10 places to find reading and writing resources for primary school learners – part 1

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><i>Submitted by Fiona Beal</i><br /><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">One of my passions is developing reading and writing in kids. Nowadays the web is full of the most amazing sites – is it any wonder that some of us feel that free internet should be a basic human right!  Today I came across some amazing new sites and thought they would be great to share in a blog post.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;">I have written two previous posts about reading resources for primary school learners so would like to add the links to those in case you are interested in looking them up:</span><br /><br /><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="http://e-blogschool.blogspot.com/2012/01/bring-technology-into-your-foundation.html" target="_blank">Bring technology into your Foundation Phase reading lessons</a></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://e-blogschool.blogspot.com/2012/01/12-more-places-to-find-reading-material.html" target="_blank">12 more places to find reading material for Foundation Phase learners </a></span></li></ul><span style="font-size: small;"></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">1. Share what you are reading</span></b></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b> </b><a href="http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/swyar/">http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/swyar/</a></span></div><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgddjT76h4VEamggHHVKo4ALH79hrOeG4AIJf6ugR0N8bVIG-iJhvjNX1GJpJBsU8qmUX452efCFkYJJlKvEL5QIrkWm1WSS9KY5WfhXWPy6yABeKwRmzkEF18cFvwae7i0oSvcWr6D7-I/s1600-h/image2.png"><img alt="image" border="0" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg64LNH3exJyCH4pafz_DEVLwEU7JdpDNGeLfcPJ3Te15O_uIoFEhff3XYZ0vRdeaY14-80tPetkpO5arr0hdlnZM9aP68fNbJSk3Vdf1mVuJR92uOoerVnoSHr6YyNmK3GA63oXb6qYNE/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="244" /></a>  <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuB9OERkSmkfGk0YKKs3MKBrfI_xNgIgXT8PL_p4dy6CurEo19aY0SKuwbEX5_DQ4QrBxc4GwNZuOrzMeLaTiWYfyDRhS1GOp1fCnfKv3v0QZY11DXfySI2JD0GMed8bxlh0jNPaZG4dM/s1600-h/image5.png"><img alt="image" border="0" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG1iGl7_5YlyNm1-ltEnxNER3dQWfO_X6BdTl17GHldX19oaxhNs-wIfI0kOGJF0LilCWwhL_Rz-Y0TI79zSiuaWChWl0fRYeeExHTp72cJyLM1ybREaw00tS6iT7q-gMBqEc2BSBoYKM/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="244" /></a><br /><br /><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">This is a great site where children can write reviews about their favourite books - fantasy novels, biographies, mysteries, sports... They can then also  share with other students what they are reading and discover new books based on other kids' recommendations.</span></div><span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <br /><div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>2. Children’s books forever</b></span> </div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.childrensbooksforever.com/">http://www.childrensbooksforever.com/</a></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii49UnEverBRstE5VPVtqcEATbtPUWapdo-nxNFo8q5QP_5PLiosj8bhD7gdHY1tjbvbMQ6IUOlkBeCAigDt9RK017xfu8yPxFvMfLdS6bTBy_jP_39qnrW6xxXjAkzDxcUbM2ni96Yzc/s1600-h/image61.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="98" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG5c8nuXO_GilLFmmF9iVJh64Adn0rdtiiFrKoreAeGj4SMG2LK4_yI0UV6gARbzTXuL5EqcnFikipiDyGhknQI0WvNKPGrcuYrTWo97myzQFXK29zsWoAJIo1HkTAocaMj1Wu1JHylRo/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">This site features free and children’s books written by  Frans Wilhem. As I was paging through the site I recognised the Waldo books. </span></div><br /><div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">3. McGenius</span></b></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://meegenius.com/store/books/free/">http://meegenius.com/store/books/free/</a></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4qMDnxOyoK1YbIZ8XI0tV0GMdm6VT0YG5SkM3n8-bZ4onHzlY8alZzH0zdZQRuo49M9s8kCjSKT9uA_VPkxNBxSAFtGvgDqe_68f8m8TVM0ifYoUccZok5MJ5Cz-GifLbyyGpEbW97u8/s1600-h/image13.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="64" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8jTo4FG1s82VimJS3sYN10kwqrEv0uf1KuQb_9U7YpgQsmcrsxuzzjZ9JOlgjWRwggdXkSzr_M3Z3siGAPp8styyy1Kv1xO8KUFjmg7YwokB6vtg9YQBKQjs0ufXX7tnWmn59p94fiwU/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">This is a site that has free and paid resources. One really good feature is that the books have  automatic word highlighting to accompany the narration of each book so that the readers can follow along.</span></div><br /><div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>4. The Woodlands Junior School website</b></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/interactive/onlinestory.htm">http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/interactive/onlinestory.htm</a></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmSfaboaLPCwfl6kubsNKmUiJKVMoFuoMhjRFOz0jBoz2PaLQHhWty7JKu_IazPPXTkpxeTNo4bLlp66JuUIzaEozZYrDVduaBNcJpqoWPaIVJaKAH46C9gKBKj7YFFCWc0CPgvhhzwYQ/s1600-h/image17.