Every classroom at my school has it’s own blog. Teachers are using it at various levels for parent/school communication, student work, two-way communication with commenting, documentation for classroom happenings as well as the hub and archive of classroom images, videos and audio.
In an attempt to include parents in the process, educate them in this new platform in addition to give students a chance to take ownership of their classroom blog, several classes are creating a tutorial video for their parents and grandparents that explains a few “blog” specific vocabulary words as well as highlights and models how to find information and navigate the classroom blog.
2nd Graders jumped immediately on board when I approached their teachers with the idea of creating such a video tutorial. I started out by doing a lesson with the 7 year olds about specific blog vocabulary we wanted them to use.
Blog Vocabulary
Their teacher made a list of all the words as well as the areas we wanted to highlight in the tutorial. Students then were assigned specific words or parts. We started to brainstorm, as a class, the introduction to the tutorial.
- What would we say to get parents interested in watching the tutorial?
- How would we welcome them?
- How could we show them how to get to the classroom blog?
Collaborative Brainstorming
Students had very specific ideas and were adamant about certain words, their order and the way they wanted to say them.
Organization for Tutorial Video
The following day, in class, students wrote a short script of what they wanted to say using their assigned vocabulary words.
The Writing Process
Their classroom teacher reminded her students about the writing process by pointing to their bulletin board on her wall.
- Pre-Writing
- Drafting
- Revising
- Editing
- Evaluating
- Publishing
Students then were assigned to practice their “part” as homework for the following day when we would be filming them with the Flip camera.
We had a blast creating the video (just hang around until the end to watch the bloopers 🙂 ).
If you want to leave a comment for these 7 year olds, please add the location where you are from, so we can track it on a Google Map.
How could you allow your students to become their own Tutorial Designers?
Here for your viewing pleasure:
Great work, students! I especially like the vocabulary explained in your own words. What a thorough explanation of how a website works in addition to the blog. I liked the part about how to scroll in particular….
Great explanation of blogging terms like “header” and “static”! Wow. Grade 2? I can’t believe it. This is an amazing video about blogging. Could any parent say no to blogging after this? I know exactly who to share this with. Thank you!
Commenting from Canada
Wow! Congratulations!
What a wonderful video. I’m sure parents will be so proud of you teaching them about blogging. They’ll definitely jump on board and start commenting on your posts!
I love the idea of kids teaching their parents to blog. It’s motivating and inspiring. Thanks for sharing this!
Greta Sandler
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Congratulations on a great tutorial!
I enjoyed seeing your brainstorming script on the blog and then hearing (and seeing) it come alive in the tutorial!
Thank you for also sharing your bloopers. I love to laugh and it was fun to see that your production was a lot of hard work and that you had a good time along the way!
Janet Hale
Tucson, Arizona
I am so impressed by your video! I am trying to find ideas for my students to do as well to get their parent’s involved in using our classroom website, I think this would be great! Thanks for the idea. Great work.
Tabitha Waguespack
Houston, TX, USA
What a great job, congratulations! Your parents, grandparents and teachers sure are proud of this well done presentation. Many thanks for sharing it!!!
Heidi Musterós Buenos Aires Argentina
Amazing work guys. I bet you are proud. I plan to show my Kindergarten class this great video soon! Keep up the good work!
Matt Gomez – K Teacher – Plano, Texas
Your tutorial is a winner! I am going to show this to our 3rd Graders who are just starting to blog on their own blogs. I’m thinking that they will be inspired by you to make their own tutorials! Great job!!
Chrissy Hellyer – ISB Bangkok, Thailand
What a wonderful tutorial you all made working together! Sure was a lot of wonderful collaboration going on in your classroom. I will show this video to my 8th grade students next trimester when they start to create websites. Before they can make their own websites, they must understand how they are set up and how they work. You really explained all of the parts so well! Well done! You must be so proud of your hard work and I am sure your parents and grandparents will be too. Great work by your teachers too!
I am from Manchester, NH – Keep up the great work and have a fun school year! Kim T – Computer Teacher
Wonderful team work! thanks for sharing how you accomplished this project. You, your teacher and parents must be proud of it.