Blogging as a way to reach the Millenials ~by Lindsay Kuciemba

The time has come in which students and teachers need to learn to more effectively implement technology usage within the classroom. For far too many years, laptops have been sitting in safe places, locked up and waiting to share their many capabilities with the lives of the current generation of students we teach. These students, referred to as the Millenials, are a generation of savvy and knowledgeable computer users. To many of these students, coming to school each day means learning the way their parents learned 30 years ago. The same style of teaching is simply not acceptable, especially when one thinks about the drastic amount of change our world has seen in the last 5 years.

One way to easily implement technology usage within the classroom is by having students engage with each other through use of a classroom blog. We already know that students enjoy sharing their thoughts with others through such mediums as text messages and emails. Why not have them share their thoughts and opinions about educational issues by participating in a blog with their classmates and teacher? Many teachers use one central blog for all students to respond to. Teachers can post a thought-provoking question or topic that has been covered in class, and students will respond. The benefits to this are many, but include allowing all students to share on a more level playing field, as well as allowing students to look at the thoughts and comments of their classmates. In the high school setting, many teachers set up a common class blog and allow students the opportunity to determine how they'd best like to use the blog. Students often work together to create their own study guide for an upcoming test. This can be done by having each student leave 1-2 bulleted items that share important concepts learned during the unit of study. All students can benefit from looking at the notes of their peers. This same concept can also be applied on a daily basis, by including things such as a question/answer section on the classroom blog. Students are encouraged to work alongside their classmates, helping all to better understand the information covered in class. And, all of this assistance takes place not in real time, but online. These are just some ways to help our students feel more connected with the technological world that they are immersed in.

Technology is a tool that will help to unlock many doors that are currently closed to our students. By acknowledging and accepting the way our students interact with their peers, we can more effectively "reach" them. One way to do this is by implementing the use of educational blogging. The uses for blogging in the classroom are limitless. Discover for yourself some of the ways that you can set up and use an educational blog. Like many other teachers that are currently using blogs, I'm sure you will find your students to be highly involved in a rich discussion and dialog that reaches far beyond the four rigid and confining walls of the classroom.

Research Specific Objectives

Students will learn to locate and determine main ideas and supporting details in a selection.

Students will learn to include related text based details in their written reading comprehension question responses.

Students will learn to underline key terms and parts of a question, to help them better understand what they need respond to.

Goal Statement

The goal of this project is to improve overall student reading comprehension.

Problem Statement- ProCert

Students in Miss Kuciemba's fourth grade class are having difficulty in the area of reading comprehension, as evidenced by low scores on reading tests and lack of accurate and supported answers during class discussions. This group of students will improve their reading comprehension by rereading the selection as a whole or in parts, and supporting their work by including selection details.