Blog Day 2

We are really into it now. The students have officially blogged twice - three times if you count their first stating the name of the book and why they chose it. It is getting quite involved, actually. Some people are putting pictures on their blog sites, some are posting photos for their profile pics (I won't let them put actual photos of themselves - no identifying elements). We have worked it out so kids can access their blogs anytime on the school computers, so many are going during study halls. I think a lot of students are having some fun with it. I put up a poll on my page to see how they felt about it, and I am anxious to see the results.

There have been a few times that some troubleshooting was needed. There are some comments going up that aren't really "academic." I feel really out-of-control with these; I can't delete them from anyone's blog - the blogger him or herself has to. I am also fighting the problem of spelling, usage, mechanics. Microsoft Word does so much work for people when it comes to spelling etc. It automatically capitalizes the "I"'s, it will automatically correct the spelling on words, it will do things without the typer even realizing it. The composer on the blogs doesn't do that. It is very obvious on the blogs. Frightening.

I have decided to give 10 points per blog. I am keeping track on a chart of page numbers read and points given per blog. I need to come up with an actual rubric for these. My process so far has involved deducting points for not reading the assigned page amounts (1 point), not answering the question (1 point), and mechanics (1-2 points depending upon severity). I have given topics to blog about. The first blog was : give a physical description as well as a description of each character's personality. Does the author use a direct or indirect method of revealing the characterization? The second blog was: describe the setting - include location, time period, and socioeconomic characteristics.

I guess personally I really like this project. It is taking some organization - which I can always use the practice in - and some time to get everything set up, but I like that I'm not lugging around papers. I can actually give kids a lot more feedback - and much more quickly - than if I write it on thier assignments and try to find time to hand the assignments back. I'm getting information about a lot of books that sound good, too. Now if I only had time to read some of them.