Recurring Lesson

Creating an Online Community Through Electronic Portfolios

Grades
9 - 12
Lesson Plan Type
Recurring Lesson
Estimated Time
Several sessions over one semester
Publisher
ILA
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Overview

In this series of lessons, students learn the purpose of an electronic portfolio; use Google Blogger to create such a portfolio of their best work, including multimedia extensions as desired; and respond to each other's work online using the Comments feature of the blogs. Teachers create a basic class website from which to link to each blog. This fosters an online community in which students can easily move from blog to blog to view and respond to each other's content.

Featured Resources

From Theory to Practice

  • As Kinzer relates in his article “The Importance of Recognizing the Expanding Boundaries of Literacy,” students must now be prepared not only to read and write in the physical classroom but also online in a variety of contexts.

  • According to Kinzer, “Lack of knowledge about IM, avatars, activeworlds, text messaging, MP3 downloads, and the like distances teachers from the students they want to reach.”

  • Literacy learning has a social dimension, and learning in context is more important than learning isolated facts. Technology offers a way to incorporate project-based learning and allows for meaningful and authentic peer collaboration.

  • This lesson involves students in online, multimedia extensions of their writing and allows them to collaborate through the electronic mediums they often prefer.

Common Core Standards

This resource has been aligned to the Common Core State Standards for states in which they have been adopted. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, CCSS alignments are forthcoming.

State Standards

This lesson has been aligned to standards in the following states. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, standard alignments are not currently available for that state.

NCTE/IRA National Standards for the English Language Arts

  • 5. Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.
  • 6. Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and nonprint texts.
  • 8. Students use a variety of technological and information resources (e.g., libraries, databases, computer networks, video) to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge.
  • 11. Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.
  • 12. Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).

Materials and Technology

Computers with access to Microsoft Word and the Internet

Printouts

Websites

Preparation

  1. Use the handout Create a Blogger Portfolio to set up your own basic classroom blog. In the sidebar, you can eventually create a list of links to all of the student blogs so everyone can look at each other’s work. View the I.B. English website for an example.

  2. Keep Internet safety in mind; remember that students should never publish personal information online beyond their first names and their writing. No addresses, telephone numbers, personal e-mail addresses, or list names should be posted. Prepare to give students a list of guidelines about Internet safety. You may wish to consult the Online Profile Tips for reference.

  3. Photocopy the handouts The Components of Your Electronic Portfolio and Create a Blogger Portfolio for all students, and reserve times throughout the semester in a computer lab.

Student Objectives

Students will

  • Construct a blog by participating in workshop sessions

  • Create other forms of media to integrate with their writing, thus learning digital literacy skills as they develop multimedia blogs

  • React to and comment on others’ work, improving their own writing skills by giving feedback to peers through participation in online peer editing workshop sessions

Portfolio Workshops

Note: Portfolio workshops should be spaced throughout the first two months of the semester.

  1. Gather in the lab. Begin with a brief tour of the I.B. English website so students can see what their project will eventually resemble.

  2. As outlined in the handout The Components of Your Electronic Portfolio, have students spend their remaining time writing 400-word essays or book reviews or incorporating links, media, and images into the assignments they have already posted. Walk around to help keep students on track and troubleshoot with them.

  3. Make sure to set deadlines for students throughout the semester, using the Portfolio Check-Ins sheet to be sure they remain on track.

  4. You may wish to pass out copies of the Portfolio Rubric at this time, so students can see exactly how they will be graded.

First Round of Feedback

  1. Gather in the lab. Give students the class blog website so they can see links to all of the other students’ blogs.

  2. Tell students to review the blogs of the two students immediately following them on the list of links and choose either their favorite piece or the one they feel they could give the most help.

  3. Have students leave a one-paragraph comment by clicking the “Comment” button below the chosen post. The comment should specifically compliment the piece’s strengths, then offer some suggestions for improvement. It is helpful to model for students how comments should be written.

  4. After students post their comments, ask them to cut and paste them into Microsoft Word, print them out, and turn them in for your review. This way, you can give students brief written feedback on their comments.

