Jeffrey Spencer, Principal
“This project allows students to become presenters from the second day of school.”
-Jennifer Knebel, first grade facilitator
Students writing blogs and publishing their work isn’t a novel idea in the education world circa 2015. Six-year olds creating blogs to find their voice, share their learning, and connect with the world around them transforms the learning environment though.
In their first project, “Who am I?”, first-grade learners at Washington Discovery Academy in Plymouth, Indiana built an online platform to develop and share their voice. What is my place in the world drives the project and allows our classes to begin rigorous literacy tasks and builds the foundations
of written communication.
Knebel, explains how the project is scaffolded. “We help our students to create their first blog post. As we scaffold for them, we are using words that they are familiar with. We are also only asking for our students to write words versus asking them to write whole sentences the first couple weeks of school. This allows them to get comfortable with writing again and have initial success.”
Using social media creates connections between our students and the outside world. After publishing their stories, the parents’ homework is to post what makes their child unique. During the school day, the classes read the blogs and the comments that parents leave for their students. “It is touching to see how important these comments are to the students, it brings tears to my eyes when they can see how much their families care about them,” explained Knebel.
“My favorite comment was from my mom because she told me to keep working hard,” said first grade student Zeke Holsopple.
Click the links below and leave comments for our first grade learners. I challenge you to show them how connected our Network and world can be using social media to share the powerful learning and connections we can make. Build a virtual bridge to Plymouth, Indiana and inspire them to keep writing!
https://kidblog.org/class/MrsKnebelsClass2015-2016/posts
https://kidblog.org/class/VanluesKids2015/posts
https://kidblog.org/class/mrs-straubs-superstars-2015/posts
https://kidblog.org/class/miss-lazovichs-class/posts