Blogging English 102

If you haven’t already done so, please set up your course blog and send me the url (to Shannon_Carter@tamu-commerce.edu). I’ll add it to the Blog Roll to your right.

What will we do with these?

1. Each week, you will have a reading and/or prompt to respond to. You should post your response before the next class. Follow the blogs of some of your classmates, as these will prove useful in forming your Research Teams and knowing what your smart classmates are up to!

2. Each week, four of you will be assigned as Discussion Leaders.We’ll select a different team of 4 each time.

Instructions for Discussion Leaders:

Your job as Discussion Leader (DL) is divided into two parts, both of which will be useful to both your classmates and your own research project. These activities will certainly be a useful way to inform our class discussions.

Part I: Read and respond to FOUR of your classmates blogs. These responses should be kind and generative. For a model, see some of the posts and responses at the blog for my graduate course about teaching writing at http://english675.wordpress.com/ . Check the “Blogroll” for anyone other than the first name listed. D’Andra’s just getting started. Try Kim, Laura, Mandy, Sean, Sean, or Toni.

Be sure you are responding to students that your team of Discussion Leaders haven’t yet responded to. We want everyone read and heard. Each DL should cover four student blogs not covered by another DL posting that week. It may make sense to get with your team and divvy up the list of bloggers before you get started.

Responses due: Post responses to each Research Journal posted the week you are serving as Discussion Leader. That means about 8 responses posted by each Discussion Leader in any given week.

For example, respond to Research Journals posted during Week 3 (September 14-September 18) before class the following week (Tuesday, September 22). Your responses are always due before class on Tuesday of the following week.

Part II: Week in Review

Summarize recurring themes found in the blogs you read and responded to during the week you are reviewing. What were the most common arguments? What can we learn from your classmate’s reading of things? What questions emerge from this reading? Your focus should be on their conversations not your own. But you can certainly interject something from your own after summarizing theirs. And get us thinking. About writing. About research. About your research projects. About literacy.

Post these reviews to the “Week in Review” tab above. These will always be due the Tuesday following the week you are reviewing. (the Week in Review generated by that same graduate class mentioned earlier might be useful to you. You can find that here.

Week 3 in Review will be due before class Tuesday, September 22.