What Else

As I read the wonderful posts about quality blogging while participating in Silvia Tolisano’s blogging series and audit meme, I considered several strategies, audiences, and purposes for blogging. What else do writers do?

First of all, my students and I have also learned so much about blogging and commenting from Linda Yollis & Class. We also have adopted Linda Yollis’s Class Quality Comment Guidelines for our checklist. As Andrea commented in Tracy’s Quality Blogging and Audit Meme post, sometimes our comments sound forced and constrained because they are using the checklist. Tracy shared Gina Fraher’s Color Coding Checklist, adding that students need to start somewhere; we all do. Following a model is one way to learn, and this color coding strategy is one I’ve used with younger students learning to write paragraphs. Evaluating our work, and writing excellent posts to share information are two reasons for blogging.

Writing is not easy. That’s why we break the task into a writing process and a writing traits. Tracy adds, “Breaking the task down and working through it together.” Learning the “parts” means that sometimes our blogs and comments will be stilted and forced, but that is part of learning to break writing into the parts to work on improving them— such as asking questions to carry on the conversation, –when it’s valuable, because as Linda Yollis commented in Tracy’s post, “sometimes there isn’t a need for a reply.” Kids need to learn that too, and that decision could be part of the rubric “Choice to comment reflects purpose of post/comment.” Critical thinking is part of reading and writing through blogging, another purpose.

As I began to visualize all these marvelous models we’ll have from Silvia Tolisano’s blogging series and audit meme, I considered the voice from those who consider blogging a personal venture.

I wonder if we need to add one more strategy  and purpose for blogging and writing. Our goal is better writers, and we are asking our writing to be powerful and clear for the reader. Sometimes the audience and purpose, though, in blogging is as much for the writer as it is for the reader. That’s the “What Else.” Peter Elbow recommends that we sometimes struggle through “messy writing.” Writing just to discover the ideas. Writing just to capture that gem of powerful writing amongst the stones. Just as we learn to read well, not only through instruction, but also by reading a lot, so too we must allow students time for both instruction and for independent writing. This discovery writing will be “messy writing” to discover our ideas and to gather ideas from others.

Here’s a class document based on Peter Elbow’s Writing with Power. We call it Elbow Grease for Discovery Drafts. This type of blogging does several things:

• allows writers to explore ideas
•  connects writers and readers
• develops writing fluency and voice
• provides evidence of writing process
• allows the experience of real and messy writing
• encourages the flow if ideas
• connects formal and personal writing
• honors writing time as instructional and evaluative as well as personal and explorative

The Elbow Grease activity provides a writing and audit strategy that may also benefit students new to blogging, allowing them a place to develop their ideas in the digital format of today’s connectedness. I think we need both. I think Denise’s comment is an example — she let her “stream of consciousness” discover important ideas about the different purposes for commenting (on photos, in student blogs, part 2 of the conversation). This is how writer’s think through their ideas. Students need this time also, with the added benefit of asking the readers to add to the conversation and discovery, and a chance to develop a personal style and voice. Do you think there’s room for both such formal and informal blogging in our classrooms?

Of course, we always remind students that “Internet writing is your footprint, a path back to you; prepare your path wisely.”

What do you think? Do you think there’s room for both such formal and informal blogging in our classrooms?

Our students were thrilled this year with an award nomination, and many chose to write thank you comments to our nominator. Most were thoughtful responses that conveyed their appreciation; they wrote from the heart, which gave their writing voice.

Our goal is to write our best, to learn from even our best to improve our writing choices so our ideas are clear and concise.

Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano at Langwitches  invites us to evaluate our work to improve.

With that in mind, I reread several comments and wrote a sample one, a model to use with students. Using an anchor or model is a teaching strategy recommended to help improve writing.  With a model comment ready, I evaluated it based on a rubric. The rubric helps us to break down our writing so we can see the parts we did well and and the parts where we can improve.

The rubric (from Langwitches)

The model comment:

Dear Mrs. Nominator,

Thank you for nominating our blog. We are very proud and exited to be nominated for an award. Our class enjoys blogging because we can share ideas with other people. For instance, we can read and share with other students in the world. We learned to take notes and stuff and we learned strategies for ideas so we can write our own blog posts.  Finally, thank you again for nominating us!

