Using blogs to create a reading community among students

February 26th, 2009 by oneseven

As I read this article, I really just thought about how applicable it was to my own learning style. I am much more likely to produce clear, detailed thoughts when I write them down. I think it’s very interesting that this article illustrated that this was the same case for students - especially since when working with special education students, many of them may not be confident in their writing skills. I believe this was the case because no matter how low-functioning students are, they are influenced by their peers. Even students with autism lacking social skills model the behavior of their peers. So, I believe the same principle can be applied to higher functioning students. Blogging about the books they read and posting within an interactive community allows students to learn from each other, challenge each other, and even compete with each other. The internet is a great forum for a wide variety of feedback from both peers and other teachers. Instead of simply receiving a grade, or reading a comment written on a piece of paper, students can really have a conversation (and probably even a pretty unformal one at that) about things that they are intersted in. It’s especially great that students can share ideas for books to read. It doesn’t hurt that technology is cool for students, and something they are familiar with.