Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Plans for my classroom blogs

I teach 7th - 9th grade math to lower-end math students. Approximately 50% of my students receive either special education or Title 1 services. I have been working to come up with effective classroom practices for improving the language skills of my students whose greatest difficulties in math appear to be language-related. Eventually I would love to use classroom blogs to help my students improve their language skills through writing and collaboration with others. It was interesting and exciting for me to read about the power of blogging for developing language skills in Will Richardson's "Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms" (2009). He believes that blogs facilitate "a new form of genre that could be called 'connective writing,' a form that forces those who do it to read carefully and critically, that demands clarity and cogency in its construction, that is done for a wide audience, and that links to the sources of the ideas expressed" (p. 28).

In a previous course in my master's program in at Walden University, I discovered a report written by Montague, Krawec, and Sweeney (2008) in which research determined that a student’s poor vocabulary and inability to describe how math problems are solved has a direct negative effect on his or her math learning skills and test performance. This reinforces my belief that improved reading and language skills would enhance students’ math learning. Again, blogging as a tool for such learners sounds very promising.

In my classroom blogs, I've thought about trying simple things such as exchanging word problems with students in other schools in sort of a challenge-to-others format where responses and solutions would be given in written language (sentence and paragraph) form as opposed to using numerals and math symbols.

Another idea I've considered is posting problems and requiring my students to use blog posts or comments to describe the steps they used for solving the problems. They could take the process a step further and write comments to critique the work or problem-solving descriptions of other students.

I've also considered having them use blogs as journals to describe their feelings/frustrations/successes in math class. I will occasionally use part of a class period to have an open discussion with my students about these things, but I think for them to put their thoughts in writing would be even more effective.

Aside from the ideas I have mentioned, I will be creating an informational blog for parents and students to highlight the things that will be going on throughout the year in my classroom. I have yet to decide whether I will create one blog for all of my classes or one for each class...one for each class sounds like more work than may be necessary. I have yet to work out the details, but I have several ideas floating around in my head for what I will include on the blog(s). I'd like for it to be a newsletter type of blog for the purpose of keeping people informed.

References

Montague, M., Krawec, J., and Sweeney, C. (2008, Spring.) Promoting self-talk to improve middle school students’ mathematical problem solving. Perspectives on Language and Literacy, 34(2) 13 – 17. Retrieved April 2, 2009, from ProQuest Central database. (Document ID: 1480985781). http://proquest.umi.com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/pqdweb?index=30&did=1480985781&SrchMode=1&sid=1&Fmt=6&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1238948347&clientId=70192

Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

6 comments:

  1. Susan,

    Wow! I think you have some great ideas floating around! Here are a few things I think you should anticipate:
    1. Creating several blogs could be very time consuming, so make sure you can use a reader to keep track of them.
    2. Be sure your technology department does not have the blog site(s) and your agregator site blocked. Check this "before" creating the reader account as it may take some time for them to unblock the site. You can see if you can access your personal blog first and if not, you probably will need to create your class blogs since tech may need the url for removing the block.
    3. Maybe you could use categories for each class or for your other ideas i.e daily problem, word problems, and thoughts.

    Just a few thoughts I had, I'm not sure if they will help without trying them out, but they are some things for you to consider.

    Coleen

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  2. Susan,
    You have some really great ideas.
    Math is a subject where many students seem to simply memorize how to solve problems. It is monotonous and meaningless for some. Having your students post the steps to solving a problem and even discussing the reasons for the sequential order of these steps may give them a deeper understanding of the mathematical process.
    Developing language skills is also a challenge for many of us. Have you thought about using podcasts to enhance language skills? You could have the students post their blog and then have them podcast what they posted and analyze their use of language. In kindergarten, developing appropriate oral language skills is one of our primary objectives. Podcasting really helped with language development last year as the students could hear themselves and we could discuss strengths and weaknesses and even construct individualized strategies to improve oral language.
    Kim

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  3. Coleen, thanks for your feedback. I agree about several blogs creating more work than is necessary so I am hesitating to set up more than one until I get the ball rolling. If I can get things set up this summer before school starts, it would be a nice jump start to organizing everything. I like your idea about categories within one blog and I think that parents and students would appreciate that structure as well.

    Fortunately, we have one tech person who is usually immediately available for blockin/unblocking sites as needed, so access shouldn't be a roadblock for us.

    I appreciate your ideas!

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  4. Kim, I love the podcast idea. Allowing students to hear themselves describe/explain something would really help to develop their communication skills. I am going to try a new program next year called "Solve It!" which is designed to teach kids how to talk themselves through math word problems. The podcast idea goes hand-in-hand with this concept. Awesome -- thanks!

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  5. Susan,
    I am in total agreance with all the other people who responded to your blog post. You have some great ideas. Your idea about using your blog to enhance vocabulary is an idea that I would like to "borrow" from you.

    Living in Wyoming our students often times don't have the opportunity to see places or visit places that are often times mentioned in text books. This causes a problem when trying to connect new vocabulary words to actual meaning. Your idea of using the blog to help with vocabulary development would allow for other places to "come alive" in their minds and would allow for those connections to be made.

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  6. Travis, you're welcome to borrow any ideas you like! That's what this blog is all about! I understand your point about Wyoming students not having opportunties for travel...a lot of our Montana students are the same way. Good luck with your classroom blogs!

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