Parts Done Well

Writing and Voice:

The paragraph was somewhat organized, adding voice by including feelings (very proud and excited [exited]) and details (“share ideas with other people”). The words chosen are an attempt to bring the content to life (“take notes and stuff” “can write our own blog posts”). Sentence fluency is mostly achieved (“For instance” “Finally”).

Content:

Connected to the post and added “simple” additions (“share ideas with other people” “we can read and share with other students in the world” “learned strategies for ideas” “own blog posts”), which shows the beginning evidence of knowledge/content.

Presentation:

Only a few spelling, sentence, and grammar errors restrict the flow of reading ( “exited” “take notes and stuff and we learned strategies”).

Therefore this comment flows between a 2 capable and 3 accomplished, which is a thoughtful response.

Parts to Improve:

To move to expert level on the rubric, the writer could:

Writing and Voice:

Write more than one paragraph which is organized into ideas, each followed by details of explanation. To add style, descriptions, imagery, or figurative language would add voice and interest. For instance — how proud were you? When I’m proud I feel light like a butterfly or warm like the sun. That would make the feeling “memorable, and bring the comment to life.”

Content:

Details were provided, and needed explanations; “stuff” could be explained with examples or experiences. For example, “take notes and summaries on our research to assist the composing of our posts” and “we learned strategies for ideas, such using our Google Docs organizer so we include details.” A link to those sample organizer, to sample notes/summaries would have added to the content, clarity, and relevant resources for the reader.

Summary

As indicated, the rubric helps us to break down our writing into parts, but good writing is not parts; it’s the meaning communicated to an audience for a purpose.

Donald Murray once said, “Writing is hard fun.” It’s hard to develop an idea thoroughly. It’s hard to add original ideas with a personal voice. It’s hard to go back and add details and voice. It’s hard to go back again and edit for spelling, grammar, and clarity. But when our writing is good— when a response is given back, that is fun, a feeling of satisfaction.

Even though students have the lessons and resources: figurative language, elaboration strategies, revision, and practice, writing is hard.

For this model, practicing the parts of writing brought it to capable  and almost through accomplished on the rubric. It was written to the audience for the purpose of expressing thanks. With more practice, this will improve to expert.

To continue this “audit meme,” I tag Denise Krebs, Amy Cobb, and Tracy Watanabe to add to Silvia’s meme at Langwitches to help students and teachers improve the online blog and comment discourse.  Please use models (anchors) so we can all learn and practice from them.

For our class, we’re going to set one goal each, based on a self-assessment of our work. What one “part” would you recommend writers start practicing? What part of writing is hard for you, and what strategies do you use to overcome it? How do you know you’ve improved? How would you audit a post or comment?

Do you have Internet resources you frequently use, bloggers and twitterers that provide a wealth of strategies and suggestions that help you teach, inspire, and lead in your educational community? Are you thankful to your Personal and Professional Learning Network (your PLN) for their connections and collaborations?  I have and I am thankful.

What better way to honor those who have inspired us, than to nominate them for sharing their ideas with our community? Nominations for Edublog Awards allow us to share those resources with others. The benefit of these awards, from an Edublog post are:

• Celebrate and recognize those that contribute to our personal learning
• Create a handy list of incredible resources for the community to refer to
• Build awareness of all of the excellent ways technology is being used in education

I would love to nominate them all, but that isn’t possible. Therefore, with those in my PLN who have already nominated excellent resources from whom others can gain inspiration, I renominate those who inspire us, so that their voices are heard by many more.

Please add them to your community, consider their ideas, and add your own; our world grows better because if them, and you.

 Edublog 2011 Nominations

Best individual blog

wwwatanabe

Tracy Watanabe’s blog teems with ideas, resources, strategies, and reflections on many topics affecting education today. Through her kind and careful reflections, she provides us guidance in so many areas of digital learning:

21st Century Learning

http://wwwatanabe.blogspot.com/search/label/21st%20Century%20Learning

Professional Development

http://wwwatanabe.blogspot.com/search/label/Professional%20Development

Peer Coaching and Collaboration

http://wwwatanabe.blogspot.com/search/label/Peer%20Coaching%20Collaboration%20Coaching

One-to-One

http://wwwatanabe.blogspot.com/search/label/One-to-One

Problem-based learning

http://wwwatanabe.blogspot.com/search/label/PBL

Always available for a new idea or to answer a question, Tracy is the sunshine in the struggles to bring 21st Century education into a reality.

