Date Approved

1-23-2017

Embargo Period

1-23-2017

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

MA Reading Education

Department

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Education

College

College of Education

Advisor

Abraham, Stephanie

Committee Member 1

Browne, Susan

Keywords

fourth grade, fictional texts

Subject(s)

Blogs; Composition (Language arts)

Disciplines

Elementary Education and Teaching

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate how students in a fourth grade classroom used blogging when responding to texts. Students were required to write a blog post about the fictional text that they were currently reading. In the posts, I encouraged students to incorporate details and well-developed responses. Students were given freedom to write without a prompt to guide their responses. After the students wrote their initial posts, they had the freedom to read their classmates' entries and comment, developing an online community. Throughout this study, I have analyzed student engagement, motivation, writing skills, quality of responses, and interactions between classmates through the use of the blog. I found that blogs provide a new platform for students to learn from each other, allow students to feel comfortable interacting with their classmates, and motivate them to read texts based on their classmates' suggestions.

Download

Share

COinS