Just before the holidays, I had my Grade 1 students start writing their first blog post.  I have wanted to get my students blogging for a while now, but I was always concerned about how to ensure that they edited their work before posting it.  @mrjarbenne told me about Posterous: a great blogging option that allows me to e-mail items to be posted on the blog.  I can then have my students work in Google Docs to write and edit their blog posts before I post them online.

For our first blog post, the children worked in their literacy groups to create one blog entry.  They used the keyboard on the SMART Board to type their post.  As I was running my guided reading group, I observed some amazing things happening at this blogging centre: the students were helping each other spell the words, and even adding more details to each other’s contributions.  They knew that they were writing for an audience, and they wanted their post to be perfect!  They used the classroom resources (i.e., the word wall, dictionaries, word cards, and catalogues) to help spell the words that they typed. 

When reading over the final entry, I realized just how far my students have come since September.  When the year started, most were hesitant to write independently, almost none of the students left spaces in between their words, and they rarely edited their work.  Here is a video clip of the students editing this first blog entry though: they now know what changes they need to make and why they need to make these changes too.

I am excited to start our next blogging activity!  I know that my students will continue to impress me with what they can do.  After seeing all of the comments on our blog post too, I know that my students will want to write another blog entry as well: their audience is demanding it.:)  Thank you so much to @zbpipe and @mrjarbenne for allowing your students to comment on this first blog entry!  I know that my students will be thrilled.

While you now know how I feel about Grade 1 students blogging, I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic too.  Please comment here and let me know what you think of our latest blogging endeavours. 

Have a great weekend!

Aviva