tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3122070622072642502012-02-16T23:54:33.467+04:00A blog in support of Kyle Reports and Del Reports. A university writing instructor guiding elementary school students in writing their blogs. An effort to get children to improve their writing skills through blogging.The Authornoreply@blogger.comBlogger161100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-312207062207264250.post-37346013275221844022008-12-27T11:50:00.008+04:002008-12-27T21:02:06.734+04:00

Young readers (K-3) often stumble from word to word as they read. They do this because they are just figuring out how to decode words. As their reading progresses young readers should start to gain fluency. This can happen with school instruction, but with large classes of students at different reading levels it is difficult for teachers to work on fluency. Parents need to take an active role in

The Authornoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-312207062207264250.post-42246413171945634552008-12-15T00:25:00.012+04:002008-12-27T11:14:55.471+04:00

Kyle Writes a Poetry Book ReviewKyle wrote a poetry book review for his most recent blog. He did this without any guidance from me. He was responsible for posting on the weekend and knew he had to do it before he could play with his friend. In order to get the post done, he woke up early, about 6:30, Saturday morning and got to work on the post. He completed most of the post before I got out of

The Authornoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-312207062207264250.post-80635356498484611452008-12-09T16:29:00.006+04:002008-12-27T11:18:53.157+04:00

Website RecommendationNow that Christmas is approaching, e-cards are abundant. One of the best sites for video e-cards is JibJab. JibJab allows you to add your face to videos in order to personalize the experience. You simply upload a picture that includes a good head shot. JibJab provides tools to clip the face from the background. The tools are easy enough for a child to use. Once the faces are

The Authornoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-312207062207264250.post-90684735639082623922008-12-03T10:38:00.004+04:002008-12-27T11:22:20.574+04:00

I started looking for blogs by other children around Kyle's age. I found very few and mostly ran across blogs talking about the safety of children blogging. Most sites give some safety rules for parents to follow when children blog. The basic rules are:Never offer personal information.Use sites you can password protect.Screen content and monitor the blog.Work on the blog with your children.Have I

The Authornoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-312207062207264250.post-19086323331364955622008-11-30T15:04:00.005+04:002008-11-30T19:36:12.966+04:00

This is an easy to understand video that could be used to introduce children to the idea of blogging. This video comes from Common Craft, a company that makes "complex ideas easy to understand using short and simple videos." The videos use simple pictures and plain English which could be used as a model for children to create their own videos. The process relies on

The Authornoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-312207062207264250.post-80272746387445931492008-11-30T10:05:00.006+04:002008-12-03T11:24:15.343+04:00

Kyle wrote a blog about Thanksgiving. I set forth three teaching points for the blog: to progress from general to specific, to use a colon for a series, and to understand the difference a past and present tense in a paragraph. I also ended up teaching him how to use time transitions. We started with three questionsWhat is Thanksgiving?What did we do for Thanksgiving this year? What did we eat?

The Authornoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-312207062207264250.post-63342973345609661272008-11-07T14:08:00.005+04:002008-12-03T11:24:46.421+04:00

Political ChoicesKyle wrote a blog about the recent presidential election, Obama vs. McCain. He has been following the election since the primaries. Kyle has held preferences for who he wanted to win the election throughout the primaries. He was naturally more attracted to the Democratic primary, because it was a close race. He initially wanted Hillary Clinton to win. Why? I can only speculate. I

The Authornoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-312207062207264250.post-68151206594949573672008-11-01T12:16:00.005+04:002008-11-01T22:37:30.779+04:00

Delbert now has a blog, Del Reports. He is 5 years old and cannot write sentences yet, but he can talk. I have decided to have him do a video blog, until he can write. Kyle's blog has become more video orientated, but I now require him to write about the videos.What do you need to make web videos and post them to blogger?RCA EZ205 Small Wonder Digital Camcorder : This very small camera is useful

The Authornoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-312207062207264250.post-9754553491274582642008-09-09T23:57:00.012+04:002008-09-10T00:23:22.811+04:00

Kyle has had a busy summer. He has done enough to give him content for his blog. We traveled to Louisiana for the summer, stopping in Washington D.C. for a short vacation on the way. In D.C. we were able to see most of the major sights. Kyle posted a short summary of our trip. With the post I asked him to write in organized paragraphs. This added extra stress to the task. Although he was happy

The Authornoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-312207062207264250.post-84855129581942680362008-04-14T17:39:00.004+04:002008-04-14T18:26:17.655+04:00

We drove through Oman again and went to Hatta, which is in the U.A.E., but is accessed by going through Oman. We have to bring our passports and go through the border crossing. Prior to 2007 it was an open border, but they are making efforts to tighten up the borders.We started with the intent of finding desert animals. We did see a number of animals, goats, camels, a donkey, a lizard and some

The Authornoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-312207062207264250.post-24378459988132726832008-04-05T19:02:00.003+04:002008-04-05T19:14:27.889+04:00

I have gotten Kyle to make a few more post. I am giving him more freedom and more structure at the same time. For his most recent post (Al Ain Air Show), I set up a template that fits three to four pictures. I allow him to choose what he wants to write about and what pictures should be included. This might make for an illogical (in my mind) sequence at times, but giving him the choice motivates

The Authornoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-312207062207264250.post-7339212152017762292008-03-30T20:48:00.006+04:002008-03-31T08:23:17.301+04:00

We have had many opportunities for Kyle to write in his blog, but getting him to spend the time to write takes some subtle motivation. The geology post didn't make it to the blog. He enjoys writing about things that he does, like Sports Day, or topics related to what he is doing in school, like this pollution project. He recognizes the audience for these types of posts. He wants his teacher to

The Authornoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-312207062207264250.post-12614086320044402502007-12-10T19:31:00.001+04:002008-04-14T17:39:43.568+04:00

We live near the border of Oman and went for a drive through the mountains there. The drive was not initially intended to be a field trip, but I did ask Kyle to bring some books along. He brought a Rock and Fossil book and a Geography book. During the drive we decided to make the trip a geology outing. We stopped along the way several times to analyze the rock formations. We stopped at an old

The Authornoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-312207062207264250.post-13339981130224726302007-12-05T20:11:00.001+04:002008-12-03T11:25:33.232+04:00

Kyle's ReportTrip: Our local zooGoal: See how many different mammals we could find for each continentMaterials:1. Graph with all 7 continents listed on the vertical axis2. Graph with some of the mammals we expected to see at the zoo on the vertical axis and the 7 continents on the horizontal axis.Process: 1. Find the mammals.2. Read the distribution data for the mammals to see which continent

The Authornoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-312207062207264250.post-49723598754557100392007-12-04T20:58:00.000+04:002007-12-04T21:09:56.192+04:00

1. I do not edit his writing. I do comment and guide him to make changes. I will teach him about things he might not have much experience with, like spacing when typing or comma usage. 2. He must read through his post several times. I want him to identify his own mistakes, which he usually does when he rereads his work.3. I help him spell words after he makes several unsuccessful attempts. If he

The Authornoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-312207062207264250.post-54997759861724334292007-12-04T15:52:00.000+04:002007-12-04T20:58:20.987+04:00

Kyle Reports Post: Desert TripQuestion and Answers: I wrote the questions for Kyle with the goal of guiding him into writing a paragraph. We didn't get to the paragraph stage and will build to that in the future.Grammar and Spelling: Kyle used the spell checker to help him with his spelling. It resulted in one mistake. He wrote "snack" for "snake." He also didn't understand why "smores" was

The Authornoreply@blogger.com0