Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Miguel's 2nd Grade Writing Lesson Plan

Miguel's lesson plan using blogs seems like a good way to introduce young students into the field of blogging. However, there are a few things that I would change about his plan. First of all, towards the end of the lesson plan, it says that students will vote on the poem they like best and then assess their peer's work. Although I have never worked with second graders, it seems to me that they might be too young to judge each other's work. I fear that kids would not know how to give constructive criticism. Secondly, it often seems that incoroprating technology into lesson plans can end up taking lots of time. Having to sign in each child to his or her blog may take valuable time away from teaching. I have observed that both teachers and students get frustrated in lessons that require so much individual attention.

Finally, while I am a proponent of using technology in the classroom, I also have my reservations about children and blogging. I believe that it should be introduced at an older age because more and more children are becoming addicted to computers and video-games as their free-time activities. Yes, technology has added so much to our society, but I believe that it can also be detrimental to human interaction-- especially among children who have grown up with it. I believe that too much time spent on the computer could reduce children's desire to read literature in old-fashioned print. I am not trying to bash blogging and technology, but I am also cautious about the number of assisgnments I would use the Internet and blogging as a main component.

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