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="87" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA-xuIW1T2p_43RMq6Vs_Y7_7ssTHmurK3atjYfNdXLuc9q0y-s65j6edEYwzWw6pCAgur8ZhD2WMETKbdadNDZOwNEPwJDmJkJNddnWyKXDOWQhQLMmh3PViSIG9kGDC7erX4KBH5nc8/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">This site is a good place to find educational games for elementary age students. They also have a great collection of links to free online talking storybooks.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>5. Magic keys</b></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.magickeys.com/books/"><span style="font-size: small;">http://www.magickeys.com/books/</span></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyiQRjxEfeV1MBm-mFLUjNs7xrKUeC80lHuP2w7U27CZaYDHVDHy8wn4k1nidYXgfhPMey3HNZMAsN71Svwboptdl9reeJysWau6KFeoeTMDBaNTBbrBH0GWpCsNoBlE8ZxlrLkGip79c/s1600-h/image23.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZBYvxpR0Qrj4J2kytkhjw9o-qBmfa4CnKKN9zeJteIFDo2Aucakw7Yhj8A-hbmQn2VQ-RpmmSOJG487Vqs1IlwID0cSJRmnJq9lW3CJ9nWf011u0jJCf4zhR2Uh6u3oUUaO_aw2kkAYA/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Here is another site with a good collection of talking picture books for children.</span> </div><br /><div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>6. Skype an author network</b></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://skypeanauthor.wetpaint.com/">http://skypeanauthor.wetpaint.com/</a></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB0QT5zy_f823ZrP2F_AxpiUU6CXASZMRfr8ysROuHGOpVagX2urieMBNR_WOpBOTG7MO462lzB8pszSzhzyUmpMYyUdWyAfoDZK8zuzpgb7y4XnRGCYj5KkxSSy9WJ4AL948MwShNYOo/s1600-h/image241.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="58" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNMXd71CdE4eoWMOkP7aEcB7DLvvrgb1TXcHA3xP8WVDIh7uVH7uljbtD8TYC3lyUVyCZ0w_vqa_hfi8iB5gpeVq4gJ598ek7Imx4uAwDjqYRnQT6cnl9oTh68K-MK0zuvA0LbtmSSF4E/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="260" /></a></div><br /><br /><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">This is a fantastic way to bring authors into your classroom – arrange a Skype meeting with an author. The site gives directions for authors and directions for teachers.</span> </div><br /><div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>7. You are what you read</b></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="http://youarewhatyouread.scholastic.com/kids/"><span style="font-size: small;">http://youarewhatyouread.scholastic.com/kids/</span></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh88neGZgwlmrKKWD2ynSlYKrw4L6aWwJ5pNaYowoGuloIEcWkGeK9gSl4nbPxNv9jhHNHZRiMWVLHI7B9oLtHj82fq96FDIoB3VVTtfJRGhFL0fPfDyaMJQJIvOoRYteyb6FOLc7eXR2w/s1600-h/image29.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtqAD_YOrH0gHemen1gg2ryd24tk-dFsKehhe0zKOrfHl9MnxKvXT2Bkif7f-QdXpXh8jSOBAZQJZ4yEezEGpsJTekKl5mTFe5Y7xLtpP8sAAlaTxfv9OA-nG1zSioBvHZ60cpI2M1aI8/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="244" /></a></div><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;">This is a place where kids can share information about their favourite books. After creating a simple profile <i>You Are What You Read</i> asks participants to name the five books that mean the most to them.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><b>8. Scholastic’s summer challenge</b></span><br /><a href="http://www.scholastic.com/summer/"><span style="font-size: small;">http://www.scholastic.com/summer/</span></a><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8m9Rjm4q4HyyNmZEDnDIXIcaPVdkIE4wNuYIJk34FPyBbMjgEYrohtdyzsajZh9DG5r0GQhhkBMQ4-K55JVHEPU8wBT9TJcQ8YRPFlMcjxQL8-O22RjWg4d0cu0UImz09vIoxVbfo9xs/s1600-h/image32.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="80" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg8vCwsi-v3-IsSglaWKJUyymbNewZvktzDFFyQ5qBn3XQ_C3VBts8dCuhhmENmZk0LLj6u_Vjfgj8jnbwJbpnGHDk2nUn2KYlwB3zXxpEbxR26PiUHHJ9-4bVwEvyWPiF0x8yOyAKaFo/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="244" /></a></div><br /><br /><div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">9. International children’s digital library</span></b></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="http://en.childrenslibrary.org/books/index.shtml"><span style="font-size: small;">http://en.childrenslibrary.org/books/index.shtml</span></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGgPjz9A1ZVjLWugmOFfOdS4eb1q6ViKUQ7lSNjns4INJSrh3BayQW34UE6_39DGfvzLVjsO4hzG8g2ytvYtYzDOZ1FZgRWw0MTLf9wsLPScI4nrRs5uVrEO6W69oJMe9Ak9PhHvks-RI/s1600-h/image35.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="50" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAJ6zqdr5Y5D1Ezw3QHpyWinIGVA854cRXoWBP4CMgLMjpFyqnEyODYBHijFQXCH5h0CO1Xzlk8N7Iiy8f3hTdDsqkf6jPg8u3ElYw8ACEkLat514nVegJiDVltKZ0CSwvy8iRDVsi6yg/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="244" /></a></div><br /><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Read books written by authors of all cultures. This site has a wide selection of reading material. </span></div><br /><div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">10. Character scrapbook</span></b></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2012/02/character-scrapbook-tool-for-student.html">http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2012/02/character-scrapbook-tool-for-student.html</a></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0WzYo2pl25PPjEjKf7e2eJei3XZkca92qpPjWdSaD3rOOwLSgM1bGk9jCJ63NxN4gVfLzIIiDtS8drlp6_b6JWqnpKarhkxtqfio1lKnZpdXvD7Rej8z5NRilmr3858fubrDJhYCeFvY/s1600-h/image38.