learning I hadn't anticipated. Collaborative work increased about tenfold and much more of it was meaningful and unforced. My students asked at the end of the unit if they could continue to use the website and discussion boards as well as their blogs. They requested we do our first unit of the next trimester on blogs and in a survey identified blogging as their favorite part of the assignment for reasons of collaboration and feelings of self-accomplishment. Individual learning went up as well, from a Constructivist approach. Every single student reported a higher level of operation on both the internet in general and in blogging abilities because of the unit. From a teacher standpoint, these all resulted in better overall papers/essays from the students and an increase in work done on time.
Problem-Solution Essay Unit at Tartan High School on blogger.com
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~hatt0047/tartan Student blogs located on links to the left or directly at http://www.tc.umn.edu/~hatt0047/blogs
By Jim Hatten, University of Minnnesota (CI 5361)
I chose to analyze the use of Blogs in my English 10 classes at Tartan High School. This analysis is for CI 5361 taught by Joan Hughes.
Blogging as a media literacy (sometimes called a new literacy) is something I became fascinated with two years ago when I first discovered the technology. With many of my students already blog-literate via their MySpace or Xenga personal blogs, I was looking for a unit to tap into this resource as a manner of sparking student interest in a "traditional" writing class.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT
The unit utilizing blogs is a traditional 5-paragraph essay unit in an English 10 writing-centered class at Tartan High School. Previously, all other teachers used the textbook and a series of worksheets and in-class read-and-write responses. The activity culminates with a 3-5-page paper that is of the problem-solution format as laid out in the text.
This is the fourth major essay in English 10 this year and I decided to try an internet approach to the unit. The first part of the lesson included an introduction to media literacies and a trip to the computer lab. Each student -- regardless of internet connection at home -- was put on a computer and walked through the process of creating a blog on Blogger.com. I chose Blogger.com because it is one of the blog hosts that is not currently blocked on the school district's filter. It also requires no direct access to an email account -- again something that is filtered in our district (ie. no hotmail or yahoo accounts can be seen on district computers).
Upon logging in and creating a blog, students were given a short task found on our textbook's online version and were to make their first post. After posting, students commented on my blog with the URL of their blog.
Eventually, we would do three major writing pieces on the blog, directed by both me in class and via a class website I created using my U of M server space. The unit entailed 16 days of posting or other media literacy development ranging from blogs, to a wiki, to a webquest, to discussion boards, to surveys and other various internet-based design.
The blog, however, was the anchor.
REASONS FOR USING TECHNOLOGY IN THIS WAY
Aside from the aforementioned rationale for utilizing blogs in this unit, I also found the public capablity of the blog to be useful for creating strong pre-writing work. Each student was required to comment on a fellow students' blog a total of four times with a directed task. Jenkins says the public nature of blogs (tied together with the student as publisher/author/active member) creates a depth of learning and involvement than with traditional literacies such as pen and paper and teacher as audience. Further rationale for teaching came from a paper I wrote for CI 5331, which can be read at http://www.tc.umn.edu/~hatt0047/Hatten%20CI%205331%20paper.doc
PRE-TEACHING USE AND REFLECTION
Prior to teaching the unit, I felt we were in a rut in English 10B. We have the same routine in each English 10 class in the whole school: Grammar instruction on the whiteboard; textbook and worksheet assignments for essays; vocabulary packets each week. I felt it may stimulate the students to do something different and to do, as J.T. Grabill and T. Hicks wrote in English Journal: “If we want to teach writing or help students learn how to write more effectively, then we have to see writing in the same ways that they do and be with them where they write.” I felt the technological aspect of the unit would appeal to students -- in large part due to the technological deficiencies of the English Department at Tartan as well as the overall technology drought throughout the school.
I also hoped there would be positive effects from using the comment function of the blog. Finally, I felt strongly that students need to at least be introduced to media literacy training from the Jenkins focus of Ethics Training, teaching Transparency and narrowing the Participation Gap.
POST-TEACHING/PROJECT REFLECTION
Delightedly, my project grew enormously as I discovered students would work twice as hard on the internet as they would in traditional literacy approaches. I developed a class website with numerous other media connected. The blogs, as the main cog to the machine, drove discussions in class, gave me a quick look into student progress, developed literacies in those who had none in blogging previous, and provided a base to build strong papers as well as internet skills.
The problem-solution analyses were stronger than those done in classes taught by other teachers in my department -- primarily due to the public postings of the blogs. Students were critiquing and commenting more than I requested and much of that was constructive and polite. My work load as a teacher seemed to decrease and paper was saved by keeping the work digital.
I was not ready for the school climate part of the equation. The comments sections led to a social nature intertwining my three classes and 96 overall students. This social nature led to friendly competitions over designing blogs and commenting on class discussions in my differing hours. There was good-natured razzing of me as the teacher as well as many posts commending me for "letting them do this."
Undoubtedly, students' output was significantly better and more voluminuous due to it being online. I would refer to a class discussion board created for further interactive social behavior online at http://www.voy.com/210043/
In addition, my work with these students online grew into a discussion outside of class, the school and the school district. The Minnesota Department of Education caught wind of my project somehow and I was asked to present to 35 metro district Curriculum Specialists in Language Arts and Literacy on February 26, 2007. MDE was looking for a realistic approach and practical application of new literacies. I presented for nearly two hours and the response was overwhelming. I have been asked to put on workshops for teachers at MDE, was questioned by two districts as to my availability to present at staff development, and am slated to be a part of a commission to look into implementing media literacies into a statewide curriculum.
As a teacher, I needed to know how to create a blog and various other internet literacies, but for the most part was able to create the project from a general public/consumer level. It cost the district nothing in money nor in server space. I anticipated problems in the digital divide, but found those issues much smaller than the participation gap outlined by Jenkins. Use of a computer lab once a week was helpful.
Lastly, this project promoted a level of social learning I hadn't anticipated. Collaborative work increased about tenfold and much more of it was meaningful and unforced. My students asked at the end of the unit if they could continue to use the website and discussion boards as well as their blogs. They requested we do our first unit of the next trimester on blogs and in a survey identified blogging as their favorite part of the assignment for reasons of collaboration and feelings of self-accomplishment. Individual learning went up as well, from a Constructivist approach. Every single student reported a higher level of operation on both the internet in general and in blogging abilities because of the unit. From a teacher standpoint, these all resulted in better overall papers/essays from the students and an increase in work done on time.
Labels: k-12, literacy, media, media literacies, new literacies
# posted by Jim @ 9:44 PM 
