
A fellow Pennsylvania Writing and Literature Project (PAWLP) teacher, Brian Kelley shot me a quick email yesterday after I shared a link to my students' blogs. He was contemplating opening up his classroom blog for others to comment on his students' writing. Would it be okay for his students to respond to my students' blogs? Yes! Would we respond to his? Of course. And so today in class, I posted the web address for Mr. Kelley's 8th grade writers. I'm not going to lie, I was a little nervous. How would my high school writers respond to his middle school writers? How would his students respond to mine?
When my students logged into their blogs this morning, I heard an audible wave crescendo around the room. "I have 55 views on this post!" "Ms. Ward, I have 11 comments!" "Holy cow, people are reading my work!" And then my students started to respond to Mr. Kelley's writers.
Julia, an eighth grader in Mr. Kelley's class, wrote about her struggles with blogging, with coming up with topics. And my students responded, honestly, with empathy, and with encouragement.
This is the power of having students compose for real readers. This is the power of connection!
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