Blogging in 5th Grade

I believe that blogging can be a powerful tool that can be implement in my 5th grade classroom.  The teacher can put prompts on the blog and ask students to post their comments on the blog.  You could put a topic such as why did the vinegar react with baking soda?  Students would post their response to the experiment.  Other students can hear from their classmates and add details to their insights and posts.

We do literature circles (book clubs).  In those book club groups, you can assign a topic from the week's reading assignments and have all the group members go onto the blog and post their insights of the required literature.

One problem schools might have is time.  I work in a mid to lower working class neighborhood.  Seventy-five percent of my school is on free or reduced lunches.  Many of my students do not have a home computer.  One way my school overcame this problem was to purchase 30 laptops that can be checked out for the students use.  I now have the ability to not only have students have their 45 minutes in computer lab, but another chance during the week to have students work on a laptop.  Teachers would have to facilitate discussions and teach students how to respond on a blog.  With the use of the laptops, teachers would now have that ability to implement this.  There would be more than just 45 minutes a week for students to implement the available technology.