I could go on and on reading these blogs and linking to others. As I read them, it struck me that some are like a conversation. You can express your thoughts and opinions in an informal way. In addition, you can link with those who have similar interests. I love the idea of connecting with my students. At our school, we have a book club that meets every week. We are in the process of setting up our blogs. We can then discuss our readings outside the meetings. I love the idea of interacting with our students this way.
As I read the different blogs, I connected to "Why I Don't Assign Homework". I struggle with the concept of homework for our students. I know there are parents who request it but I agree with Dan Meyer. Students who are motivated will return their work while those who are not as motivated, will not. Unfortunately, those are the students that need it the most. They are also the ones who have the least amount of parental support. It is my job to figure out how to motivate the students to want to return their homework.
I also liked the blog, SSR, 2.0. He discusses the change of what we are reading. He even admitted to reading everything but books. By reading blogs and searching the internet, reading the news from the internet allows you to cover so much more. I even find myself listening to books on my IPod to save time. My concern though, is that we might not return to reading books for the rich language that we find in them.
I liked his idea of reading blogs during the SSR time. They could comment on what they read during computer lab or at home.
I love the countless links that can take us anywhere. I agree with Pithy Thoughts, I want to become a professional reader as well.
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I like your blog, and I love your avatar! I want to be where she is!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about your fear of losing the rich language of written books. I know from the extensive amount of time I listen to audiobooks I've gained an auditory appreciation for language, its cadence and so forth, but sometimes I notice my written skills flagging a little -- all of which tells me both are important, but I need to pick up an actual book a little more! The visible literature is every bit as important as the auditory. And as for reading just blogs, newspapers, etc. -- there are SO many studies on the lack of rich language in conversation or television. If blogs are written conversationally, as they are intended to be, then there's a lot of vocabulary that's left out. Can you imagine where we would be fifty years from now if we didn't supplement our blog reading with real literature? That's the stuff of science fiction. I hope it's not the reality of our future.