Get Your Blog While It is HOT!

So the recipe for baking blogs is only getting better with practice. In this post, it is getting better because I have found a secret recipe I want to try to move from Easy Bake Oven Blogs closer to the souffle baking I mentioned.

As discussed in earlier posts, students tend to not engage critically and the full extent possible with blog discussions. They seem to be engaging on the lower end of the thinking spectrum. Then I began to wonder, maybe it is not entirely the students’ faults. They are only engaging as far as their teachers are pushing them. I came across the article HOT Blogging: A Framework for Blogging to Promote Higher Order Thinking without really searching for it. Maybe it is a sign or at least a potential solution or method to enhancing the blogging experience in relation to building literacy, particularly critical literacy. In the article, Lisa Zawilinski outlines four steps “that integrates both traditional reading comprehension skills and the new, higher order thinking skills often required during online reading comprehension” (8). It is called HOT blogging because it promotes Higher Order Thinking. The four steps are outlined below:
1. Bolster the Background: A teacher posts activities and questions on the blog for the purpose of building background knowledge about what students are reading/studying etc. Students read online to “locate, critically evaluate, synthesize information, and communicate their ideas by posting what they have found to the blog, inviting others to comment” (8).

2. Prime the Pump: Students think about the background they have built and their initial interpretations of the text being discussed. Some examples are: their confusions, connections to self, other texts or world, or their impressions. A final aspect is to require students to read the posts of other students in order to prepare for a discussion. It is suggested that student have to oral share the ideas of others instead of their own. This hold students accountable for reading and considering the comments of their classmates.

3. Continue the Conversation: “Students begin to summarize and synthesize understanding across multiple textual units” (9). Using graphical organizers is suggested to help students create new ideas. Some sample prompts or areas of the graphic organizer can include:

• Student’s initial comment on the blog
• Two comments from other students
• Notes from the discussion
• “How do my ideas differ/similar to those of my peers?”
• “What new ideas do I have about the text?”
• Based on the last two sections, combine to write a new idea. (Synthesis across multiple texts).

4. Make Multiplicity Explicit: “By inviting students to read, think, and comment on the classroom blog, you make multiplicity explicit” (10). When engaging with various ideas, students are supported in thinking deeply about the positions of others. As students encounter various perspectives, they will see the importance of supporting their own ideas with examples.

Obviously, these steps are cyclical and need to be repeatedm, especially steps 2-4 so that ongoing discussion can occur.

I guess only time will tell if HOT blogs stay warm or cool quickly out of the oven, I mean classroom.