Comments on: Classroom Blogging Backstory

By: Doug Noon

Doug Noon — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 10:49:01 +0000

No, I haven’t used RSS with the kids yet, though the Drupal engine (which is what runs the site) does have a module for that. So I need to check that out. It would be a lot easier to bring the content in from other sites than to send the kids out looking for it. Thanks for the nudge.

By: clay burell

clay burell — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 07:14:27 +0000

Funny and fantastic at the same time. I could see you dealing with your exasperations about “Cindiquil.” I had similar feelings when a blogger in my class wrote some brilliant but esoteric posts on DeathNote, whatever that is. He pegged its allegorical connections to Copernicus and the Church, or else made them up. I was impressed, either way.

I’m having to explore solutions for tech in elementary since I’m going to be a k-12 edtech resource staff next year, so I’m all ears about the paucity of sites with appropriate readability levels for the primary grades.

I’m also going to forward this to a fifth grade teacher in my school who’s interested in these new ways.

Along those lines, have you dealt at all with RSS readers and feeds suitable for your class members? If so, I’d love to hear what you learned.

By: Doug Noon

Doug Noon — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 14:34:47 +0000

Mark, I don’t see how we could know if it was their own, except that I saw them writing it. Amazing how similar it all is, eh?

By: Mark Ahlness

Mark Ahlness — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 13:55:36 +0000

What I find myself scratching my head over right now are the links in one of your student posts, Doug: http://tellraven.us/node/1061 I’d always assumed checking for plagiarism would be an issue for teachers of older (than third grade) kids. In the back of my mind, I had this doubt though. Looking at those links to Pokemon fan fiction, it’s not hard at all to see one my third graders doing a little copy/paste job. And how would I know? - yikes! - Mark

By: Doug Noon

Doug Noon — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 05:24:07 +0000

Thanks, Brian and Sarah, for the suggestions.

The idea for using shoes to narrate a story reminded me of something I learned about in a workshop, but haven’t used in a while. It’s called RAFT (Role, Audience, Format, Topic) meaning that manipulating those variables generates different types of texts.