The following activities and lessons were not necessarily designed/created by me, although I did tweak them to meet the needs of my classroom. I will gladly give credit for ideas/activities when I can.
Lesson/Activity #1: I started off by asking students about the social media/technology they use. After several answers, we moved the discussion to "why" people today use this technology. I used both discussions to transition to a conversation about blogs (ex. what are they, why people write them, how they differ from Facebook, Twitter, etc.). After getting a good idea of students' background knowledge of blogs and giving basics about blogs (ex. what they are & why they are used), we headed to the computer and checked out some blogs. I had students work in groups of three or four and check out several different blogs online. Ahead of time, I pre-selected and saved short-cuts to several different "kid appropriate" blogs. Groups were allowed to look at the blogs (from the ones I chose) that they wanted. Their task was to write down characteristics of effective blogs. (From the beginning I chose to use the words "effective" & "ineffective" instead of "good" & "bad".) After about 20 minutes, we came back together as a class and wrote down the characteristics they found. By the end of the class, we had a list of characteristics that make an effective blog. Here's a rubric that has the main characteristics on the left side of the chart. Not only did we ultimately use this rubric to "grade" blogs we looked at online, but I used it to assess/grade the blogs they wrote throughout the year. The rubric I used can be found here. Another possible rubric (made by Scholastic and includes an activity) can be found here.
Lesson/Activity #2: As a class we started by looking at a blog together. Students took turns points out things that either made it effective or ineffective. We also watched a short video on YouTube about why middle school students like about blogging. Find the YouTube video here.
Lesson/Activity #3: A huge component of teaching kids blogging, is to make sure they do it safely and respectfully. I started the "safety" lesson by asking students general rules for being/going online and while using social media. For the most part, they gave nearly all of the rules that needed to be given. I recorded rules they gave me on the board. After class I put the rules on a poster that hung in the classroom for the rest of the year and also made a hand-out of the rules for students. Here's an example of some possible rules from Scholastic.
Lesson/Activity #4: One of the characteristics of a blog is that it is used to cultivate discussions among readers and reviewers. Before students can be expected to respond effectively and appropriately to blogs, they need some instruction on the topic. I found a few different YouTube videos that I used. I really like the first one-- it's made my elementary students and provides clear instruction and examples. Find it here. The second video is super short, and I used it has a review on another day. Find this second video here. I also put together a resource sheet for students to use. Find the resource here.
Lesson/Activity #5: Before setting students loose to write and comment online, we did "paper blogging". This fabulous idea is from the blog "Notes from McTeach" dated September 5, 20120, and titled "Learning to Blog Using Paper". Find this amazing activity here. This activity gives students the opportunity to apply everything they have learned so far. They used the Blogging Rubric and Responding to Blogging resource to make sure that they included all of the components. We did this activity over a couple of days. They really did a good job with it and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Lesson/Activity #6: It was finally time to take the blogging online. Although there are several different blogging options available for students and classrooms, I chose to use Edmodo. The majority of my students already had some experience with Edmodo and the platform worked best for my classes. (Here's a link to Edmodo in case you need it.) For their first blog, I basically gave them the same prompt as from the "paper blogging" activity, I just told them to pick a different hobby. They completed all of the steps (rough draft, editing, revising, etc.) of writing. They typed their final drafts on Word and then copied and pasted them on to the page I set up on Edmodo. Students also had to leave meaningful comments on at least two of their classmates' blogs. It turns out that they really enjoyed reading each others' blogs-- I think they ended up reading and commenting for nearly a whole class period. It was a wonderful way to trick them into reading and writing! :)
Year-long practice and use: After learning and practicing the basics of blogging, it became a very useful tool for discussing stories, novels, and even skills throughout the year. When my small groups were working on different novels, I had an Edmodo page for each novel. I'd post questions and they'd reply either at home or during independent work time. I also found it useful for students who missed in-class discussions due to being absent. I simply posted the discussion questions on Edmodo and they responded to them so I still had a chance to assess their comprehension and understanding. Towards the end of the year Edmodo was also a useful classroom for incorporating "flipped classroom" strategies. For example, while doing theme, I posted a movie clip on Edmodo, and they needed to respond with what they thought the theme was and "text/clip" evidence.