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfTg_NVAbgVmTqH7nghWeYZWZMrkzLr7Qpuqdc12OEZ22aDej0AbnDS2yUHe4La6_s2xjwRQNrxzR5ILV8WMh6vZFRJogPl4JFgupaoXfVgWNzyeCJRkjFQPViaaCfw0t8zV3KxXVvkQE/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="244" /></a></div><br /><br /><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">This site has a template that elementary school students can use to write about and reflect on the characters in their favourite stories.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">This is just a start! Watch this space for another ten amazing reading and writing resource site - coming soon! </span></div></div>

Creative writing English Literacy Reading 10 places to find reading and writing resources for primary school learners – part 1

Submitted by Fiona Beal One of my passions is developing reading and writing in kids. Nowadays the web is full of the most amazing sites – i...

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Create a blogging culture in your English classroom

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Recently I created a Slideshare called ‘Your blog can be a fantastic teaching tool’ and I wrote from the standpoint of the teacher using a blog to teach.  </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">I posted this in an earlier blog post. Here it is just as a reminder. </span></span><br /><br /><div id="__ss_10644966" style="width: 425px;"><b style="display: block; margin: 12px 0 4px;"><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/fionabeal/a-blog-can-be-a-fantastic-teaching-tool" target="_blank" title="A blog can be a fantastic teaching tool ">A blog can be a fantastic teaching tool </a></b> <iframe frameborder="0" height="355" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/10644966" width="425"></iframe> <br /><div style="padding: 5px 0 12px;">View more <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/" target="_blank">presentations</a> from <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/fionabeal" target="_blank">fionabeal</a> </div></div><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Today’s post examines how a blog can be very beneficial to the students in a classroom, and in this case, an English classroom.  </span><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Create a blog for yourself and for your students</b></span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">One of the best ways to start transforming your classroom is to first create your own blog and then let the students create theirs. Link their blogs to yours by using a blog roll</span>.  <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Look at the example from Mrs Albanese's class. </span></span><span style="font-size: small;">Here is the perfect example of the students blogs listed down the side. This is very important because often you want the students to comment on each other’s postings and this way is easy because they simply visit your blog and easily find the rest of the students' blogs. <br /><a href="http://mrsalbanese.edublogs.org/">http://mrsalbanese.edublogs.org</a></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIPw1ufNvOVH7oy8VyRoQw8K1UW2Hcj-6kloR56cI7kk4wFuQ2Pr7OEjNzwtIZ0zttVSg2QIeDkalu7ii63pKbWxnPRoq0lBM9PDokdq_EQcJonBV3LaMq2ZgXjg0jT0zhS_pKYEd-SBE/s1600-h/image16.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV1VIGRvAzXMOe65ThWjKzYiC_RX_dttpcxBpZEQwkqHwZ3LgiTyGgyBtXOCUOswT49qV1eeHDEASLvr_6igL736iHdpwx0rvQxCeo8XD6qwTj5g2vkRfREmPQlGJNCz6SOlX5CTgW8hw/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"></span><br /><br /><div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Which blogging platform?</b></span></div><div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Naturally you want to use  platform that is safe, economical, spacious and attractive.There are many options but I will just mention four. </span></div><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><b>Edublogs</b></span></span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Now that Edublogs no longer has advertising on it it is a much better proposition to use. Edublogs provides a very small amount of storage space, so I pay for extra space yearly. You can then create student blogs yourself using something called <i>the gmail hack</i>, so that you have access to passwords. (The </span><span style="font-size: small;">Edublogger </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">is a great site with plenty of tips and tricks on how to do things like that) The only <span style="font-family: inherit;">problem is that Edublogs doesn’t allow much space on their free blogs for the learners. But it would probably do for a year of work.