Oct 10 2007
SLJ chats with Diane Penrod about Using Blogs to Enhance Literacy
“Blogs are a “killer app.” I compare blogs to email. It’s a revolutionary breakthrough in communicating with others. It’s also a fundamental genre for Web 2.0 environments like those you mention. If you can blog, you can move to these other genres.”
Diane Penrod’s book sounds like something we need for our professional collection. I tried to get my teachers on-board with blogging two years ago, but there just didn’t seem to be time. Largely, the students writing product was mediocre. There wasn’t any pre-writing or editing happening and it shows.
I still think there’s value there, but I’m trying to figure out the best way to position myself and encourage students to use the tool. I would love for them to use my Read Write Think Repeat blog to share about the books they’re reading. Maybe I can start to offer C-Notes (school reward system) to students who want to share about the books they’re reading. I think I could justify it under Community as it builds a culture of readers and encourages discussion and shared experiences. Something to think about more.
[Added October 30] I was in the computer lab today with a colleague doing an information literacy assessment with her students. She was telling me she wanted to get her kids blogging about books. She doesn’t like my current book blog title. I told her we’ll change it. I’m thinking though instead of one of us choosing the title, we need to get student suggestions and let them vote on a title. Easy to do! I’m excited to have someone who wants to try this with me again!