Best individual tweeter

Tracy Wantanabe

https://twitter.com/#!/tracywatanabe

Look for these tweets; she directs you to an inspiration or strategy, a tip or technique, or a recognition or encouragement that helps everyone grow in confidence and knowledge.

Best group blog

Youth Voices

Youth Voices provides a venue for classrooms of all ages to express their voices through blog posts within their group platform. Students can post in discussions, missions, that promote global connections and local actions.

Best new blog

Travelling with Mr ‘Davo’ Devil

Have you seen a Tasmanian devil? One very creative and collaborative teacher, Sue Wyatt, otherwise known as Miss W or @tasteach, will introduce you to the traveling Tasmanian devil, who speaks of his travels from his point of view as  Miss W’s travels around the USA and Canada. Enjoy  participating in all the discussions on this new blog.

Best class blog

Mrs Yollis’s Classroom Blog

It is here that my students learned the importance of digital citizenship, including how to comment in ways that carry on the conversation that blogging begins.

Best student blog

The Girls Room: Jaci’s Blog

Jaci’s catchy title drew me to read her blog. I found stories of her passions and of her schoolwork; Links allow me to follow-up on her suggestions, and her design and sidebar are interesting without being cluttered. She includes glogs, videos, and images to help the reader learn her ideas.

Best ed tech / resource sharing blog

Langwitches

Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano will share with you her expertise in blogging, iPad instruction, Skyping, and digital citizenship. She explains the use of educational technology for immediate use to collaborate with others. Her work will bring you the confidence to try the strategies and tools that lead to successful online collaboration.

Most influential blog post

Kathleen Morris: Top 10 Twitter Tips!

Twitter connects me daily to my PLN and the resources that help me become better in teaching and learning. This post will help anyone who wants to build their PLN through Twitter.

Best twitter hashtag

#comments4kids by @wmchamberlain

When your students blog, Will Chamberlain’s hashtag will lead others to comment on those blogs. This idea is a a true gift of community spirit and community building.

Best teacher blog

Dare To Care:

Denise Krebs’s shares not only strategies, but also her heartfelt connection with her students. In this day when so many negative barbs hurt the teaching profession, her blog shows how relationships and learning work together — how her students inspire her as much as how her lessons inspire her students. I am always reminded when I read her blog, to add joy back into my classroom.

Best librarian / library blog

Cosy Corner

Mrs. Howlin creates readers with imaginations. Follow her lessons and strategies from Flat Stanley to Postcards from Around the World to Search strategies for accurate web-researching: find it here at the Cosy Corner!

Best School Administrator blog

This and That

Leading a school through this transitional period from the information age to the digital age isn’t easy. But Jon Castelhano understands how to build relationships that inspire his staff to bring the best of themselves and the technology to their students’ learning.

Best free web tool

Twitter Comment, Converse, Collaborate, Share: a community of reflections and resources. I say, “To tweet is to contribute, connect, query, consider, collab w/ global everyday people choosing to improve just like yourself”

Best educational use of audio / video / visual / podcast

Bit by Bit

Alice Barr, Bob Sprankle, and Cheryl Oakes bring you a podcast each week for tips and discoveries for teaching and learning.

Best educational wiki

Mrs. Yollis’s Educational-Blogging Wiki

Continue learning from Linda Yollis to help your students become readers and writers of blogs.

Best open PD / unconference / webinar series

CR20 Live

Classroom 2.0 Live, Saturdays at 9:00 am Pacific will provide anyone who attends with the knowledge and skills to become 21st Century learners and teachers.  If you can’t make the live sessions, watch the recorded versions on iTunesU.

Best educational use of a social network

Write Out Loud

Amy Cobb leads a team of  class bloggers who found each other at Quad Blogging. Her creative use of technology has inspired the students in the teams to learn about blogging, technology, reading, and writing. Check out her blog to learn how blogging helps students learn and collaborate using digital citizenship.

Lifetime achievement

Miss W, or Sue Wyatt, middle school teacher extraordinaiire, has led thousands of teachers and students into successful blogging, helping them reach lifelong achievements.

I thank and honor each of the individuals who provided so many ideas and resources that helped my teaching and learning. Please add them to your resources!

Build your PLN. Add to the community. Who else will you nominate?

Quad Blogging Format

We’ve been on a fantastic journey this year. Part of that journey has truly inspired us: Quad Blogging! We are a team of four schools, with one school taking the lead in posting for the week, and the other classes commenting on their focus. Then the next school takes the lead, and the others comment.