</span></span><br style="font-family: inherit;" /><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://bellbulldogreaders.edublogs.org/" style="font-family: inherit;">http://bellbulldogreaders.edublogs.org/</a></span></span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfXHVJPTmqUi4eis99Mlm71PTssSB7BiGWRdnJOM81rtvf39RUxRgbnHlsGftEVLYlUSZ5c0XK6Uc6JNBbjP0xBgE5ORPSM5358OuBO1JNXap-wsCurbtax9t3ivQ7h1vIL-lhuTYHUAk/s1600-h/image40.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ3bGVuKU5bqXsB0fgHSRipc5OAjwFF7CdtU_2KsKA2mQo-ff7gf_tWAaItUKoh4pINi90UBfLN4RcIv1DmZd_m0jHfI-EiUxeg7DljS2slond23nK1KFrF0BIEehqfbUKCSgwHjZdAaA/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="244" /> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Blogger<br /></b>I particularly love using Blogger for myself because it gives loads of free space and has a nice feel and touch. The templates are also very attractive. However, it is often felt to be unsuitable for students because of “the next blog” icon at the top. <br /><a href="http://mediaspecialistsguide.blogspot.com/">http://mediaspecialistsguide.blogspot.com/</a></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLu5kabwLa7IhZkclcgAo25bGsFtqIqOq1Uyz3dxXSAUr5uAnqD_68ygoAcHf_6xKQ9uao7PyQ8tzX5aHQkgnWEJvF5lxR4XzOddFVK-b81l06KT24-UO7FeM9FLMM_VEEoKIFTNKKBmg/s1600-h/image27.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvmXpZpfrfYfnXu7D62e6_XXBnznIIggixCVaV6IeEU0lwFMsJx5NDjKcVkTl7czHwTrGx9Q4Budm_xXZnjkqNOcPm3akMT4DamGB06bH6-_Rm4VgVv_PENZJvicpwuNoSNQWxUX98kJU/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><br /><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Posterous</span><br /></b>Some people rave about using Posterous blogs for collaborative projects. The reason for this is that you can send an email from anywhere to your posterous blog. It then becomes a draft ready for you to edit and publish. To get details for this look at: <a href="http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/28413/blog-from-anywhere-instantly-with-posterous/">http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/28413/blog-from-anywhere-instantly-with-posterous/ (</a>I have since discovered that you can also post to your blog using Blogger.) Here is an example of a posterous blog used for a global collaborative project.<br /><a href="http://kstadler.posterous.com/">http://kstadler.posterous.com/</a></span></div><br /><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Kidblogs<br /></b>There has been a lot of talk about Kidblogs being a safe and simple platform. The Kidblog ‘About page’ says “Kidblog allows teachers to monitor and control all publishing activity within the classroom blogging community.” </span><span style="font-size: small;">I haven’t personally used Kidblog, but it is supposedly really easy for creating a class blog and blogs for your students. Here is a post that tells more about the pros and cons of using Kidblog: <a href="http://blogallaboutit.edublogs.org/2010/04/23/kidblog-an-easier-alternative-to-blogging-with-elementary-students/">http://blogallaboutit.edublogs.org/2010/04/23/kidblog-an-easier-alternative-to-blogging-with-elementary-students/</a><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Here is an example of a kidlog <br /><a href="http://kidblog.org/MrsKolbertsClass2011">http://kidblog.org/MrsKolbertsClass2011</a></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7TolFNtLTtLOZTzKi_cVKy6nRWmQuHayvh7PXuiZHhIaRYB15yBtoUZbzl8JPEgV5gh7G3IAJrTUiOZAkJzUYRyCw-be1Wx18rv6pw9HJ0ELmd8kyPpmmNHsnY_E4aRmGJ0EpaD3CnLA/s1600-h/image30.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="207" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg4D68tNAFR5rE2x4CETqpz9fIGRDjbZGOVBzxBaopku-TiOfaLMbu_DviLg8EXmNwgE8cC3eyyj5JzbmZRi0Ir3ensc7n-R5rM5i3598u9WEsllG1igob1nMD4aihS7wmwl_AXvKjuVY/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="244" /> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Well, whatever platform you use, just do it! </span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></div><b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;">Can a blog really benefit an English class?</span><br /></span></b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">A blog can benefit any class...any subject. But today I am going to focus on English. I was quite inspired by a post I read recently on an English Teacher's blog (</span></span><a href="http://shelleywright.wordpress.com/2011/12/13/life-in-an-inquiry-driven-technology-embedded-connected-classroom-english/">http://shelleywright.wordpress.com/2011/12/13/life-in-an-inquiry-driven-technology-embedded-connected-classroom-english/</a>)<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"> - and this caused me to think about writing this post. </span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Well, I am sure you have plenty of ideas of what you can do with a blog in an English class. I will add ideas to these further along in this post.  It is certainly a fantastic way to get your students writing. To start off take a<b> </b>look at Mr Miller’s blog and see how he uses his blog for his English lessons. I like the way he also has a wiki to support the blog. In my thinking the two go together…<br /><a href="http://millersenglish10.blogspot.com/">http://millersenglish10.blogspot.com</a></span></span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><br /><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://mrsalbanese.edublogs.org/"></a></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: yellow; font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white;">Notice how the teachers in these blogs give regular detailed instructions to their students.