Sunday, May 24, 2009

Sunday 24th May (End of Week 4)

Things seems to be progressing well. After being out of school for three days, I returned to the classroom on Thursday with a number of students happily reporting they had embraced their blog. I have been surprised by the way students have now embraced the 1.2 blog as a kind of online portfolio for all of their writing. I think they get a sense of pride from seeing their efforts published, and like that they can see it grow (particularly as I have been setting a rather cruel number of practice essays).

This week I have a colleague coming in to observe the 11 English class doing peer feedback. I am hoping to get the students to create their own marking rubrics by responding to a range of exemplars. They will then use the rubric to feedback on each other's writing, making comments on why they gained a specific grade and advice on how to lift their grade. This will then inform a redraft that I will check out. I am hoping this will encourage them to start placing feedback on on each other's blogs. I think they are checking out other people's work, but are a little hesitant to comment.

Vince (my project leader) will be in Thursday afternoon and Friday to meet with me and my students. I will be interested to see how he views our progress.

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