It has been a challenge in my class to get my kids more responsible with their independent reading. Trying to manage them staying on task and making them more accountable for their work can be a struggle. I have decided to have the kids in my room use SeeSaw to blog about a current novel we are reading in class.
Setting this up seemed like a daunting task. They had to realize that what they will be posting is out on the internet for all to see. I provided all of the students rubrics to follow proper blog post guidelines. We will also be collaborating with Mr. Hall's class which hopefully, if it goes well, we can expand it to a distance learning type activity.
I have found that some students are very self aware of their writing abilities and can sometimes be embarrassed to post among their peers for fear of being made fun of for their writing ability. I am working with these specific students to build their confidence in their writing to be able to post confidently.
I'm hoping that expanding beyond paper and pencil will make my students more motivated to interact with text they are reading. I can see this being a valuable tool that would promote discussion and enhance their comprehension. Students will also, depending on the task given, some choice in their responses while also following the rubric.
It's been a slow process implementing this in the class and I hope in the coming weeks to have a much better grasp of the process.
