Weblogs in the Immersion Classroom
The ACIE Newsletter, May 2006, Vol. 8, No. 3
By Jennifer Lacey, Fifth Grade Teacher, L’Etoile du Nord French Immersion School, St. Paul, Minnesota
“Madame, est-ce qu’on peut continuer
à écrire chez nous ce soir?” |
 |
What is a blog?
Weblogs, or blogs, are an interactive tool for journaling
and exchanging ideas on the World Wide Web. They are easy
to use and fun to read. In the most basic sense, a blog is
an online journal. The wonderful thing for educators is that
even novice technology users can write, revise, edit, and
produce a polished webpage without any need for knowledge
of HTML. The immediacy of the process and the access to a
broader audience make weblogs a powerful tool for any writer.
Current research tells us that the immersion student is a
successful reader of their second language, yet they often
lag behind in their writing skills. “Trying to grasp
the concepts of print — such as sound symbol relationships,
directionality, and the notion that written symbols are not
arbitrary, but fixed — is obviously much more difficult
in a language in which you are not strong” (Gibbons,
2002, p. 52). As an immersion educator in this setting, I
find that the opportunity to use composition skills in a novel
medium contributes to students’ understanding of the
writing process.
Research also shows that technology is a powerful tool for
aiding and improving students’ success with the writing
process. A meta-analysis of studies on student writing and
technology found that “on average, students who use
computers when learning to write and produce written work
are about .4 standard deviations better than students who
develop writing skills on paper” (Goldberg et al., 2003,
p. 20). By incorporating technology into writing, motivation
is enhanced and students are given a new tool to develop
Advantages of Blogging
Before including a new instructional strategy in our teaching
there needs to be a clear understanding of why we are integrating
this approach. Here are five reasons to weblog with immersion
students.
Ease. Students have quick and easy access to a broad audience
with little technological skill required. The end product
is a polished and widely accessible webpage. Posting and editing
can be done virtually instantaneously.
Archiving. Entries are dated and organized chronologically
by title. This allows the weblog to act as a portfolio as
well as to provide students the opportunity to build on their
own ideas and the ideas of others.
Multi-media. Weblogs allow students to add images, sound,
video, hyperlinks, and polls to their writing. These interactive
and multifaceted tools grant students access to multiple forms
of communication.
Feedback. By using the response forum in weblogs, teachers,
parents and peers have an opportunity to read and post their
insights. Students are encouraged to reflect on their peers’
writing and provide meaningful, immediate feedback.
Meaning. Students are more engaged and motivated when they
realize that their writing will be read by others. This authentic
interchange gives them one more avenue to develop writing
skills in their second language.
Setting up weblogs
Setting up weblogs for your students takes a few hours, but
once established they can act as online portfolios for years.
I have left the weblogs from my previous class open, and these
now sixth-grade students continue to add to them to this day
(one of my most active writers is no longer even in our school!).
In Saint Paul Public Schools, weblogs are easily added onto
classroom homepages using the district software Urban Planet.
Prior to setting them up, students select pseudonyms to protect
their identity. As an added security measure, I protect the
main page with a password so that only families and students
have access to the blogs. All comments posted in response
forums are emailed to my school address. Weblogs can also
be set up through many free servers on the Internet such as
www.blognet.info,
www.blogger.com,
and www.xanga.com.
Clear expectations are definitely needed before launching
any online activity. We discuss appropriate postings; quality
of writing, grammar, and spelling; and thoughtful responding.
Rules are drafted together as a group and then posted in the
classroom. We also take time to look at other student weblogs
and well-known weblogs on the Internet (see suggested URLs
in the sidebar). Doing this provides students with an understanding
of the power of writing for what is essentially a global audience.
Weblog writing activities
To target NCLB writing standards, I focus on four key types
of writing when using blogs: descriptive, narrative, clarification
and persuasive. Below are descriptions of these activities
as well as some further suggestions for blogging lessons.
Descriptive Writing. Using a digital camera, have students
photograph an interesting image (e.g., nature scene, desktop,
face). Before writing, brainstorm sensory-rich vocabulary.
Students upload their photos to their blogs with a rich descriptive
article detailing the scene.
Narrative Writing. To scaffold the key elements of story (plot/conflict,
setting and character) students create concept maps using
the software Kidspiration. Using these outlines, students
write and then post their stories with concept maps.
Clarification Writing. Allow students to research their favorite
educational website. Using the five paragraph format, students
are required to draft a thesis and give three reasons supporting
their site selections. A link to the site and a snap poll
make the entire experience interactive and engaging.
Persuasive Writing. Teach this in the form of a script and
a 30-second Public Service Announcement (suggested themes
include anti-bullying, no littering, be yourself, say no to
drugs). Content-obligatory language about video and filming
can be studied. Videos are filmed, edited (using iMovie or
RealPlayer), and posted on the weblogs where they can be viewed
by friends, peers, and families.
Other ideas:
Current Events. Students can create links to newspaper articles in the target language on current events of interest. Opinion pieces and discussion forums allow for meaningful interchanges.
Internet Shorthand. Students learn internet shorthand in the
target language as one of the ways to respond to a peer. It
is engaging and real, as this is one way in which young people
today enjoy communicating.
Reading Responses. Rather than a book report, students can
write a reading response on their weblogs. Some ideas include
rewriting a scene from a different character’s perspective,
writing an open letter to a character or to the author, crafting
a newspaper-type review with poll, creating a radio advertisement
sound recording, developing a character trait diagram (using
Kidspiration), writing a new book ending, or finding five
related internet links and explaining how they relate to the
book.
With all of these activities, be certain to include follow-up
time for students to read and respond to each other’s
work. It is in this sharing time that the real learning and
most meaningful interchanges occur.
In conclusion
The key advantages of using weblogs in the classroom include
high student motivation, technological skill development,
and the use of the response tools to interact with peers and
to construct knowledge. Most notably, weblogs provide easy
access to both a polished finished product and an authentic
audience. By individualizing the types of postings to reflect
student interests, enthusiasm is very high and the learners
take pleasure in creating new entries for their weblogs.
It is evident that weblogs can motivate and assist elementary
students in both reading and writing in their second language.
Writing tools in Microsoft Word provide support with grammar
and spelling, and weblogs offer learners the capacity to express
themselves not only through these texts but through images,
sound, graphics, surveys, and links. Furthermore, students
are enthusiastic about reading and responding to each other’s
articles. Pedagogically, it is valuable to give students the
opportunity to develop their language and technological skills
in a real–world setting whenever possible. Weblogs,
due to their multimedia attributes, provide endless opportunities
to write, read, and share.
