Penrod and Blogging

One main idea that resonated with me after reading Penrod's Ch.2 was that blogging provides students with a public audience for their writing.  There seems to be many benefits to this feature.  Firstly, because students are aware that their writing will be read by multiple pairs of eyes – not simply those of their teacher – they will be naturally more inclined to revise and edit their work.  I have found that in the fourth grade class I am in now, students frequently rely on me or my CF to revise and edit their writing.  When students read aloud their pieces to me, I can quickly tell – as can they – that this is the first time they had considered the degree to which their writing communicates what they had intended.  Penrod explains, “students begin to develop the sense that careful writers need to build a relationship with their readers to ensure that a message is understood” (Penrod, p.23)

            A second benefit to the public nature of the blog is that they can open up meaningful, student-to-student written discussions.  In my fourth grade classroom, students frequently give each-other surface level verbal feedback on each other’s writing, such as “I like the way you added details.”  They are able to boost each other’s confidence; however, these comments do not typically spur deep conversations.  The online environment of blogging seems more conducive to discussions where students can either challenge or support each other, through ongoing discussions.

            A third positive aspect of having a more public audience for writing is that students with special needs can have a different mode to have their voices heard. Penrod writes, “…blogs are a way for writers to be treated the ways they have always wanted to be viewed, as thinkers or transmitters of ideas and feelings.  Blogs can become locations where mentally or physically challenged students can exist without being judged or labeled by their disabilities” (Penrod, p. 26).  The purpose of writing is to communicate, and blogging offers students who may typically struggle with verbal or hand-written communication to voice their ideas.  This made me think of a boy that I went to high school with who was in a wheelchair.  People often assumed that because of his physical disability, he was also mentally challenged in some way – which was completely false.  Today, he has his own blog that I have visited, where he shares his very strong ideas about religion, in a public way that he would not have access to without the blog.  Granted, I do no agree with most of the ideas he writes about; however, without reading his blog I would have no idea that he felt so strongly about the ideas he shares in this space.