Using Blogs in a Social Studies Classroom Todd Cammarata Tyrone Area High School

Welcome to my PowerPoint Presentation! D-

First of all…what is a blog? A blog (a blend of the term “web log“) is a type of website. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual or small group with regular entries of commentary, links, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse- chronological order. Most blogs are interactive, allowing visitors to leave comments and even message each other via widgets on the blogs and it is this interactivity that distinguishes them from other static websites.

What does a typical blog look like?

My Favorite Blog… My Classroom Blog…

I will focus on the following three advantages of using blogs in the classroom: 1.Blogs as tools to share information. 2. Blogs as tools to teach online etiquette, privacy issues and internet safety 3. Blogs as tools to facilitate online discussion and collaboration.

How can I use a blog in my classroom?

1. Use your blog to share information with students & parents Just like any website, blogs can be used to share materials, news, downloads, links and more. The great thing about blogs is they are easier to manage and maintain than most websites. Anything that you post to your blog will instantly be accessible by your students from school and from home. What’s more, you can easily manage who gets to access them through passwords and privacy measures. Example post: Political Music ProjectPolitical Music Project Use your blog to post… – Homework due dates – Test dates – Links to documents – Announcements – Instructions and links for projects – Anything you would place on your chalkboard, newsletter, or website

2. Use your blog to teach proper Guidelines and Expectations of internet use. An important part of using an online tool with your students is educating them on appropriate online behavior. In many cases, it is ideal to develop these guidelines and expectations together with your students. Obviously, many of our students share way too much online. Using a blog in the classroom can be an opportunity to teach about appropriate online behavior: Discuss the types of personal information that it is appropriate to share online. For example, what are the rules about use of last names, IM, images and personal contact information? What makes a good post or comment? When possible try to lead students in discussions about these important concepts and allow them to have input on the guidelines.

3. Use your blog to facilitate online discussions and collaboration The comment feature of blogs is, in my opinion, its most powerful feature. – Students aren’t just writing for the teacher, but for each other, parents, and anyone else who visits the site Example: Personal 9/11 storiesPersonal 9/11 stories – Student comments can be seen and read by their peers and anyone else who logs on, so the relevance of this writing is high! – HOWEVER, most students are reluctant commenters, so you must teach this skill.

Teaching Commenting Skills Comments extend the conversation beyond your blog post allowing your readers to interact with you and each other. It’s amazing how even just a few comments can make student realize they are writing for a wide, potentially global audience — for many is incredibly motivating. Comments are an important part of both the readers and blogger’s learning process. Commenting is a skill that takes time to develop for many students. It is common to start out with short replies such as “I like this!” or “kewl”. It can take some teaching to lead students to great commenting posts. So take time to teach “quality commenting” skills.

BY “QUALITY COMMENTS” I MEAN… writing the comment like a letter (greeting, body, closing, signature) using correct spelling, punctuation and spacing reading over the comment and editing before submitting compliment (or be constructively critical) of the original post in a specific way, asking a question, and/or adding new information to the post writing a relevant comment that is related to the post not revealing personal information in your comment Example: The Digital Life PostThe Digital Life Post

PointsCriteria 5/5 The comment post is thoughtful, original and demonstrates a complete understanding of the issue, topic, event and/or question posed on the blog. The comment answers the question completely and is free from grammatical errors, spelling errors and usage errors. When appropriate, the comment post is at least a paragraph in length. 4/5 The comment post answers the question fully and is (mostly) free from grammatical errors, spelling errors and usage errors. When appropriate, the comment post is at least several sentences to a paragraph in length. 3/5 The comment post does the bare minimum of answering the question but demonstrates little or no originality, thought process or understanding of the issue asked in the question and/or the comment contains several obvious errors in grammar, usage or spelling that a student should have caught by proofreading their work. 2/5 The comment is on topic but is so brief and/or so full of errors in grammar; usage or spelling that it is difficult to understand. 1/5 The comment made some attempt to answer the question posed on the blog but it was either inappropriately brief, contained inaccurate information, and/or contained lots of errors in grammar, usage, or spelling. 0/5 The student either did not submit a comment post, or submitted a post that was grossly inappropriate and/ or completely irrelevant to the question asked on the blog. And/or the comment was offensive in some way to others (i.e. used profanity, attacked others, could be interpreted as hate speech or bullying). Current Events Blog Posts My Grading Rubric

How to manage your blog… The DashboardDashboard Making posts Managing Comments

The 5 steps to fully intergrading blogs into your classroom… 1.Start a classroom blog 2.Teach students how to comment 3.Get them interacting with the classroom blog through comments 4.Start setting up group blogs with students OR allow students to begin posting to the class blog 5.Have students blog themselves, read each others blogs, and comment on their classmates posts.

Some Social Studies Specific Blogging Project Ideas Have students create timelines using timetoast and embed them in blogs to share.timetoast Students could generate “word clouds” of primary source documents using wordle and post them to the blog to compare the documents.wordle Have students write posts in the voice of historical figures Create blogs for different social or historical topics where students can share research and information about them Embed historical photos, primary sources and/or videos directly in blogs so that students can readily access them, interact, and discuss. Use the blog as a place to read, discuss, analyze and debate current events Facilitate an online discussion of a book or outside reading

Where I find material for my current events blog posts: 1. Read lots of other blogs: – - A search engine and directory for blogs – : top political blogs 2. Read lots of news online: ws: Online directory of top internet news sites ws

3. Look for most viewed/ ed lists on major media outlet websites: Examples: NYT, WAPO, WSJ, CNNNYTWAPOWSJCNN 4. Look for sites geared toward students and/or educators: NYT Learning NetworkNYT Learning Network; Factchecked.org;Factchecked.org WAPO KidsPostWAPO KidsPost;

Blog Hosting Options Blogger.comBlogger.com --- video tutorialvideo tutorial Most popular blog hosting site. Easy to use. Free. It’s where I started. Edublogs.orgEdublogs.org --- Free vs. ProFree vs. Pro Geared toward education. Pro is $40 a year but has some great features. I will likely move my blog here in the near future.

Thanks! Questions? Comments?