Portfolio Workshops Continued

  1. Continue the Portfolio Workshops as described above. Assist students as needed in creating the multimedia elements (i.e., a podcast, a video, and a photo essay) of their portfolios.

  2. Review the Portfolio Rubric if students have questions about how they will be graded.

  3. Students who have posted all of their work may begin on the final round of feedback.

Final Round of Feedback

This is the final round of feedback. The instructions are the same as in the first round of feedback, except that students should comment on the two blogs posted above theirs, and they will have more pieces to choose from.

You may also wish to ask students to reflect aloud with a partner or to e-mail thoughts to you as to why they chose the pieces they posted on their blogs and how those pieces reflect them as writers and people.

Portfolio Construction

  1. Distribute the handout The Components of Your Electronic Portfolio. Let students know they will receive several handouts, and they should store them all together in one designated folder for easy reference. Explain to students that, through this course of lessons, they will post their strongest work to an electronic portfolio intended to broaden the audience for their writing and help them to see the progression of their own work. The portfolio will also allow them to incorporate multimedia elements into their writing, and engage in collaboration with their peers as they review and comment on each other’s work.

  2. Pass out the Create a Blogger Portfolio handout, and allow students to work for the rest of the session on setting up their portfolios. Have students begin by creating introductions on the upper right-hand side of the sidebar. Since your own basic class portfolio is already set up, help students troubleshoot any problems that may come up at this time.

  3. For homework, have students complete their portfolio set-up, including an introduction, and e-mail you the link to the blog and the blog title. If students do not have access to a computer at home, direct them to open lab times at school or the local library with free Internet access.

  4. After you have this information, incorporate a list of sidebar links to all of the student portfolios on the basic class blog.

Extensions

  • Find a teacher at another school or within your school who would also like to create electronic portfolios with students. In each feedback session, have students comment both on the work of a partner at the other school or in the other class and on a classmate’s work.

  • Allow students to vote and award prizes to the top portfolios in the class at the end of the semester. Make these “People’s Choice” awards worth extra credit on the assignment.

  • Once students have mastered the blog concept, incorporate it into other assignments, like creating a blog for a novel character. Creating Character Blogs would be a good lesson to use as an extension.

  • Use your own blog to keep track of class work, posting daily tasks and homework for absent students online.

Student Assessment / Reflections

  • Use the Portfolio Check-Ins list to keep students on track in the construction of their blogs.

  • Assess students’ ability to successfully create posts and integrate multimedia, using the Portfolio Rubric handout.

  • Assess students on their comments on their classmates’ blogs and their own final reflections.
slauer
K-12 Teacher
I have been trying to use the blogging sites described in this lesson but am unable to access them. Did the site URL change?
Wes Ford
Associate Editor
The site, www.blogger.com, is owned by Google. As such, it might require a Google log-in to use, but it is still up and running at blogger.com, and it is free.

The editors (mostly just me) of ReadWriteThink have started a blog on Blogger in share inside information and reveal what we are working on to preview the latest stuff for the site. Feel free to stop by at http://rwteditor.blogspot.com/

Wes Ford
Associate Editor for ReadWriteThink.org
slauer
K-12 Teacher
I have been trying to use the blogging sites described in this lesson but am unable to access them. Did the site URL change?
Wes Ford
Associate Editor
The site, www.blogger.com, is owned by Google. As such, it might require a Google log-in to use, but it is still up and running at blogger.com, and it is free.

The editors (mostly just me) of ReadWriteThink have started a blog on Blogger in share inside information and reveal what we are working on to preview the latest stuff for the site. Feel free to stop by at http://rwteditor.blogspot.com/

Wes Ford
Associate Editor for ReadWriteThink.org
slauer
K-12 Teacher
I have been trying to use the blogging sites described in this lesson but am unable to access them. Did the site URL change?
Wes Ford
Associate Editor
The site, www.blogger.com, is owned by Google. As such, it might require a Google log-in to use, but it is still up and running at blogger.com, and it is free.

The editors (mostly just me) of ReadWriteThink have started a blog on Blogger in share inside information and reveal what we are working on to preview the latest stuff for the site. Feel free to stop by at http://rwteditor.blogspot.com/

Wes Ford
Associate Editor for ReadWriteThink.org

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