The Posts Are Coming!

My ENG 111 J class has been tasked to write their first blog postings! These posts will be due (we'll see how well they deal with deadlines...) by midnight next Monday (Feb. 2). So, check back early next week to read the first round of posts. On the right-hand side of this page, you'll find the first prompt (BLOG PROMPT #1).

The idea behind the prompt: Basically, what I'm trying to do is get a dialogue started about the culture that surrounds us. We tend to become composites of the products that we consume. As such, we identify closely with the songs, movies, and television shows that we love, watch regularly, and even set up to DVR or TiVo.

So, as we begin this writing and social experiment, I thought it best to write from home.

The goal is to eventually move this personal writing into a more public space-- to take statements like "I love Bruce Springsteen!" and qualify them with solid, analytical, researched and organized writing. By the time we stop posting, my students should have enough writing generated to produce quality, documented essays!

In the mean time, I've offered my own response to the prompt as an example. It's not great writing, but it's a start. To view this post, scroll through BLOG ROLL - ENG 111 J and click on Teacher Man's World of Words.

A funny thing happened on the way to blogging...

Hello all!

Since I started using blogging in my writing courses, I've relied primarily on Google's Blogger as a platform. It's easy to set up, it links with other services (Yahoo!), and it's the platform that I chose when I started my personal blog (somewhere out there in the world of words, disengaged from my "professional" self!).

So, when I started this project (again)-- with a unique group of students working at a distance-- I didn't give much thought to the "platform" issue.

Turns out, though, we have a problem.

The computers that my National Guard students are relying on have security blocks that won't allow them to access Blogger! As such, I am moving their operation over to WordPress.com instead. A by-product of this move? I think I like WordPress more than Blogger!

If you'd like to find out why, take a look at the new hub site: Pop Write World On Word Press.

What you'll find there is a more robust "hub" site. I've added layers of pages that allow outside-of-Blackboard access to project details. If you're a visitor (and not a graded participant!), then feel free to peruse these materials to get a better understanding of what this Pop Write World thing is all about!

The Things We Love

On our very first day of class, I required my students to respond to this prompt:

The editors of Entertainment Weekly are putting together a special issue focusing on "The Things We Love." The magazine is soliciting articles from readers about their favorite movies, television shows, musicians and songs, and books.

Take a few minutes to think about the things you love to watch, listen to, and read.

Then write an essay about your favorite thing.

Their responses (handwritten in 60 minutes or less with very little guidance) were the seeds of our Pop Write World experience. My intention was to have them take their initial writings and revise them into concise blog postings. These first postings would be our starting point for future blogs about the culture that shapes and guides us.

For their revisions, they had a little more guidance. I asked them to re-read their initial writings and ask questions (What did you do well? What would you change? What makes sense? What doesn't make sense?). I gave them a handout with some process clues (What's the thesis? What are your main points? Where are your "hooks"? Where do you go from here?).

I also reiterated the key point to the blog experience: Because their "audience" will be the great big blog-o-sphere, I want them to approach blogging as if they were selling their wares to skeptics.

This project is all about audience.

While working on their revisions, I had them each set up separate blogs, and then I connected them to this site.

Each blog is different; each blogger has attempted the tasks I've described here.

Take a look and see what you think!

Oh, and there will be more to come…