</span><br /></span><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://student.sheboyganfalls.k12.wi.us/kajohnson/">http://student.sheboyganfalls.k12.wi.us/kajohnson/</a></span><span style="font-size: small;">  (her Grade 9 class)<br /><a href="http://msjohnson12.anewecology.com/">http://msjohnson12.anewecology.com/</a></span><span style="font-size: small;"> (Her Grade 12 class)<br /><a href="http://hoodsenglish.blogspot.com/" title="http://hoodsenglish.blogspot.com/">http://hoodsenglish.blogspot.com/</a></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiqMfnIIGiACUaZ4YWjRNScP1OYDsNPfnHkCwj6Tx-ioSkArjTcCjYbhiLEGCTWsOvoHjc-b2bDzZTQkkLniN0zm3v95U0VWcpm0yl2jaobPyHdYXs1O2WnEa04OPVRKo7xqYojCMvFRE/s1600-h/image33.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieHIfnB4vpdn3pzp_pBs7lhOpSnY_evUSGxR50nu-zXSuwDXBlYvTVxIxSNJERuPYaLpOYXFbpisJP7Eyag83EaVqhMQXvJiZxgyEkFUHJaGy-qF0E_SezIg17GM8EaltD98eMLqFRor4/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="244" /></a></div><br /><br /><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">This teacher directs her students to using web tools. <br /><a href="http://thelamppost.ca/" title="http://thelamppost.ca/">http://thelamppost.ca/</a></span></div><br /><div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>What activities can you do on a blog in an English class?</b></span></div><div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">As you know English has four main strands – reading, writing, language and listening and speaking.  </span><span style="font-size: small;">These can be beautifully incorporated into blogging. </span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">1. Let your learners answer questions and respond to prompts online. You could set a question on your blog and the learners can answer the question in your comment box. Notice how <i>The Hawks Talk</i> does this. <a href="http://stgeorgesenglish.com/"><span style="background-color: white;">http://stgeorgesenglish.com</span></a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"></span> <span style="font-size: small;">They can then extend the conversation by answering your next question or prompt and then post comments on each others blogs.</span></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">2. For literature lessons, invite an author to post on your blog and let the learners comment on this post.  This is a great way to have book discussions online. You could even try and organise a Skype interview with the author and let the slearners summarise this afterwards. There must be plenty of examples of Skype chats with authors, but here is a post about one with  Scientist.<br /><a href="http://techblog.stcyprians.net/index/skype-chats-with-scientists-by-ms-n-wallace">http://techblog.stcyprians.net/index/skype-chats-with-scientists-by-ms-n-wallace</a> </span><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">3. The learners identify and discuss the major points of a book, article, speech etc. </span><br /><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">4. The learners write good book summaries and assess others summaries using a rubric.  <br /><a href="http://lhsblog.edublogs.org/" title="http://lhsblog.edublogs.org/">http://lhsblog.edublogs.org/</a></span> <br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvsDBcgSUCkK6wl5d-aXiS7-S12NThPI-nh9O3Nabe16I4_cKWGys8RD1xz6_8fNrp81zL4vNKi0X13GjZY93TIn6iK2nN0N4HgFkcavlzPgSC5P7GNdmT-7pSHJl9aqw-mcWxHB8v-D4/s1600-h/image43.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix3moahLiXNQDo74h4_VOscur19fUa1HWaciuJq33GZk1awdNBEAs4RH25dwSl1jDOW-mIDlDBIFrnU3gv33mPGT6KzTjsIkq8Ucm8qFpYQq3-J6khxrPSeQC1b0iF9E8q9w_jr6y2m6o/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="244" /> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><span style="font-size: small;">5. Let the learners post reviews of movies, books, concerts, games etc regularly.</span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> <br /><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">6. Use a blog to archive daily class notes. You (or someone in the class) could post summaries on to your class blog. This will be helpful to students who may be absent.</span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span> </div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">7. For listening and speaking activities learners could use a MP3 player, read into it and then post it on the blog. They could concentrate on voice modulation, inflection, and tempo. The learners could then listen to each others’ speaking activities. You can virtually put anything on a blog. There’s a programme called embedit.in which gives anything the necessary HTML code which is necessary if you wish to include it on a blog or wiki</span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span> </div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">8. The learners could make presentations on different things and then embed their presentations on webpages. My Slideshare above mentions how useful Box.net is for this. </span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">9. They could learn about language conventions and then practise using the example on your blog.  