Blogs are helpful resources to use as students and teachers because they provide access to a wide audience of readers as well as a diverse array of authors. They set a forum for written interaction on a global scale that supports a sharing of information and culture among users.
One way in which this is helpful for students is in that it allows them to access texts written from a global standpoint. As mentioned in the video Blogs in Plain English, websites like technorati.com and blogsearch.google.com give students a search engine to find blogs on topics of interest from a variety of multicultural perspectives. Put simply, blogging opens up new audiences for the writer and new authors for the reader. This can be used to help students explore these authentic texts to assess how they fit into a multifaceted and multilayered approach to a topic around the world.
Blogging can also be useful for professional development because it creates a community of learners online. More experienced teachers can share what has worked for them and give insight into effective strategies for ESL classrooms while new teachers are given a forum to reflect on their own practices and perhaps receive constructive feedback from their fellow professionals. This feedback can be useful in not only improving current techniques but for affirming positive ideas and providing support.
STANDARD 2:
Students will listen, speak, read, and write in English for literary response, enjoyment, and expression.
Performance Indicator for Commencement Grades 9-12:
1. Read, listen to, view, write about, and discuss a variety of texts from a wide range of authors, subjects, genres, cultures, and historical periods. Such sources include poems, stories, myths, fables, plays, novels, and other fiction and nonfiction texts, in authentic and modified forms including works of American popular culture. (L, S, R, W)
Based on the NYS English as a Second Language Learning Standards
Very nicely done. Besides the good content it was a pleasure to read your blog post because you a have a facility for writing.
ReplyDeleteI like your idea that students have a global standpoint. It is true that not only students but teachers can access blogs written by people all around the world. This is helpful for an international perspective. A very useful communication tool!
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