We have been honored to work with three fantastic schools — with terrific teachers and sensationally creative students!

The four teams are:

http://classroom244.edublogs.org/

Brigantine Middle School, New Jersey, USA http://www.brigantine.atlnet.org/

http://kidblog.org/Yr7QBsFriday/

Humphry Davy School, Penzance, Cornwall, England. http://www.humphry-davy.cornwall.sch.uk

http://writeoutloud.edublogs.org/

Shorecrest Preparatory School, St Petersburg, Florida, USA. http://www.shorecrest.org/

http://eagleswrite.edublogs.org/

Nespelem School, Washington District, USA. http://www.nsdeagles.org/

I would like to thank our team members for sharing such creative topics — our students have been totally engaged, and have asked to use their ideas in our writing lessons.  Let me share what has encouraged our writers:

 Anti-Bullying Comic Strips

http://classroom244.edublogs.org/quadblogging/

Brigantine North Middle School in Brigantine, NJ.

Ms. Ruthann Meyer’s students studied bullying prevention and taught us how to prevent bullying and how to help victims by creating comics at Bitstrips. Our students decided we needed to learn more, and we should create our own. That’s what we are working on now. Thank you, Ms Meyer and students, for teaching us, and providing us with a new writing project that will help our school, and allow us to help others.

Word Clouds

http://kidblog.org/Yr7QBsFriday/author/mrsrawlings/

Humphry Davy School, Penzance, Cornwall, England

Year 7 students and their teacher Mrs. Rawlings at Humphry Davy School taught us about Word Clouds and helped us to learn more about each other. Students input aspects of their lives to create word clouds of their personalities — we called them Wordalities.  We started in Google Docs, and input into the Wordle. When we started our Veterans Day writing, two students, Rista and Kimy, created another wordle project and asked students to join in. We wrote our Veterans Paragraph (a contest sponsored by the Nespelem American Legion Auxiliary) and input them into Wordle, which we then placed into a Google Presentation with the essays as a tribute to honor all veterans. You can see it here in our Veterans Day post.

Magic !

http://writeoutloud.edublogs.org/

http://writeoutloud.edublogs.org/2011/10/29/strange-and-magical/

Shorecrest Preparatory School, St Petersburg, Florida, USA

Seventh grade English teacher, Amy Cobb, and her students provided a fun and creative writing assignment for us in their blog post, Strange and Magical. Students wrote about the usual objects that were actually magical, according to their imaginations! Amy is also our leader in Quad Blogging; she keeps us inspired and motivated.

 Inspiring Writers and Digital Citizenship

Thank you, Mrs. Rawlings, Mrs. Cobb, and Ms. Meyer, and all the students for helping us become better readers, writers, and digital citizens. We are proud to be part of this team. And since this is Thanksgiving week, we thank you!

If you want to inspire students, join next year’s Quad Blogging!  Will you?

What is this?

Another interesting creature that can survive the cold: waterbears !

Videos (follow the link)

Facts and Videos

Facts and Videos

Read the info, and let us know: what are three interesting facts about waterbears in the cold of the Arctic or Antarctic?

How do the organisms survive, and how do the scientists study them?

I the previous post, Jeff Bowman explains how in the petals of the Frost Flower, life can survive in the Arctic ( Science Article and Diigo Notes — sign in) and in the Antarctic (Science Article and Diigo Notes ).
But how do the bacteria live in what is now a much more salty habitat?

Let’s think about how these small, microscopic creatures live by first learning about diffusion and osmosis.

Osmosis
oz-moh-sis

“the process that causes a liquid (especially water) to pass through the wall of a living cell”

Diffusion
dih-fue-shun
“to spread out : to move freely throughout a large area” [from high concentration (lots) to less concentration (little)]

Video Explanation

These microscopic creatures must adapt their osmotic process to this new saltier environment, and Jeff and Shelley must create an environment that keeps this “osmotic” balance.

When Jeff and Shelley want to study these frost flowers and the creatures within them, they must allow them to melt in very salty water: “If you take these bacteria from their salty environment and place them in fresh water they will suddenly take in a lot of water and pop!…The bacteria might be living at a salinity of 150 ppt (parts per thousand), about five times the salinity of the ocean.  The melted ice might have a salinity of only 10 ppt.  So to keep the cells in sea ice from lysing (a fancy word for bursting) we have to melt the ice into water that is very, very salty.”

