Scaffolding for Struggling Students

Title: Scaffolding for Struggling Students
Author: Sara Kajder and Glen Bull

This article was about using blogging websites to enhance the education of students who are struggling with reading and writing in schools. I thought it was an amazing idea because many students have trouble writing formally and not in first person. By using blogs, the students can write about their thoughts and ideas in an informal setting, therefore the pressure of creating a perfect essay is taken off of them and they can write for fun. Many people are intimidated by the formatting of an essay and using word processors to create that essay. The blogger is an easy to use tool where all the students have to do is type. I also think its a great idea because the students will want to write better because the audience is all of their peers, not just their teachers. Students wouldn't want their peers reading a bad essay so it would probably make them work harder on it. I think it is also a good method to communicate thoughts and ideas on certain readings or aspects of the classroom.

Q1: What could I use blogging for in my classroom?
A1: I think I could use blogging for all sorts of things in my classroom. I think it would be an effective way for students to introduce themselves instead of having to stand up in front of the class and do it. I also think it would be an effective way of getting student feedback on activities done in the classroom. Using it to write little, informal research projects would work well too, such as assigning them each an important person in history to get background information about.
Q2: How could blogging pertain to reading discussions?
A2: I think blogging could really increase reading discussions in the classroom. Instead of having the students write a final essay or do a final presentation, they could just blog, whenever they felt like it about their thoughts and ideas. I think this would increase critical thinking and the joy of reading, rather than just reading the book to be able to write the final essay. Blogging could definitely help with many aspects of school, reading is just one of them.