You could post weekly exercises for them to do. The following is an old blog but it gives some ideas like this.</span> </div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://hargraves12.wordpress.com/">http://hargraves12.wordpress.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: small;">You could take this further and ask them to make podcasts and even slideshows of difficult conventions.</span></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT5E9VuH1A41ytnGYVjrHHvdTU5mYlOb6f8iSr1DcJ5-FPzfA-30LxrsRS7xbt7P1fclBCZ8zVGLKZV_g9Hzr3FzRNH9pdYIbnWIl9DVyD9TXbCK1di6wfU7_8xzFBibSHVellYEQ2dFc/s1600-h/image46.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="141" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD-NRlqxNo2WtA7YB6tlsHXrRC9tookHsqBERInaZh8gSGyQnpLKOfPzC_XSktFHWD1gJVAccAvg8W_GSr2hp0fR0TLwtiMGdhJQse9AgM6Eg3dwrcs4uV_WYY_QG0SQba2dywpB0tocY/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="244" /></a></div><br /><br /><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">10. As they read a novel prescribe blog prompts for them to respond to. </span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">11. They could paraphrase sections that you post on the blog.</span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span> </div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">12. You could teach the learners the structure of workplace documents and let them analyse them in terms of heading, font, pictures and readability etc. </span><span style="font-size: small;">They could make suggestions on how to improve them. </span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span> </div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">13. When starting a new theme create a “<a href="http://teachinghistory.org/teaching-materials/teaching-guides/21806">KWL chart</a></span><span style="font-size: small;">” on your blog. Have students blog about what they know, what they want to know, and eventually what they have learned. Students will be able to see other posts and scaffold their learning off the responses of others. As the educator, you can quickly assess, focus, and possibly redirect your unit to meet the specific needs of your students.<a href="http://teachinghistory.org/system/files/KWL+Chart+with+Knowledge+Questions.pdf">http://teachinghistory.org/system/files/KWL+Chart+with+Knowledge+Questions.pdf</a></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span> </div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">14. You could link documents to a folder in Box.net (also a free programme). </span><span style="font-size: small;">Notice how Mrs Lesniak does this. <a href="http://lesniakenglish.blogspot.com/" title="http://lesniakenglish.blogspot.com/">http://lesniakenglish.blogspot.com/</a></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglkdBtQ0oxrall9VJcOuJE2AyADJ3usv9r2WMUXGuNMBcxCLXiJdrcUCJmRejkvbrXsUD2DuMlFKd4FRvhiJjLWYq6luTm6uIs1syZbRV7Cpw7922n2sdG_0hJ4pHGdahwgY-5-4L-r-k/s1600-h/image49.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="182" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMfwZU43_53AasQsjMk6KaGNrSb3wYGYym8uvQe5MupowYCRGe5qi0DDcsTW5k3fJ0YSVSsC2MqfR09V5Qb3BYApTyJtO2fSC3mT5m0IqeGyb2q16OSKn1LTdB7Y5VOoW4T3MamH2Aq1w/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="244" /> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">15. On your blog you could communicate with parents about classroom news, policies and events. You could publish commendable student work, writing, photos, video etc.<br /><a href="http://bgenglish.blogspot.com/" title="http://bgenglish.blogspot.com/">http://bgenglish.blogspot.com/</a></span> <br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyFeMhBGlb92rwg9mUuxGASbJdEmXBHx7Hk1Ks-XLblVVFGkNeMTj1Two2Q0fkikp1NyhxUucDdCd9wwDQ_M-I5Nne0eSIjeyKdi5hMiHG9nQ23ByGk8nGDBc5QH4bbb-Eb9bPw2O4GuU/s1600-h/image52.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRYyyhaoRsE-n494i6ABtUGQ53rAeZI2LaCDx7TCnjlwSuZETaZkdcX_gW4lS4a6D38A_Hmm5iEl5HVAc-hbxyGY6I7JJZrxy5uNtLEkYGa0XP8EBhNA_sjtw4ZYh6X6JJPheDSauobuM/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="244" /></a></div><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;">16. You could use your blog as a place to reflect as well.<br /><a href="http://jimburke.typepad.com/" title="http://jimburke.typepad.com/">http://jimburke.typepad.com/</a><br /><a href="http://mtnbrookseniors.blogspot.com/" title="http://mtnbrookseniors.blogspot.com/">http://mtnbrookseniors.blogspot.com/</a></span> <br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> <br /><span style="font-size: small;">17. Your blog could be a blog of ideas for English teaching.<br /><a href="http://catlintucker.com/">http://catlintucker.com/</a></span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgypJyGIVIhw-cqlY04Bl7wrXp5sAofLaveeaxNldnnxqyMa4JXOSw5p4zSaI7GME5UG_dzhTRE-ykz2ku4jzVA0MFzwBZ8H4bXqiI4U1pcV_-tfgBwsEEk8mmk_7JaGSw-e3uCb3kBGGU/s1600-h/image56.