Student blogs are an excellent educational tool at any time, but now, during the various forms of COVID-19 pandemic classes, they can be an even more important, more productive, and successful educational tool. Can you imagine students using their blogs as a way to map out, and describe their daily life and educational experiences?
Students, of all ages, can post scans, screen captures, or photos of their classwork, videos, photos of family activities, homework, projects, or even develop a diary where they can share their daily feelings and personal experiences.
A blog such as this would be an interesting way for students to develop a permanent reminder of their experiences, and life during the COVID-19 pandemic, and be something that they can look back upon in years to come. Blogs could also become the foundation for educationalists, and educational psychologists to evaluate education, students, and the effects of virtual education and prolonged isolation on families and young students.
Whilst for many students, especially younger school students, a blog can be a purely fun, creative, ad-hoc undertaking allowing them the freedom to create and post in their own way, for those students who are of a higher level, students where their school, institute, or university demand a higher level of academic production, then the foundation of a blog is based upon the writing of essays, projects or structured articles.
In my experience as a teacher trainer, this year I have found that whilst most teachers are able to easily adapt essays and projects to student blogs, the same can not be said for article writing as this form of written production is foreign to many teachers due to the fact that it is not included in many educational programs. For this reason, many teachers who I have spoken to have eliminated the writing of articles from their classes, a decision which in my mind limits the overall educational benefits of student blogging during pandemic classes.
For this reason, I have outlined below how to write a simply structured article, stage by stage, that would be perfect for blogging.
I hope that you find it interesting, and are able to adapt the concept into your virtual classes.
Start with the basics
The best way to structure an article is to first write an outline. Review your research and notes. Then write down ideas for the following six sections. Remember, this is just a foundation upon which to build your story.
1. First sentence
This needs to grab your readers' attention right away.
2. The introduction
Which facts and figures will your story be based upon? You have to set a scene in order to tell your readers where and when this article is happening.
3. The opening quotation
This will give the reader a sense of the subject, the characters involved, and what they are thinking?
4. The main body
What is at the heart, the primary information of your article? This of course is the foundation of the article, generally taking up 90% of the content as it is where the information and details are written.
5. The closing quotation
Think hard, and come up with something that sums the article up in just a few short words.
6. The conclusion (optional—the closing quotation may be sufficient)
What is a memorable way to end your article? The closing quotation is a good way to sum things up. An important point to remember is that if you are quoting more than one person with differing points of view in your story, you cannot end with a quote from just one of them. Giving one of your interviewees the last word can create biased and tilt the article in their favor. Today, in this age of the Internet, you can also finalize your article with a link to more information on the subject.
I hope that you enjoyed this article and found it helpful.
Good luck and good teaching.
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