Quad Blogging

Quad blogging is a blogging platform whereby you, as a teacher sign-up your class and are grouped with 3 other grade-level classes from anywhere in the world. (You can specify countries) The premise is that one school is in the "blogging spotlight" while the other 3 schools comment on the "spotlighted" school's students' blogs. The next week, it's repeated with a new school and so on. You are able to go through a few rotations as it runs quarterly. It is very manageable this way and as a teacher, you don't feel like you need to have your students respond to so many blogs at one time. The focus is just one each week.  My students are first grade and yes, they need help with their writings, but they are so excited to write to children in another part of the world and share their thoughts and feelings with others. They can hardly wait to read other students' comments about what they wrote as well as get responses back from a comment they made.

This is an excellent way to give your class an authentic audience for their writings. It is also a way to teach your class how to write meaningful, kind comments about someone else's work.  Dialogue, exchange of ideas, and friendships are formed in a safe, non-threatening way. For more information on quad blogging, visit this link here.