I am going to share a specific example of a lesson I would use for students to blog about on a class blog. Students would be asked to go to our class blog for seventh grade language arts and read the prompt that I posted. This is my prompt: What would Sandra Cisneros want you to learn from The House on Mango Street? Using what we have discussed in class and through previous blogging activities, create a found poem using what you think is the most powerful excerpt from the book. The poem should portray the theme of the book. Please post your found poems on the class blog as a comment. Remember to indicate page # and paragraph #'s where you found your inspiration.
Since there are very short chapters in this book, students choose their favorite one and make a new comment on the blog. They need to indicate the 1-2 paragraphs from that chapter that they think are most powerful and put page # and paragraph #’s. (i.e. p. 28, para. 1 & 2). In a found poem, students choose no more than 10 interesting words or short phrases from those paragraphs that capture what they think is the theme of the novel. Then they put the words/phrases they chose into a poem. The poem should be ONLY the words they chose from the excerpt. They would also be required to comment on one another's poems with positive feedback and what they think their classmate's poems mean. I would then share the "best" poems with the students in class and our discussion about theme in this story could continue. This activity has students interacting with one another, offering feedback and thoughts on each other's creative work with poetry. It also promotes classroom community by having everyone's poem available to view.
Great idea for blogging. I just talked to one of my friends who teaches 2nd grade and he is using blogging. I am so amazed at what a great resource this is for students.
ReplyDeleteGreat use of blogging where peer editing and community building occur. It's also effective to develop literacy among your students. I love in particular the idea of having them create a poem, which I believe is one of the best tools to inspire creativity. It would be interesting to see what your students come up with, especially when they are aware of the existence of the audience. Please do share with us the outcome!
ReplyDeleteI really like your idea here Laurel! It keeps the students honest by having them post where they got their inspiration from and I really like the community aspect and how you have them comment on each other's blogs. It's a great way to get the communication going, especially amongst students that might not often communicate with each other.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great idea! Thanks for the detailed description. Any of us who read it could actually do this in our classroom!
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