This semester, I’m trying out a new project for my writing class that could be interesting. I’m inviting my students to start a blog about anything they want (within reason) in an attempt to get them excited (or at least relaxed) about writing. Hopefully, they’ll love it and keep it going even after they finish the class.

 I’d love to get some feedback from anyone who’s tried out blogs in the classroom.

Since they’re adults, I luckily don’t have to worry too much about the privacy issues of your K-12 students.  

As with any assignment with this much freedom, this has potential to shock me by:

 - how amazingly impressive and creative students can 

 - how much of a disaster this could be, OR

 - how zero people choose to participate

If you’d check out the assignment and share your thoughts and/or advice, I’d really appreciate it!

Create Your Own Blog Project

To help you become more comfortable as a writer, I invite you to write about something you love… on your own blog. A blog is like an online journal that makes it easy to publish your own writing to the internet.

Topic: Anything you’re passionate about, though I will be reading it, so make sure it’s appropriate. You could write about sports, parenting, movies, your profession, or anything that you love.

Requirements:

·         Let me know what topic you’ve chosen before you start.

·         12 total posts of 200-500 words once a week (Must be weekly, cannot post 12 entries at the end of term.)

·         Goal of each post: Write and support an assertion.

o        An assertion is a single sentence that declares an idea that should initiate a thought or argument. These are the kind of sentences that will make up the theses of your essays.

o        Examples:

§         If you’ve chosen The Bulls as your topic, you could write about what trade options would improve their playing.

§         If your topic is movies, you could write a movie review in which you explain what makes the movie a success or a failure.

·         You must provide me the link to your blog. 

Getting Started:

I’d be happy to help you as you set up your blog. Here are the links to two major blog sites. Set up an account with one of them. Contact me if you need extra help!

www.blogger.com

www.tumblr.com

Extra Credit: You can earn up to 5% credit to your final grade.

So what’s your blog project predication? Share in the comments section!