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_5-ZzDIfO57Bfa25-FZBGcMB1MNMnGZnmH-YE0U9gL4pXtpSP100OCyiQWn59T_10EtTMNnpPYXC_LjtQiV8O7Q7clRXHs7I7_a8FdAtKFWsPUoEvNn1nO340WK9-d4xjK9ViG7mQpaU/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="242" /></a></div><br /><br /><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">18. The learners can write journal entries, essays and poems in their blogs. They could also write book reviews<br /><a href="http://josephr4.edublogs.org/2010/07/19/my-report">http://josephr4.edublogs.org/2010/07/19/my-report</a></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3BCfIxaKMWt3PgWpXWbbEEw2g8Kc69IL4Ns5mzhHfNDqd9Hgclt7gCwUfuRQYtljUCDDcFKLFSXY4kS7qAUMbrSvKCxhDusdgVg4mP1laZSY-PE92AnA23YR6pdYKrEUu9YolsMcZCFw/s1600-h/image8.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP-5ldpQ0h3iQff2TUFrypch9tYhgdu_fBgU5XcjVAMuosFy-00Cc5Ai8whwMLrJ9zwO1gHtdP2epmEakb0u064Wa9k8MGkFFm8YcJio36GV_t-HxRhQ3z2TI562pqktFLL8cMur6n2EU/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="244" /> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><span style="font-size: small;">Further down in the same blog – he relates his book review.</span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivLjcbQII82OH6xom0h6IVVqBRYed1tnU_L1hxGuZ2-52tnzGQuODg1Kx_njobhyphenhypheno7alHlYGonTbpiBfD2pCjcBU9vDyLcPSlZ5YXHF9wX-2ZL2SjxiT2vCKsMKWSTZ_FhbIb8vIo6rsE/s1600-h/image11.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizR14-VYGU7vciuMf432CcQtCtTyWC85GLBdYj8yV5XO8R80InbjlIJDvkW_gGenCCX1JcY6DRA3-hy0KRsnqDWWCj59y32k2FQhyphenhyphenUy6iS96Itr3nByTdfg_isLaKURerlH1eisHxyzDU/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="244" /> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Here are another two posts that give a lot of ideas about book reviews. </span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://mrschureads.blogspot.com/">http://mrschureads.blogspot.com/</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://theapple.monster.com/benefits/articles/8529-10-technology-enhanced-alternatives-to-book-reports">http://theapple.monster.com/benefits/articles/8529-10-technology-enhanced-alternatives-to-book-reports</a></span></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHcp92-YyqTqwoEmkhSLRkZDP03X9gmUjfKlpw2tZz5ofdyY7SE_2oCz4oQFjECV0XLiK2Y7Jxqfo6IM5qZXIcx3pRquK70b8_F6kdvVuttG5HJLcpJFZkO2hg-Kvc7HKztIJE_z6Y3Qw/s1600-h/image20.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir-eq-Ci-NqTakonuZhG7IIN0EDSpp_XMF93eLvTqBDDF2QXUWqDnMOudwFY7M05UrBqDEL9PC6upS5cS42th-UpUiSXEXcG6SmTz1mBWnGAilEGwI5tbQ_H3vtXDS1dC_tShWNta0FVs/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="242" /> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">19. Illustrate to the students how they can use technology on their blogs. You can do this by using screencasts on your blog or just be blog posts.<br /><a href="http://shelleywright.wordpress.com/">http://shelleywright.wordpress.com/</a></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span> </div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">20. Post homework in your blog. <a href="http://student.sheboyganfalls.k12.wi.us/aeharter/">http://student.sheboyganfalls.k12.wi.us/aeharter/</a></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">21. I love the way this teacher posts lesson ideas in his English blog<br /><a href="http://tefltecher.wordpress.com/">http://tefltecher.wordpress.com/</a></span></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYTJ5s3c-SYomq0bskwqkp2aM_Zc6jAOPNE1DjLrVP5zWSjNJc8qQ8SSAZHXh19G-wIEVwgxIimrsafwTqnK1YNpDGZ18iOrSWaTiVH-WOCzkUIXNJrxi-dG3lSVKK1eiUg29WlGhozQo/s1600-h/image23.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="143" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtjy7m-vh_OTexebAF6AteroNvcFpPqUP1zrEYGLSXevAwNUrIc9BVd4PA8ViUvotgXsrkaWyw17TArs3cSI5-_UFSEprREEdKclWvY67sFfmVqzyQmBMZHA31v7l6v4-VxfxlXZwyuEQ/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="244" /> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">22. One teacher I know of got her class to write a novel on a blog. This was eventually published. <br /><a href="http://5bwrites.blogspot.com/">http://5bwrites.blogspot.com/</a></span></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg88cxHvWRN0-uAcc3wXqDCHXl45qJowIB8yIuDzWqvr4tFiIDsIsDjG_MCVxddjoKkm0YK4_tQ1QII4mwXSZ6q1bEnBHiIDy5Y9mIGk4ncvsINoazax2cHjrvHxC-fUqoauo9D_uc3D-U/s1600-h/image2.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIhKbRgzPMy8DDQq2CQG-BOz6TbGuzZ7iZfpVuPicUn_ZcdWfNqzsb6cGXzE0yy_az0_3m6pFYpTZ6uRCmV25seKJwjOhlQ0Ke_JdGUEmInc0jsI8hjHaF55AYo9r4vzZ18hWoHmrxx98/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="244" /> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">23. They could create book trailers for their blogs.<br /><a href="http://www.booktrailersforreaders.com/Home+Student+Book+Trailers">http://www.booktrailersforreaders.com/Home+Student+Book+Trailers</a></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ0KNrvksSOag-vAxpIPmu7wVuTRdfHLnmWd10s7_ruVXyNcwN_qZBM76NCpSdDEhVSP6H9RJ664WVbjJjAkS7l6IkS8phMaLcZsvXcV7fE7IVt6bX82q8XUStY5bxl2b-t_EiLKfdKHg/s1600-h/image5.