Teaching to reach every single student

After all of the churning and roiling about should I move ahead with blogging in the classroom and how to move ahead with blogging in the classroom, I have, at last, moved ahead with blogging in the classroom.

This week, I trained my 7th and 8th grade middle school science classes to use my blog.

I have had a standard (and traditional assignment) for my students to find an article each week that is science related and then to write a brief report on it. The report consists of a citation (the name of the article, who wrote it, who published it and when), a brief summary, and a reflection. In the reflection, I ask them to let me know what they think about the article, whether it was convincing and why, and what suggestions they might have for changing it.

The reports have, for the most part, been really good, but I had begun to notice that the conversation started was pretty limited: the student produces work which I read and then return. The circle is closed immediately.

So, this is the assignment I have moved online to my blog. Now, in addition to posting their weekly report, I have asked the students to read at least 3 others and comment (constructively) on those.

At the moment, the students are at work to get this done by Friday. I have noticed some interesting things already. First, they have started the assignment earlier than when it was just to be done on paper. There has been a buzz of activity from the very beginning of the week. Second, their comments have been good and thoughtful (so far). And I must say that receiving stacks of emails as their comments are posted is such an interesting (and satisfying) experience for me as their teacher.

This is very exciting.