Purpose or Language Learning Objective
Students will use KidBlog to write their academic and personal goals for the week. Students will build on skills of organization of thoughts and writing.
Students will begin to learn how to use a Blog.
Lesson time: 1 hour
Student group: 5th and 6th grade
advanced
Lesson details
- Explain that this will be the first of many times that students will access KidBlog to enter their goals for the week. This will be a consistent, weekly activity.
- Explain that students will be required to create a blog entry detailing their goals for the week. Students must write a minimum of five complete sentences. They must write two academic goals for the week and a statement describing why they are choosing those two goals. They must write one personal or social goal and a statement describing why they are choosing that goal. I will provide them examples of both academic and personal/social goals.
- Explain that the next day, students will be writing a thoughtful response to a classmate regarding their goals. Explain that I will provide them with directions on how to do this tomorrow. Use this time to remind students that they are writing their goals for an audience. They can expect that their goals will be read by several classmates, therefore they must write goals that are clear and easy to understand.
- Explain the course content for the week. Tell students that we will be reading a short book about hurricanes. Explain that we will be creating tree maps together to process and apply our learning from the book. Tell students that their academic goals should relate to the course content for the week.
- Demonstrate how to access and use KidBlog.
Review/Analysis
How will you use this resource to meet the needs of your
instructional purposes?
KidBlog will function well in having students develop the
routine of writing on a consistent, weekly basis. They will also get practice
in thinking and organizing their thoughts, reading authentic texts (other blog
entries), and developing good habits of thoughtful, constructive critiquing.
Why is this application and format appropriate for the
lesson you plan to create (e.g., level of authenticity, relevance to target
language, register, accuracy, interest level, and motivation)?
In my experiences using KidBlog with students (non ESL
students), it has been a very successful resource. Students learn how to use
the resource quickly, and they quickly develop the ability to use the tool
independently, and with very little guidance. I feel KidBlog is very
appropriate for this lesson because not only is it easy to use, but it is very
engaging and motivating for students. They enjoy writing for an authentic
audience and they love giving and receiving feedback from peers.
Are the format, organization, design and language level
of this resource appropriate for your instructional goals?
KidBlog is designed to be a blogging tool for elementary
learners, so I believe this is an excellent resource for ESL students. The
design of the website is clean and not cluttered with extraneous information or
advertisements. It is a very simple website to use from a student’s
perspective, and also very easy to manage from a teacher’s perspective.
What are the potential problems, either language based or
technical that you may need to troubleshoot or prepare for?
I do not envision a great deal of potential problems with
the use of Kid Blog. I can point to two potential issues, however. One is more
of a logistical issue, and that is just to remind students that we are using
this tool for an academic purpose and they should not use the tool as a way to “chat”
or discuss personal matters that do not pertain to class. The other issue is to
make sure that when students post responses to one another’s blog posts, that
they should not check the box to “Make this comment private.” Explain to
students that all blog posts and responses must be public and shared with the
entire class.
Kidblog seems like an easy-to-use resource that would work great for this activity. I could see myself using it when I start teaching 4th grade next school year. I can see the potential for generating student interest, and I like that you've clearly specified what you'd like students to write, down to the number and types of sentences.
ReplyDeleteOne suggestion I have for expanding the lesson is to explore other writing topics in addition to short term goals. They could write about long-term goals, reflective questions related to class content, local or world events, favorite things (sports, musicians, etc.). That way the activity will continue to be fresh throughout the school year, and will push them to develop vocab, etc., for a range of topics.
Hi Chris,
ReplyDeleteI like the lesson you have created; goal setting is an important skill for the students to develop. It allows them to feel autonomy and a sense of self-determination; they are more likely to try harder to reach the goals they have set for themselves, than they are for the ones that are set by others. Giving them the opportunity to give and receive feedback will allow them to explore their thoughts and perceptions and practice articulating them in building communicative competence.
Suggestion: What about asking them to list the steps they would be taking to materialize their goals; for example, if the goal is learning the key words in the story about hurricanes, you can ask, “What will you do to reach your goal?” The answer might be: making flashcards, working with flashcards for 10 minutes a day…..
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ReplyDeleteChris, I enjoy your lessons very much. The Billy Goats Gruff was all-round fun. Your lesson on learning to use KidBlog and writing goals has that same light touch. Jared has already commented on your detailed written instructions for students, the WHAT they need to do. I appreciate that you have also given students information about WHY they need to listen, complete these activities a certain way, etc.
ReplyDeleteThe WHYs act as built-in incentives or “buy-in” to promote positive student outcomes.You let students know up front that they’ll be doing this every week (so, they might need to listen to the instructions); you let students know that peers will be reading their goals (so the goals need to be clear and easy to understand) and writing “thoughtful responses” (so they might want to think about what they write); and you let them know that the class will be reading a book about hurricanes/making tree maps (so students need to create their goals around this subject matter). In sum, you provide a terrific set of class directions and goals for the lesson, the week and beyond!
As an extension of your excellent directions, could you possibly write them out to model the format of student goals? You would create a 2 for 1 written handout that gave them the directions and examples of goals at the same time. This might take more than 5 sentences, but produce a variety of different examples for your students.
Ex. Academic goal 1: Chris and students will read a book about hurricanes and draw treemaps to learn…
Academic goal 2: Chris will teach students to use KidBlog for writing 3 specific weekly goals …
Personal goal: Chris and students will …
PS Although this particular lesson is about using KidBlog, it sounds as is the umbrella theme of the week is about hurricanes. Would it be helpful to learners to highlight this earlier in the instructions so that they connect the academic goals and learning about hurricanes from the beginning? What do you think?