While this website does have skills practice for Social Studies, it also has skill practice for Language Arts, such as inference and identifying main ideas.
I started out tracking their work through my Google Reader account
I quickly discovered viewing their posts in the Reader wasn’t sufficient.
The Reader still works wonderfully for reading comments,
As for assessing the blogs, working with the students, we designed rubric: Blogging Writer’s Checklist.
Utilize peer revision.
Let students choose which posts they want me to grade.
Group students in learning communities to monitor and encourage each other.
Hold student-led writing conferences.
biggest motivation for my students
has been having someone comment on our blogs
“comment blog,” an idea I got from Alan Levine, edublogger who devotes a week every year to commenting on others’ blogs. This will not only allow them read and explore other blogs, but will hopefully drive readers to their own blogs.
As a student, I like the idea of peer revision, student-lead writing conferences, and group work in class.
I wish our class could pair up with a couple other classes who are doing the same thing
I feel that I have grown as a writer because of this, we all have.
"Disney animator Webb Smith is widely credited with creating storyboards. In the early 20th Century, Smith introduced the idea of drawing scenes on sheets of paper and arranging them on a board to tell a story."