Earlier this fall I was talking about deciding on the best forum for my students' on-line book reviews. While I ended up choosing Google Sites, I am thinking that Kid Blogs may have actually been a better fit, at least as an initial introduction to on-line book reviews and reflections of learning. While younger students are still getting used to blogging I have realized that it can be quite time consuming for basic posts and I have not been able to integrate in many of the features that Kid Blogs does not have and that I saw as a reason to choose Google Sites over Kid Blogs.
However, with experience I am seeing how Kid Blogs would be an excellent introduction to blogging and probably does have everything I need, especially for 6th and 7th graders. With Google Sites, even though the announcement page works as a micro-blog, I don't like how all users are able to edit posts, rather than just being able to post a comment (one difference between wikis and blogs).
When I started to do my first multi-age on-line book club of the year, I decided to have students do it on Kid Blogs. While we did on-line book clubs last year, this was different because I decided to have 8th graders lead the book club discussions. In partners the 8th graders did a post for each discussion day and the 6th and 7th graders added comments to discuss with their group. It has been going very smoothly. As I had known from before, it was so easy to set up and the students were quickly able to transition to using Kid Blogs since they were already familiar with posting and writing comments.
For now, I would recommend Kid Blogs vs. Google Site and re-evaluate when it seems like students are ready for more than Kid Blogs has to offer. This will change year to year as students arrive at my classroom with more previous experience with technology. Earlier this year our director and a couple of teachers wanted to do some book blogging with 2nd and 3rd graders, so I helped them set up a Kid Blog, and they have loved it. Once those students are 6th graders, they will already have a foundation in blogging and may be ready for a more advanced format - or not. I guess I will just wait and see each year, considering which technology tools are available and which are the best match for the students. Always so much to experiment and explore with educational technology!
Showing posts with label Google Sites. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Google Sites. Show all posts
Monday, February 21, 2011
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Google Sites Books Read List
Earlier this fall I wrote about my journey to find a platform for my students to share the books that they have been reading and how I ended up going with Google Sites that is available through Google Apps Education Edition. I also did a follow-up post to explain how I envisioned students writing about their books. Yesterday when I wrote a first quarter update post, Tara requested more information about how I set up student Google Sites, so I thought it was a perfect time to share how the process has been going.
Since Google Sites was new to me, I have been experimenting right along with the students, making sure to try out everything that I request they do before hand in order to share an example and walk them through the process. As always with technology, it is so nice to have a classroom set of laptops and a SMART Board where I can walk students through the process of exactly what they should be doing.
Students created their sites, which was super easy since they already had their education edition email accounts, so it was as easy as clicking a few buttons. I had each class categorize their site by the year they will graduate from our school as eighth graders, making it easy for me to skim through sites by class and for them to look for their classmates' sites as well. On the welcome page they wrote a statement about themselves as readers and writers. This gives me as a teacher a lot of insights into them.
Next, each student created a new page, set up as an announcements page (functioning like a blog) titled 2010-2011 Book List. Every time they finish a book, they are supposed to write a post reacting to the book. I have a rubric posted on my site, as well as maintaining my own book list for them to use as examples. This has not been too much work for me because I can often copy and paste responses directly from my book blog, often with just a few adjustments to tailor it to my students as an audience instead of my wider open blog audience.
Each post is supposed to be titled with a number and title. The number reflects the amount of books they have read this year. For example, a title might be: 3. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules, which would mean that it was the third book the student completed since the school year started. Each month I have two deadlines. One is for students to choose one English book response, and the other is for a Spanish book response. I have them write the one that they want me to look at on the bottom of their weekly self-evaluation form. Then I skim through their selected posts.
We just completed our first round, and I was able to make note of areas in which I can scaffold them to improve. Topics range from remembering conventions to adding depth to their reader reaction to hooking their readers with their summaries without giving away too much of the book. Right now I kept the posts simple without adding book cover images or links in order to focus on the content. Later on I will layer in these aspects.
A few students have already begun to visit each other's sites and leave comments for each other, but I have not demonstrated this yet. That will be one of the next steps so that they can start enjoying the benefits of having a community of readers sharing about books they love virtually to complement the ways that they share about their books in person.
I will try to remember to add additional posts throughout the year as I continue reflecting and improving, but please feel free to leave a comment with any suggestions or questions you might have that I can post about in the future.
Since Google Sites was new to me, I have been experimenting right along with the students, making sure to try out everything that I request they do before hand in order to share an example and walk them through the process. As always with technology, it is so nice to have a classroom set of laptops and a SMART Board where I can walk students through the process of exactly what they should be doing.
Students created their sites, which was super easy since they already had their education edition email accounts, so it was as easy as clicking a few buttons. I had each class categorize their site by the year they will graduate from our school as eighth graders, making it easy for me to skim through sites by class and for them to look for their classmates' sites as well. On the welcome page they wrote a statement about themselves as readers and writers. This gives me as a teacher a lot of insights into them.
Next, each student created a new page, set up as an announcements page (functioning like a blog) titled 2010-2011 Book List. Every time they finish a book, they are supposed to write a post reacting to the book. I have a rubric posted on my site, as well as maintaining my own book list for them to use as examples. This has not been too much work for me because I can often copy and paste responses directly from my book blog, often with just a few adjustments to tailor it to my students as an audience instead of my wider open blog audience.
Each post is supposed to be titled with a number and title. The number reflects the amount of books they have read this year. For example, a title might be: 3. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules, which would mean that it was the third book the student completed since the school year started. Each month I have two deadlines. One is for students to choose one English book response, and the other is for a Spanish book response. I have them write the one that they want me to look at on the bottom of their weekly self-evaluation form. Then I skim through their selected posts.
We just completed our first round, and I was able to make note of areas in which I can scaffold them to improve. Topics range from remembering conventions to adding depth to their reader reaction to hooking their readers with their summaries without giving away too much of the book. Right now I kept the posts simple without adding book cover images or links in order to focus on the content. Later on I will layer in these aspects.
A few students have already begun to visit each other's sites and leave comments for each other, but I have not demonstrated this yet. That will be one of the next steps so that they can start enjoying the benefits of having a community of readers sharing about books they love virtually to complement the ways that they share about their books in person.
I will try to remember to add additional posts throughout the year as I continue reflecting and improving, but please feel free to leave a comment with any suggestions or questions you might have that I can post about in the future.
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