8th To Kill a Mockingbird
Blog Instructions
For our study of To
Kill A Mockingbird, you will be contributing to a class blog. The goal of
this class project is to create an accessible, detailed, and organized archive
of all of our thoughts about Harper Lee’s novel.
The goals of using
this medium are to…
• Enrich your
understanding of the novel by asking you to read and respond to your
classmates’ analysis and thoughts about the novel.
• Improve
your writing by asking you to post and comment regularly.
• Save paper!
• Help you
remember important details, characters and themes from the novel by storing all
of this critical information online.
• Improve
your 21st century literacy skills by asking you to post, comment, create links
and embed videos and imagery into your blog work.
• Get you
thinking about what it means to blog safely and to publish something for public
consumption.
Set-up:
In order to participate, you will have to accept my
invitation that I have sent you. When you accept it, you will be sent to a log
in screen – login in using your BBN Google Account. If you don’t have one or
are having issues, email Ms. Grinshpan.
Using your Google username and password, you will be able to
log into www.blogger.com and access our class blog: http://mrrossitersblog.blogspot.com/
You must always post and comment using your username or you will not receive
credit.
Posting:
A post is a
two-paragraph (at least ten good sentences) entry that is published on the
front page of the blog. Posts are published in chronological order and are
available for commenting. In order to post, you will need to log into www.blogger.com
and click on “New Post.” You will be provided with space to type. The title
should always be a question: either the one I’ve asked you to answer or one
you’ve come up with yourself. Proofread your post carefully before you
publish. You can’t make any changes once you’ve published. Once
you’ve finished your post, click on “Publish Post.” You should plan on posting
about once every two weeks. There are two ways you could be asked to post:
Respond to a specific question.
The questions for your post will be put up on the blog in advance. You may
choose to write on any of the questions. In your response you should briefly
provide context for your post (what are the key scenes from the novel that
helped you shape your answer?), respond to the question in detail, and connect
your response to other ideas/themes/details you’ve read in the novel. Your
response should include at least one quotation from the night’s reading (make
sure to include page #’s). Excellent posts not only give complete, thoughtful
answers, but also encourage discussion in the comments section, either by
asking questions at the end or by providing links to relevant
sits/video/imagery that you’d like your classmates to comment on.
Free response. If you’ve been
assigned a free response, it is your job to come up with your own question to
answer and then write a response. This is more difficult than #1, but it also
allows you to be more creative. You are not limited to addressing a specific
scene or moment from the night’s reading, but rather you can ask a more general
question about the book or even examine a scene from previous chapters that you
think is relevant. You can also include a hyperlink, video, quotation or image
from another site that inspired your question. As with #1, the best free
responses will encourage discussion in the comments section.
Grading Criteria:
o
“Check plus” = Title is a question, post
addresses the title question, post includes details from text (including one
good quotation with page #), post is analysis and not just summary, post
ends with thoughtful question(s) that encourages further discussion. Post is
perfectly proofread!
o
“Check” = Post is missing/doesn’t fulfill one or
two of above criteria
o
“Check minus” = post missing more than two
criteria
Commenting:
You can
comment on a post by clicking on the “Comments” link at the bottom of the post.
Don’t forget you must be logged in to get credit for your comment. Comments
should be direct responses to the information and ideas in the post OR to a
previous comment to that post. Comments let the writer know he/she has an
audience, encourage people to write more and better pieces and help people to
think more deeply about an issue. It's just like a discussion in class: if you
don't "listen" to the post and other comments, the conversation isn't
productive. Proofread your comments carefully before publishing.
You will be
expected to comment multiple times a week, either on your classmates’ posts or
on mine. An excellent comment is four to five good sentences and includes at
least one sentence that shows you understand the ideas expressed in the post
you just read, at least two sentences that respond to the post in a thoughtful
way that adds information to the post (this can be in agreeing with
what’s stated or disagreeing) and at least one sentence/question that
encourages further discussion.
Grading
criteria: You are graded on the frequency and quality of your comments.
·
Three or more excellent comments per week:
“Check plus”
·
Three OK comments or two excellent comments per
week: “Check”
·
Two OK comments or fewer per week: “Check minus”
Important Miscellaneous Details
- You can only comment ONCE per post.
- You can only comment TWICE per homework
night.
- Read the post and all the comments
before you put up your comment.
- Grammar and mechanics do count, so
proofread your work.
- You should add new information to the
conversation - not say what everyone else said.
- When posting, your post needs to be
published by 7:30 p.m. the night before the reading is due (even on the skip
days). If you can’t do this, you must talk with me in advance.
- Sign your post & comments if your
username is not somehow related to your name.
- Weekend posters need to do so by NOON on
Sundays (this means you can post anytime before this).
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