Monday, November 9, 2009
Blogging
I believe that blogging could have both positive and negative implications for school use. The positive aspect is that students will be writing with more frequency. The more opportunities that we provide kids will enhance their ability to write with clarity and purpose. The downside could be the language that the students use. They may think this is instant messaging and may use that text language to communicate in a blog. We will need to be very clear with our students on the specifics of the tasks and clearly delineate expectations.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I agree that if we want this to be more formal writing we need to make sure that we are very clear with our expectations.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely. The students do need to have clear expectations on how to use blogs, espeically proper writing etiquette.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree. Most blogs that are posted use improper and informal language. People become better writers by reading. But if they are reading writing that is composed of "hey gurlz, your 2 Kool," then they how will they know it is incorrect? While some may argue that we write informally too--which I really do not!--when we text or e-mail friends, but still know the proper formal language in the professional world, the answer is simple: we first learned how to do it correctly, and then found the world of txts. But most young teens are mainly familiar with this informal writing, and so we see it in their papers!
ReplyDeleteLanguage is like clothing a linguistics teacher I had liked to say. We use (or should use) the language appropriate for the context. The context of writing on a computer has generally been very academic. Your point about not using academically appropriate language is a good one. How do we encourage some standards and not allow the format of a blog to free a student up to express themselves. Obviously, blogging should not be the only writing the students do. The blog could also be the place where a student to post a final draft of a writing piece, couldn't it?
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you. Not only is this an educational process for us, but also for the students. Some of these students don't even know what is appropriate language.
ReplyDelete