Writing for a Global Audience - Classroom goes Real World

Students are energized after finding out that their writing is being read globally.

It just got real . . . Real World!  "Canadians love me!" and "Look, Latvia is reading my blog!" and "Wow, they found my blog by searching for Thoreau and Gandhi!" bounced around the classroom.  Today, students were introduced to the Stats tab of their blogs.  It was eye-opening and became a competition for bragging rights for the blog with the most countries viewing it.

Doing their summer reading journals on a blog for their Accelerated English classes (A4 and B1, this group of students have been blogging for me since June.  When school started back up in late August, the blogs evolved into a creative writing journals as well as a means to publish literary analysis assignments.

Students were told from the beginning that having their writing online meant that the world would see their writing.  Writing this year has been much better than in years past when the writing was just between the student and myself.  There are still some minor grammar mistakes and some typos here and there, but the work is considerably more polished than the work that was stuffed in the "in box" organizer of the past.

Now that the students have realized that people are reading their blogs, they are more attentive to their writing.  Some were confused that people were reading their blogs but were not commenting.  They have heard of  "lurkers" before, and we discussed how most people are comfortable reading the blogs, but not so comfortable adding a comment to a blog of someone that they do not know.  I told them that it is a matter of time before they start seeing comments from people that they do not know.

Because the quality of writing and analysis has been increasing, I also announced that I will be choosing a Student Highlight a few days each week.  I will tweet out a student's blog on #edchat and #engchat.  I will announce the blog as a Student Highlight and will ask for comments.  As page views increase, I am confident that the writing will continue to improve.

The audience just went from "public" to "scholars" in a matter of moments.  While they are excited to see their published writing being viewed, I am ecstatic to see them so excited about their writing!  The energy in the classroom is amazing!  Throughout my teaching career I have been striving to bring bits of the Real World into the classroom - now, bits of the classroom are being taken to the Real World.

Creating Student Blogs - Fun??!!!!

It was just as much fun for me to see the English students playing with the set-up of their blogs as it was for them to individualize the appearance of each of their blogs.  A few students have already posted their first assigned entries.  I am excited to not only see the thought put into the entries, but also to see that students are experimenting with the various tools of the blog.  Several students have already left comments for their peers.  Some students are already tracking changes to their friends blogs by selecting to be a "Follower" of those students' blogs.

While some students are still a little tentative about writing in such a public realm, mostly nervous about what to write, the majority of the students are welcoming a fresh approach to journaling.  The best part of this project for me is that a "chore" has become a fun thing to do.  Students in the past loved to share their journal entries in class by reading them aloud.  We never seemed to have enough time to please everyone who wanted to be heard.  Students are not only excited that they will be able to share their blogs with their peers, but they are also appreciative that their journals are going to be read by more than just the teacher.