Day+3

toc = **Day 3: Blogger and RSS Reader** for Writing and Research=
 * [[image:google_apps_for_la_title_copy.jpg width="459" height="36" align="center"]]

Prerequisite Knowledge
1. Familiarity with the concept of a blog. 2. Ability to locate and insert images and other multimedia files into a blog. 3. Please have a Blogger account with a username and password. You may create one specifically for this class or use one you already have.

Content
A blog can be a simple, easy way to institute routine writing practice or create special projects using student-created work and feedback. Today we will look at some of the ways to use student-created blogs to enhance writing instruction or to respond to literature. By blogging, students not only compose written work for a wider audience (thus often putting more care into their work), but it becomes easier for students to provide each other feedback and develop topical conversations as well.

By including the use of Google Reader//,// students can keep track of each others' blogs easily. Moreover, they can harness the power of the blogosphere to conduct research or just read about their interests. Today we will experience ways to use RSS feeds as a teaching and learning resource.

Objectives
By the end of Day 3, participants will:

1. Develop ideas and strategies for using student-created or teacher-created blogs in language arts instruction. 2. Understand how to use and manage a large number of RSS feeds, and be able to teach students to do so. 3. Develop strategies for using RSS as a research tool in expository or persuasive writing projects.

Lesson Activities
1. Brief checkup on participant Blogger accounts (set up if they don't already have one). Participants post blog urls to the wiki below.

Example: Adam Kampia - []

2. Facilitator posts journal prompt question: //"How have you used blogging in your classroom, or what would you like to use it for?"// Participants respond to question as a blog post. Participants visit each others blogs and comment on at least two other posts. Blog authors then search of a relevant visual to add to their blog posts and repeat above steps.

Discussion: Did the comments and/or adding a visual affect any revisions in your writing?

3. Brief overview/review of Google Reader and RSS feed concepts. Participants enable RSS feeds in Blogger (demonstration/walk through).

4. Participants break into groups of 4-5. Members of each group subscribe to each other's blogs in Reader. Members also add RSS feeds from each other's blogs on their blog pages.

5. Participants respond to the following question in a new blog post: "//How can blogging and RSS feeds help enhance daily or weekly journaling activities?//" Participants observe the behavior of the RSS feeds in Reader and blog pages. Small groups comment on each other's blogs and whole group discussion on using blogs and RSS feeds in the following other activities beyond journaling:
 * Responses to literature (i.e. blog responses to each chapter of a novel, poetry responses, etc.)
 * Persuasive writing.

6. Through a web search, participants each locate an outside blog or web page that allows for an RSS feed, then subscribe to the feed in Reader. Participants also add Reader widget to iGoogle homepages.

7.Facilitator demonstrates methods for organizing large numbers of RSS feeds and "tagging." Participants add tags to one or more RSS subscriptions. Facilitator guides participants in marking RSS subscriptions to share, then sharing items in the following ways:
 * via email
 * as a stand alone web page
 * as a widget in their blog

Discussion topic: //How can RSS feeds from external sources assist in project-based learning (i.e. research papers).//

Blog post assignment: "How I could use Reader and iGoogle in project-based learning and for better communication with and between students?"

Additional resources and materials
The following links are great resources for finding quality blogs:

Technorati - []

Edublog Awards - []

Evaluation
Please take a moment to fill out the evaluation form below about the day's activities.

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