Brandes,+Kellie

= Blog It. =

Lesson Plan
Grade Level: 5-6 Curriculum Area: Social Studies Duration: 2-3 (35 minute) periods, weekly maintenance

Students will be able to:
 * Student Goal:** In pairs, the students will create and maintain a blog.
 * Student Outcomes**
 * create a blog.
 * post to the blog.
 * reply to at least two classmates' blogs.

News is everywhere, but how often do we look to our students for reactions or insight regarding all the happenings among and around them? This blog project will serve as an outlet for sharing, authoring, questioning, collaborating. Students (in pairs) will be asked to write 1-4 thoughtful paragraphs about a specific article or story in the day's newspaper. Ideally, the blog should end with a questions, posed to readers, that might encourage responses. The blog should be maintained with new posts on a weekly basis.
 * Project Description**


 * Prerequisite Skills**
 * a foundational knowledge of basic computer functions
 * the ability to navigate the Web
 * grade level writing and editing skills
 * List Materials**
 * computers with internet access (enough for one for each blogging pair)
 * a word processig application (Word or Pages)
 * newspapers (unless reading online)


 * Project Steps**
 * 1) Share with students the idea of blogging. Discuss the point of the blogs they will create.
 * 2) Show samples of student blogs.
 * 3) Discuss online safety. (Parents sign a district AUP at the start of the year. Permissions are granted or denied.)
 * 4) If one is available, show an online safety video.
 * 5) Discuss rules and parameters for blogging and replying to posts.
 * 6) Create blogs together, following prompts and filling the necessary sections.
 * 7) Using the pre-selected newspaper article, students should now construct a blog post. Include in the post: a breif summary of the article, thoughts and reactions, and a final question.
 * 8) If time permits, read a classmate's blog and post a reply.

ISTE [|NETS for students] : 1. a; 2. a; 5. a,b,d
 * Standards**

**Assessment:** Rubric Go to Grading Rubric.