Blog Assignment

Purpose and Genre: This assignment is designed to give you a platform to develop digital literacies. Blogs typically have a single topic or theme that they focus on, offer regular commentary about that topic, and--through a comment feature--allow responses from an audience. As stated in the Norton, blogs consist of opinions, reflections, information, and more--with writing, photos, video and audio files, and links to other sites (602). Assignment: Create a blog that fulfills the genre requirements and update it regularly. You will create and regularly update your blog as a way to showcase your learning: your ideas, commentary, questions, breakthroughs, struggles, etc. should be documented, as they relate to this course and/or your development as a writer. Keep the genre in mind. We will explore this in class, but you might include links to sources you are reading to inform your work in class, video clips of news broadcasts that comment on content from class, or even audio of the song you are listening to while you write the first big paper. You will be responsible for completing some blog posts that are assignment by the teacher, but the rest is up to you. The blog will be a host for your formative responses in class. The successful blog will capture a topic or theme from the class (we will explore potential ideas together by looking at the course textbooks and objectives) that is broad enough to allow for a range of posts that chronicle a senior in high schools journey through English 101 and 102, but is focused enough so the purpose of the blog is clear to its readers. Sources: You can check out pgs. 602-603 in the Norton for information about blogs. As far as using sources in your posts, the genre expectations require you to link to the source. Audience: There are many potential audiences to the blog. The teacher will--of course--be an audience in that this will be a way to see your real thinking throughout the course. Your classmates are another audience. You will have an opportunity to create a blog role that links to your classmates blogs so that you can read and comment on them. In addition, the blogs will be public, so outside readers are a possibility. You will be placed in groups of 5-6. Each week, there will be 2 featured bloggers for your group. You will post comments on the featured bloggers from your group. Of course, you are not limited to these opportunities for commenting, but the expectation is there. Length: Check out this resource that explains some of the genre constraints. Please read through some of the top rated blogs to get a feel for how the best blogs are constructed: http://2012.bloggi.es/. These sites should help you understand the length and design of typical blog posts. Due Date: The blog will be due towards the end of each semester. During the semester you will get feedback for how well your blog is meeting the expectations we have established, but you will not receive a grade until the end of the semester. The blog will be graded holistically using the attached rubric, accounting for 20% of your semester grade. Medium/Design: Please see the explanation following this page for the requirements on the design of your blog. Stance: This may depend on the overall tone you are trying to communicate with your blog, or it could vary from post to post. Keep in mind that blogs are typically less academic sounding and clearly have a personality. Additionally: You will lead me through a blog conference at the end of the semester about your blogging experience. This will account for 5% of your overall grade this semester. You will also remix one of your essays or blog posts. This will account for another 5% of your overall grade. That leaves 10% for the blog itself, along with 80% for your 6 major writing assignments.

Developing Your Blog: A Process of Discovery and Development For English 101-102: Rhetoric, JJC offers a particular breakdown of your grade: for semester 1, 80% of your grade is based upon your grade on 6 essays; 20% of your grade comes from everything else that happens. We have dedicate this 20% to your blog. The blog will be a repository for your thoughts, responses, challenges and successes this year. Why a blog? Creating a positive web presence is important. Colleges and future employers may search your digital profile. This doesnt have to be a negative experience. You can control something positive about yourself by doing some critical thinking in a public forum for a broad audience. What will you write about? Well work through this together. Initially, we are looking for at least 1 post each week in response to current events. The key is to use the genre and concepts we are studying during each unit in your post. For example, the first 2-week unit includes a literacy narrative. The genre, then, is narrative. Your goal for this unit is to write narratives inspired by current events. Include links to the stories youre responding to, and maybe videos, songs, images, whatever works for your blog. The most important post youll make during the first semester will be your remix of your essays or one of your blog posts. We will cover that on a separate assignment sheet. Additionally, you will use www.scribd.com to embed every essay you write, explaining your thoughts about how you approached it. We want you to be more concerned with developing your thoughts and not struggling with technology. This document has been created as a way for you to find the platform that works best for you The choices: www.wordpress.com www.blogger.com www.tumblr.com www.weebly.com www.snackwebsites.com Each of these blog platforms brings its own set of rewards and challenges, so rather than assign one to you, we have agreed to let you choose the one that works best for you. By Monday, August 26, you will commit to your blog site of choice, but during that first week of school, how will you choose? You must take the time to explore the links below that explain how these blog platforms function. Each of the first 4 links has a www.edshelf.com representation. This means that there are a number of tutorials for that blog platform. The last one doesnt have edshelf tutorials, but snackwebsites.com is still a viable option. Wordpress: Weebly: https://edshelf.com/tool/wordpress https://edshelf.com/tool/weebly Blogger: https://edshelf.com/tool/blogger Tumblr: https://edshelf.com/tool/tumblr Snackwebsites: http://www.snackwebsites.com/faq.ht ml

By Monday, August 26, you will have created a practice blog using 1 of the platforms listed above. This blog WILL NOT be your actual blog. You might (using your own name, of course) name it something like www.newmanbloggerpractice.blogspot.com to practice posting, making hyperlinks, embedding videos, and inserting photos. You may practice how to use particular widgets on your practice site. This one will never be graded. Its your driveway basketball rim, not your high school court. Practice.

Rubric
The blog points add up to 400 points. The general entries account for 10% of the grade, the remix accounts for 5%, and 5% will come from the blog conference. The remainder of the semester 1 grade, 80%, consists of 6 essays. Purpose (20): Successful (A+ thru B): Uses a blog to complete college-level work and analysis Genre (50): Successful (A+ thru B): Follows the length typical for blog entries Addresses the shifting genres accurately and skillfully for each units posts Medium/Design (50): Successful (A+ thru B): Incorporates images, links, sound, and video as necessary to enhance the blog experience Offers a visually appealing blog in terms of how the information is arranged Shows a skillful application of the opportunities the blog platform offers Audience (50): Successful (A+ thru B): Uses vocabulary appropriate for the tone of the blog and appropriate for a college freshman as well Demonstrates an ability to critically think and reflect Chooses current events worthy of academic reflection and analysis Adheres to the rules and conventions of mechanics, spelling, usage and grammar while still maintaining the style of the blog Stance (30): Successful (A+ thru B): Offers a consistent tone throughout the blog Includes arguments, ideas, and analysis that consistently offer insightful reflection Includes support that reflects well on the implicit or explicit thesis with each entry Remix Entries (separate holistic score for each entry): 9-8: The remix incorporates texts skillfully as a way to reconceive your original essay. The remix may contain some minor errors, but these do not take away from the overall effectiveness. The remix reveals a sophisticated consideration of the original text with metacommentary that offers insight into the choices you made. 7-6: The remix is well-conceived and insightful in how it reimagines the original work, although it presents less skillful use of the blog medium and/or a less consistent relationship to the original text than offerings in the 9-8 category. The metacommentary successfully explains the choices you made. 5: The remix is superficial or thinly developed. It may be rather simplistic in how it reimagines the original essay. While not inaccurate or difficult to follow, the remix is not as skilled as those found in the 7-6 category. 4-3: These lower-half remixes fail to offer insightful reconsiderations of the originals text. The concept may be flawed, oversimplified, or incomplete. The remix may be unfocused or repetitive, with a possible absence of integral parts of the metacommentary. 2-1: While these remixes are included on the blog, they compound the weaknesses of the 4-3 remixes. Often, they are unacceptably brief or incoherent. They may be poorly developed or may contain a poor use of the medium. 9=100%, 8=94%, 7=88%, 6=82%, 5=76%, 4=69%, 3=63%, 2=57%, 1=50%.