I just finished today’s blog entry at my middle school library’s literary blog site about today’s Library Literary Lab and now, using the exact same software (WordPress) and an identical interface, I am posting on ALSC’s blog, as a contributing blogger from the School Library field. So, I guess it is fitting to just show everyone what I and my students have blogged in the last few months.
My own reading log is here: Fairrosa’s Reading Journal which I only recently started posting thoughts about literature on top of short notes on books I read.
At school, The Reading Nook is my literary blog, open to anyone in the Dalton community but is most often used as where my students post their finished assignments. This year, the 7th graders are asked to post their Young Adult reading assignments directly on The Reading Nook. Here’s a sample of their responses and my feedback. If you’re interested, take a look at the actual YA genre assignment.
This fall, I am running a Monday afternoon Library Literary Lab for 6th graders who are interested in reading and sharing their reading experiences. (Lab, at Dalton, is a period of time that students are responsible for their own academic and personal persuits. Many use it to meet with teachers, study, or work on projects, but often they also come to the library to read or to check out books.) We’ve had a few really exciting meetings, and they are all documented on the blog site as well.
I have yet to see a lot of commenting back and forth amongst students but will think of ways to encourage positive feedbacks for a future project. Right now, I am just having a blast with this easy-to-use tool as a way to convey information to my students and to encourage them to write about their own literary experiences. Hopefully, The Reading Nook will really be a corner in cyberspace where “the readers’ minds meet and enrich each other’s experiences.”
Teresa Walls
As a former English teacher who had students write reading responses in composition journals that I had in three heavy crates, I love your use of the WordPress with your students. I also like your clear assignments. Thanks for sharing these blogs and activities with us.
I believe adding a response component within the next assignment is a great way to get them to respond to each other and, in that way encourage them to think more critically about what they are reading. Many of the questions might have to do more with plot than you might want, unless the person commenting has read the same book.
Have you invited other teachers or parents to comment and share their reading?