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="154" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCSVXkVlmHucWBXsphV3vjCSF_xIk3H47Eq7JY8BKU_WKyoTL49imaJVMs1iiH0C33hLAflhARuLOm9klqYSYnNGuOF_ANwVY_QjuE8D0AZiLurQzZOukxUx5H_2l4zri10aBL1K3DXZE/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="244" /> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: inherit; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Literature blogs</b><br /><a href="http://www.thebookchook.com/">http://www.thebookchook.com/</a><br /><a href="http://www.zencollegelife.com/50-best-childrens-literature-blogs/" title="http://www.zencollegelife.com/50-best-childrens-literature-blogs/">http://www.zencollegelife.com/50-best-childrens-literature-blogs/</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"><br /><a href="http://www.webenglishteacher.com/litcircles.html" title="http://www.webenglishteacher.com/litcircles.html">http://www.webenglishteacher.com/litcircles.html</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"><br /><a href="http://teachwithpicturebooks.blogspot.com/" title="http://teachwithpicturebooks.blogspot.com/">http://teachwithpicturebooks.blogspot.com/</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"><br /><a href="http://msdegenhardt.com/">http://msdegenhardt.com/</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span><span style="font-size: small;">(I like this teacher’s collage of books in her header)</span></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrZORvrtpGZXkDYDoD7RvGRiWDfPb1phvzNdcuawTlEPPeRKZe7OZplyhfTQ2gHiLWzqWzg7gV3ldv4YsG68uO54AyYDPb4NmpHgZ8RDiDiB4bQYAbiWJjwqeeHZ0ucuhr78V-aZUi9bg/s1600-h/image60.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsTeNaOZBKF0yWqMna78qrNQdakoy_mPIvG-yy_alodTGwMfdnAmxkRkcA3aBJm9FjICRWCmm4vHFhgQVAInICJlSLHZz9zELzHDDMa1jEG0CcUfJuWIcqxVGvOwKWgjv7TmV2l6lTV1E/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="242" /></a></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">24. Don’t forget about using a fake facebook page (template in Google Docs) which could be then embeeded into the blog. This teacher created a fantastic template last year in Google docs that he is willing to share.<br /><a href="http://www.teachthecloud.com/2011/02/historical-facebook-tutorial.html">http://www.teachthecloud.com/2011/02/historical-facebook-tutorial.html</a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0B3uy2d7pI5K6cMsvjFCtlEfxZYBl0qikhdJ3bufrw-dQK-0kAv9tBZky-xxphnB24thWwj8NwvAbCjzijIMW7dYoUu3xm6APg7w5N5z__EkAbehrt_hXJGAB7I5Ve61wS82qgTP10No/s1600-h/image%25255B4%25255D.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdFIvBq9DQF61KZ-HBxKxYR4U6qcgDoPjezKQen3BWX8QH3mB6vbcaDOiKDi6vARVSZIy6DtNJL3rlShQqHA_wcO2VdMyDrU_oUrJtza0KXD6P-VEMe0dX3IzIYfbcucOSi8129FBZ4_E/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;">Other useful links</span></b></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br /></b><a href="http://blogallaboutit.edublogs.org/2010/04/23/kidblog-an-easier-alternative-to-blogging-with-elementary-students/" title="http://blogallaboutit.edublogs.org/2010/04/23/kidblog-an-easier-alternative-to-blogging-with-elementary-students/"></a><a href="http://supportblogging.com/Links+to+School+Bloggers" title="http://supportblogging.com/Links+to+School+Bloggers">http://supportblogging.com/Links+to+School+Bloggers</a><br /><a href="http://student.sheboyganfalls.k12.wi.us/dehogue/">http://student.sheboyganfalls.k12.wi.us/dehogue/</a><br /><a href="http://englishwithlaura2.blogspot.com/" title="http://englishwithlaura2.blogspot.com/">http://englishwithlaura2.blogspot.com/</a><br /><a href="http://englishwithlaura4.blogspot.com/" title="http://englishwithlaura4.blogspot.com/">http://englishwithlaura4.blogspot.com/</a><br /><a href="http://englishteachinglab.blogspot.com/" title="http://englishteachinglab.blogspot.com/">http://englishteachinglab.blogspot.com/</a><br /><a href="http://www.huffenglish.com/" title="http://www.huffenglish.com/">http://www.huffenglish.com/</a></span><br /><br /><div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">A great source of ideas for English teachers</span></b></div><span style="font-size: small;"> <br /></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And to end off this post here is a fantastic Ning for English teachers which will undoubtedly have plenty of resources and ideas.</span><br /><a href="http://englishcompanion.ning.com/" title="http://englishcompanion.ning.com/">http://englishcompanion.ning.com/</a></span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfxE9lizA2t68P_Ejqpp220wAOwhTR7wMOupfjcLCz6e6nBn4q6L9NY5ctU_EJYwPdh_OXhyLaj0-Z2wTp3E-qmdrwRllysBIfqM1R1eZuqUN3zcJNdATvfZ2WqYezDOiasZRX7uiG3BM/s1600-h/image37.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="152" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_XtdJ3QgPhvFPgWXxeMeREJVnI7YBweDBFbG-qIUXOvHjQI2u5rO0NbC3nFBE7Gy7wt1vpVI5jLHZZtb7x7l9rh1BrXeOIYhBhshfh1G_ejwS7faO4gBbiEHR7ZGXS_hnhil05iLxSxM/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="242" /></a></div><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>

Blogging English Technology integration Create a blogging culture in your English classroom

Recently I created a Slideshare called ‘Your blog can be a fantastic teaching tool’ and I wrote from the standpoint of the teacher using a b...

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