Student blogs can be useful as a way for students to gain a more active role in their education. Blogging allows them to not only express their thoughts but also communicate with other individuals on a topic and link to other helpful blogs and websites to assist them in their learning. When a teacher introduces blogging in the classroom, the students need specific guidelines of what is expected of them. Many students may not have experience with blogs and blogging, but with a little help they can become experts in no time.
In my classroom, I will evaluate student blog posts and comments by providing them with a rubric on what is expected of them in both posting their blog and responding to other students’ blogs. I wanted to take some advice from Will Richardson and “start small” when it comes to blogging with students and what is expected of them, so I didn’t go with a very detailed rubric. I envision that over time this rubric would become more detailed as students become more familiar with the blogging process. I want students to take responsibility for responding to all parts of the assignment and making sure that their work has as few errors as possible. I also wanted to be sure and highlight what a response to a peer’s blog would include and lead students to the positive disagreement or clarification of a post. By learning to do this, the students will learn not only how to give constructive feedback but also how to take it on their own work without getting their feelings hurt or having it turn to other subject matters.
In my classroom, I will evaluate student blog posts and comments by providing them with a rubric on what is expected of them in both posting their blog and responding to other students’ blogs. I wanted to take some advice from Will Richardson and “start small” when it comes to blogging with students and what is expected of them, so I didn’t go with a very detailed rubric. I envision that over time this rubric would become more detailed as students become more familiar with the blogging process. I want students to take responsibility for responding to all parts of the assignment and making sure that their work has as few errors as possible. I also wanted to be sure and highlight what a response to a peer’s blog would include and lead students to the positive disagreement or clarification of a post. By learning to do this, the students will learn not only how to give constructive feedback but also how to take it on their own work without getting their feelings hurt or having it turn to other subject matters.
Below are links to two blogs that I found and how they graded their students’ blog posts:
I really found the rubric at this blog helpful because it presented the information in ways that could be used with different age groups. The point breakdown was given and used a few descriptive words to help the student understand the meat of what they needed to do for each point value. Under the point values, the rubric provided action sentences of what the student needed to do on their blog to get full points. This could be tweaked for almost any classroom and used. http://infoskills.weebly.com/uploads/4/0/3/7/4037981/student_blog_grading_rubric.pdf
The rubric found at this website was helpful in thinking about the qualities of an exemplary blog post for a student. I really felt like this was a great starting place for the exemplars and you could then break it down for other levels of responses. http://www.mediarhetoric.com/blog/grading-a-blog
I really found the rubric at this blog helpful because it presented the information in ways that could be used with different age groups. The point breakdown was given and used a few descriptive words to help the student understand the meat of what they needed to do for each point value. Under the point values, the rubric provided action sentences of what the student needed to do on their blog to get full points. This could be tweaked for almost any classroom and used. http://infoskills.weebly.com/uploads/4/0/3/7/4037981/student_blog_grading_rubric.pdf
The rubric found at this website was helpful in thinking about the qualities of an exemplary blog post for a student. I really felt like this was a great starting place for the exemplars and you could then break it down for other levels of responses. http://www.mediarhetoric.com/blog/grading-a-blog