Reading Blogs
This week, the grade 9s started blogging in order to explore their relationship with the text.
There have been some very strong posts, the best of which was a commentary in which the student compared her response to The Little Prince as a 15 year old compared to when she read it as an 11 year old.
Having read the first round of blogs, some students don’t understand the difference between exploring one’s relationship with the text and writing a book report (in this case, a book report is quick summary followed by a “I would recommend this to…” statement).
Briefly, I encourage students to explore their relationship with the text by (not comprehensive):
- Making connections to other texts, their life, “real” life, and “big” ideas.
- Examining why they are drawn to this text, or why they are not. In other words, what can you learn about yourself if you spend your evenings alone reading Emily Dickinson?
To some extent, I’m concerned that the public nature of a blog discourages students from sharing their “real” response. However, I also think that by reading each other’s responses, the class is more likely to comprehend this concept.
