Creative ways to use blogging in ESL classrooms

For Emergent English Language Learners, it is important to give the students a more hands on learning experience.  Traditional instruction is probably the most inefficient way to teach any one person a foreign language. Blogs allow Emergent English Language Learners to take control of their learning experience and have a say in what they learn.  Richardson says, "In essence, we write not just to communicate but to connect with others who can potentially teach us more" (28, 2010).  Blogging makes this possible.  In an increasing technological world, it is important to take advantage of the communication bridges that the internet constantly offers us.  There are so many ways that learners can constantly obtain new information through the internet and specifically, through blogging.  

All About My Partner:Social, Intercultural and Instructional Practices
Standard 1: English language learners communicate for social, intercultural, and instructional purposes within the school setting.

A good way to integrate this standard would be to have students write a journal entry about another classmate and post it to their blog.  This entry could entail interviewing another student to find out all about this persons life, where they come from and the differences between their cultures and American culture.  This is a great way for the students to interact with fellow classmates and learn a bit about a different culture.  In addition, it forces the student to practice their comprehension, writing and reading all in the same activity. 

Storytelling: Communication
Standard 2: English language learners communicate information, ideas, and concepts necessary for academic success in the area of language arts.

Blogs are a perfect way for English Language Learners to practice their reading and writing skills.  Traditional methods of writing are very restricting to some degree.  This quote is a perfect example of how writing can be restricting whereas blogging leaves open endless opportunities for growth,"Writing stops; blogging continues.  Writing is inside; blogging is outside. Writing is monologue; blogging is conversation. Writing is thesis; blogging is synthesis..."(Richardson, 30).  In the area of language arts, storytelling would be the perfect way for EELLs to communicate information, ideas and concepts with their peers. Storytelling gives them numerous opportunities to explore the English language and allow them to be creative and original.  Then each student could critique one of their peers' story and look for grammatical, spelling and punctuation errors.  This allows the students to directly communicate and freely post on each others blogs while at the same time thinking analytically and critically.  

Math Lessons: Sharing information, ideas and concepts through blogging
Standard 3: English language learners communicate information, ideas, and concepts necessary for academic success in the area of mathematics.

In the area of mathematics, I think that blogging is an excellent and innovative way to give a lesson. For students in mathematics, a good idea could be to give students a five minute videotaped instruction on how to do a math problem.  Uploading the video to the class blog would be useful for students because they could go back to it for reference.  If the teacher is speaking too fast or they don't understand clearly, they could replay the video as many times as needed.  Repetition can also help EELLs with pronunciation and comprehension.  Another good idea could be to give students several different hyperlinks to mathematical websites, particularly websites with plenty of different practice problems. This gives the students the opportunity to explore different math websites and be able to have a say in which exercises are of interest to them. The students could also post on each others blogs with any questions or comments that they may have on the topic. This would be extremely helpful for students who prefer to experiment with the multiple ways of solving a math problem.  They would have all of the different ways their peers attempted the problem right in front of them.  This also ensures that students who learn differently are given the opportunity to explore different learning styles. 

There are endless ways that state standards could be met by blogging. I think in an ever changing technological world, foreign language learners should be given the opportunities to utilize these tools.  The good news is that they can practice comprehension, reading, writing and even speaking all through one entity; blogging.