Entry #13 Using Blogging as Tool for Meeting the Student Learning Outcomes

As I reflect upon the journey I have been on this semester, I strongly believe that blogging was an essential tool that supported me in meeting the Student Learning Outcomes for LTED 618. 

Student Learning Outcomes:

1.    the variety of modes, genres, and formats for reading and writing

2.  the role of purpose and audience in writing and reading and the elements of author’s craft used to address the desired purpose(s) and audience(s)

3. the cognitive processes and strategies of reading and writing, including the composition strategies used in crafting and comprehending texts

4. the relationship between the writing and reading processes and the iterative nature of the composition and comprehension processes

5. the role of metacognition in writing (composing) proficiency and reading comprehension

6. the role of assessment and evaluation in determining student development as composers and comprehenders of texts

At the beginning of the semester, I remember sitting excited but nervous to develop a blog. I was intrigued to put my knowledge of multimodality into practice, however, was I also was daunted by my lack of experience in this aspect of technology. However, as I became more comfortable with design elements within the first few weeks, I believe this is where my blogs truly came to life. Blogging became my tool for developing purpose and audience in my writing. I created an informal blog for communicating with Dr. J and my classmates on my own literacy learning. My purpose for blogging varied depending on the prompt for each entry, however the overall goal was to illustrate my learning throughout the semester. The audience varied between writing to my professor, Dr. Jones, and my classmates. Each blog highlighted my ability to illustrate the relationship between writing and reading as one linear process of actively demonstrating comprehension. Writing allowed me to provide evidence of my learning from each reading we engaged with this semester. 

Lacina and Griffith (2012) state "Blogs are an authentic medium for integrating reading and writing—and are an exciting form of technology to explore during the writing process" (p. 320). Blogging allowed me to highlight growth as I developed my own writer's craft, while also expressing my newfound understandings each week. As I worked on each blog, I used a set of writing strategies supported by Tompkins to guide my process each week. Tompkins (2012) explains that most of these writing strategies are cognitive, however there are only four that are metacognitive including, evaluating, monitoring, questioning and setting goals (p. 34-35). 

As I reflect upon the cognitive strategies I used while blogging this semester, I believe I strongly focused on formatting, generating, and proofreading. I truly enjoyed the process of formulating a title that grabbed my audience's attention. I relied on the readings to support me in generating ideas and creating each entry. While also carefully proofreading my work prior to publishing. Each of these cognitive strategies supported me throughout this process. In regard to the role of metacognition in my writing proficiency and comprehension, I believe I successfully used monitoring and questioning. Monitoring is all about evaluating the process you are making on your writing. This incorporates both rereading your own writing, asking questions, and receiving feedback from peers or professors. Throughout this experience I constantly practiced rereading my drafted blogs and received feedback from my peers. This supported my ability to create powerful blogs that aided my ability to demonstrate proficiency in writing and comprehending the prompts and readings for each week. While reading I constantly asked myself questions (related to the writing prompt) while reading to support me in effectively demonstrating my understanding. I also posed questions for my readers, in order to activate their thinking just as I did while engaging with articles or text read this semester. As an example, in blog Entry #9 on descriptive writing, I posed the following questions to my peers, "What are the first three words that come to your mind, when you think about describing this genre to the rest of the world? Can you put your new knowledge of descriptive writing techniques to practice?", as this aided my own understanding of the genre.  

Throughout the semester, we were able to explore a variety of genres through reading Tompkins' text and mentor texts we brought to class each week. In many of my blog entries I incorporate several of the genres we study to further explore and incorporate additional resources that aided my understanding. As an example, in blog Entry #7, I found purpose in the authenticity of letter writing. I specifically focused on the important takeaways I acquired from reading several articles about the genre. Whereas, in blog Entry #12 I focused on how I was able to engage with the genre of biographies through the mentor text, I am Abraham Lincoln by Brad Metzler. Blogging provided me the opportunity to actively engage and illustrate my own understanding of several genres through reading and writing this semester. Although I did not specifically address the role of assessing and evaluating writers and readers comprehension, I recognize this to be an important component to supporting literacy development. Tompkins (2012) explains that educators develop a variety of checklists to assess their students' writing progress (p. 88). Prior to engaging with Tompkins, this was one area of worry I had as a future educator. I questioned how I can efficiently and effectively monitor my students progress over a period of time? Tompkins' figure 4-3, aided my ability to see how specific writing skills can be monitored. As an inclusive educator, I personally identify a checklist as a tool for showing how students' progress over a period of time, not a focus on the 'score' they receive. 
 

Blogging truly has been a rewarding experience for me, as it has supported my own learning and the ability to implement this into my future classroom. Lucina and Griffith (2012) state that “For children of the 21st century, technology is like oxygen—a necessary component of their life" (p. 317). I believe blogging to be a rich resource for incorporating multimodality into my learning environment. It truly has been a wonderful journey to reflect upon my own growth over the semester. Blogging has the power to support reading and writing development. 

Resource

Lacina, J. & Griffith, R. (2012). Blogging as a means of crafting writing. The Reading Teacher, 

         

            66(4), 316-320.