Dear Grade 3 Families,
The Grade 3 classes are excited to continue their journey of becoming good digital citizens by launching personal blogfolios. Blogfolios are a combination of a blog and a portfolio. The students will learn various ways of capturing their learning and reflecting on their process.
They will also become more comfortable with documenting OF learning, documenting FOR learning, and documenting AS learning. Our goal is to introduce students to blogfolios, where they will continue practicing the skill of documentation OF, FOR, and AS learning on a platform that will follow them from year to year.
Documenting OF learning focuses on the product. It answers the questions:
- What did the learner do?
- What did they learn?
These questions can often be answered by looking at a final project or video recording of a student doing something. This is the most common type of documentation.
Documenting FOR learning requires a little more thought and purposeful selection. Students think about what they are capturing and why. This is an area we’d like to focus on more. It’s not just about the final product, but the journey of how they got there. The questions now become:
- How does what I’ve learned relate to something I’ve learned before?
- What can I learn about myself as a learner?
- What would be the best artifact to show that I’ve learned this?
Documenting AS learning goes even deeper, where students not only interpret their findings but also think about how they can share their learning. They are even more planful before, during, and after documenting.
- What is the best way for me to capture this and share it?
With blogfolios, students can archive, reflect on, and reactivate what they’ve learned from previous years to help them in their current learning and beyond! Blogfolios mean connections can be made from around the world, offering opportunities for richer dialogue, feedback, and of course, revision. As Silvia Tolisano explains, “The writing process used to end with the last period in the last paragraph. Hitting ‘publish’ on a blog might just be the beginning.” Blogfolios also serve as a meaningful platform to teach students about appropriate online safety and behaviour.
There are a few things you should know:
- Blogfolio URLs (addresses) will follow the formula: firstnamelastinitialojcs.edublogs.org (ex: juliebojcs.edublogs.org);
- All posts and comments will have to be approved by the teacher before they get published;
- Students (with the consent of their parents) may choose to post pictures and videos of themselves and their work online;
- Personal information (address, last name, birthday, etc.) WILL NEVER be posted on the blogfolio;
- Students will be encouraged to comment on each other’s posts.
Understanding that this may feel new and uncomfortable to some of you and our students, there are a few privacy settings to choose from:
- Public Blogfolio – URL will include the student’s first name and last initial. It will be public, meaning anyone would have access to seeing the content and comments. It adds tremendous value to the work students are doing, in that their audience extends past teachers and peers, and they’ll see that others care to read what they say. For example, connecting directly with scientists, subject matter experts, authors, other students from around the world, etc.;
- Public Avatar Blogfolio – URL is made up of an alias. Students do not post their real names on their Blogfolio. However, the site is still public, and anyone will be able to access the content and comment.
- Password Protected Blogfolio – URL will include the student’s first name and last initial. A password will be needed to access the posts on the blogfolio. Students and parents would control who knows the password.
- Private Blogfolio – URL will include the student’s first name and last initial. Only people with an edublogs account (parents would need to create one to have access) who have been granted permission to the blog will be able to view the content.
Please ensure you have carefully read through all the information above. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to Mrs. Bennett. We ask that you complete and return the permission letter that was sent home today in your child’s note tote.
Sincerely,
The Grade 3 Team