1. What is one part of the life of these microscopic organisms?
2. What do Jeff and Shelley need to do to study them after collecting them from the sea-ice?
3. Why is this important again?

How does something live in this very cold area?

Jeff Bowman explains how in the petals of the Frost Flower, life can survive in the Arctic ( Science Article and Diigo Notes — sign in) and in the Antarctic (Science Article and Diigo Notes ).

Open the notes, and see how the text connects to this summary:

Seawater turns to ice at -1.8° C
The ice has two parts: fresh ice crystals and salty liquid water
The ice crystals make the structure of the flower.
With more cold, more crystals form with less liquid.
Anything in the ice that isn’t water is forced out into the liquid.
The salt, the organisms, and anything else moves into the liquid.
The organisms must be able to live in this very salty liquid (called brine)– pockets of life in Frost Flowers on sea-ice.

1. Can you draw a series of pictures with labels to show this?
2. What is this important?  Take a look at Antarctic Wildlife to infer why.

Next post: How do the organisms survive, and how do the scientists study them?

Antarctic News 2

Look at the frost flower sample taken by the Jeff Bowman team in Antarctica here. One possible life form is the bacteria, polarbacter. What do they look like?

Image source: Gosink, Woese and Staley. Int. J. Syst. Bacteriol. 1998 48:223-235.

How about algae?

http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/images/diatoms_in_the_ice.jpg
http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/essay_krembsdeming.html

And sea-ice diatoms?

http://spg.ucsd.edu/antarcticareu/Pics/wildintrocss/phyti.jpg
http://spg.ucsd.edu/antarcticareu/wildlife.htm

Answer: And why are these creatures, some of whom are phytoplankton, important?
Antarctica Wildlife

Phytoplankton Info NOAA
eoearth

We are fortunate to have the inside scoop on a Jeff Bowman’s research expedition to Antarctica.

What does Antarctica look like? What lives there? Look at these from National Geographic:

Video

Maps

Doesn’t this look like a desert ice fern?

Frost flowers? Take a look at these frost flowers from the Arctic and now look at the frost flower sample taken by the Jeff Bowman team in Antarctica here. In 2009, Jeff collected samples from the Arctic (image).

Is there life in these “petals?” What do you think?

What events and people brought smiles to you this summer?

Think about your summer days: walking around town in blistering heat or pouring rain with friends; splashing through the waves to the dock; catching the biggest trout; screaming through Tremors Roller Coaster; helping Gramma and hearing her stories.

Make a list. Use active words (walking, splashing, catching, etc.).

Share your list with a partner; you may be reminded of more to add while you share. Revise your list for more action words– what else could you change or add to create a mind movie for your reader?

Write the word ‘smile’ vertically on your paper (your journal would be a great place for this). You can write the letters slightly indented, in case you need to add words before the letter. Look at your list. How can you fit five of those smiling events to include the letters, SMILE? Which would you include? Star them. Now, what else would clarify the event? Add details (5Ws: Who What When Where Why). Remember to change the names to protect the innocent and guilty.

S

M

I

L

E

Use the letters to write a poem of the events or people that brought you joy this summer.  Here’s mine:

Summer swimming and splashing in cool lake waters and stomping in the simmering sand

while walking Pooka and Munching on peanut butter and celery with family for fun at the beach;

watching Interesting movies like Avatar and Star Trek when the rain pounds the pavement outside;

Listening to stories and laughing together with grandkids;

Everyone hugs, happy to gather together again.

Take your time — be an author. What can you remember about writing elaboration strategies? Try these: add details and strong verbs. Include alliteration (examples: stomping in the simmering sand; pounds the pavement). Share with a partner for help.

When your poem is ready, go to our Google Form. Enter the S M I L E of your summer joys. When everyone has shared their poem, the survey summary will show everyone’s SMILE anonymously. What similarities and differences do you notice? Who can create a class poem?

Think about the writing skills we practiced/reviewed already:

• Write about what you know
• Prewrite and brainstorm
• Peer feedback
• Predraft
• Revise
• Vivid Verbs
• Nifty Nouns
• Details (5Ws)
• Alliteration
• Poetry

Think about what we learned about each other. What was similar or different?

What did you learn?  What did you like? What else could be improved next time to make the project better?

Welcome to our always asking, What Else? classroom.