I spend a lot of my free time attempting to come up with new ways to interact with texts and materials. This is my most recent endeavor. While my English classes may not be happy to be creating blogs so that they can interact with texts and each other in a technological setting, they are Surely Out of Luck.
Using blogs in education is beneficial to the students' critical and analytical thinking, it increases students' interaction with one another while discussing content and texts, it will increase students exposure to quality content, allows for students to interact while outside of the classroom, and also offers a means for students to express their thoughts on a topic completely.
Obviously, some may try to take their blogging to a new level and even try to push the envelope on what is appropriate for the school-based use. The things that students need to know about their blog posts are: 1. If I deem their post inappropriate they will be asked to remove it and receive no credit for their work. 2. Their interactions with other students' blogs will be treated the same way. 3. Writing conventions are certainly going to be graded. 4. Each blog post must be at least 250-300 words and will be worth 10 points. 5. they will earn an additional five points for interacting with at least five of their classmates' blogs. These interactions need to be academic interactions that question, comment on, and advance the discussion/ideas that the blog has presented.
A final note: I will post your blogging topics on this blog.
Blog Topic: Compare and contrast "Catch the Moon" by Judith Ortiz Cofer with "The Bass, the River, and Sheila Mant" by W.D. Wetherell. You will want to compare the characters, the themes, the symbols, the settings, the conflicts, and any other things that you deem necessary.
