7. Blogging

When we started working in schools and community groups back in 2013 one thing that really jumped out at us was the lack of provision for young people who enjoyed writing outside of the classroom. So we got together with a number of young people and provided them with a space to discuss what they might like to do when it came to writing beyond school.

Bringing together young people aged between 10 and 18, from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds, different schools and with lots of different interests was an eye-opening experience. They wanted to create content for something, whether it be a website or magazine and they were extremely responsive to this. NEBeep was born, an online magazine for young people written by young people and a print version was also developed.

So, while setting up an actual physical publication might not be for you, you may consider a blog or just create content using these guidelines for a website you already have access to. 

This module has been written to give you some pointers on setting these up successfully and how to manage them, using our own experience at running the Beep project for the last nine years. Creating the content will be just the same for the blog as it would be for the publication – consider what your audience wants to hear or read about and work from there.

Key Objectives

1. To understand how blogs can also showcase content.
2. To bring together the team to discuss how this may benefit your audience and content.
3. To consider platforms for hosting a blog.

Resources included in this module:

1. Checklist – info covered in the module and resources available.
2. Guidelines – all you need to know about Blogging and how to create your own blog and the content to populate it.
3. A suggested lesson plan and a blank template to create your own.
4. Worksheets – these allow your writers to share what they know about blogging.
5. Beep Guidelines – an opportunity to see read the guidelines we put in place for our own blog to ensure consistency.
6. Facilitator Monitoring Form – an opportunity to capture the engagement, achievements etc of your writers.