My primary goal in incorporating the blog into the course this year was to foster some discussion outside of the classroom and to afford you the opportunity to present and discuss ideas not necessarily covered in class. How successful do you believe the blogs were? Are there any changes (form or content) you think I should make for next year?
16 comments:
I don't think that the blogs were very successful. I think that, oh hey, much like a summer packet, people did all their blogs at one time and didn't get much out of them. Often I posted one of the first responses, so I never really looked back and saw what other people had to say, and I feel like this is true for many others. I think if you really want to make the blogs more successful than you should set it up more like a chatroom. Each person should supply a comment that is a reply to the other person's statement. Instead of every single person supplying their own ideas they would be agreeing or disagreeing along with forming their own opinions. P.S. I liked the questions that were opinion-based the best.
I think the blogs were pretty successful. Like Toni said most people probably did all of them the night before but that could happen with any other assignment. I liked the idea of discussing interesting topics not covered in class. The only problem is that you after you post most people are probably not going to go back and read what other people wrote. I'm not sure how you could change this. Maybe have students make two posts on each blog and have them only do 3 instead of 5. Just so that you its more of a back and forth discussion instead of people throwing up random answers to get credit.
I heart blogs! Sure they're time consuming, tedious, and often just annoying, but I liked them. KEEP THEM. Winkler's doing blogs with her eleventh grade ap kids, so this should be no problem for them. Personally, I enjoy sharing my opinions, so blogs actually were enjoyable for me (though I certainly won't miss them). And plus, this is the only time that we could ever do extra credit! They aren't really that difficult either, just put a response down and repeat. I think this is a good way to get some great ideas from classmates who might otherwise not share them. Not only that, but i think its interesting to learn what others' opinions are. They are pretty much good the way they are. Maybe just add moar extra credit.
I think the blogs were successful for people who took advantage of them. People like me however most of the time were freaking out to get them done the night before they were due. The people who did take it seriously like one of the months I actually did, really had an opportunity to give our own opinions on things we might not have in class. Im shy in class and therefore I dont speak because im terrified of being wrong. These blogs were a way for me personally to get my own opinions out without feeling the pressure of those around me. the questions I did not like were the ones where we had to research and find quotes or websites since it felt like a chore or a large homework assignment and it lost that fun opinion feel.
I didn't really mind doing the blogs. Sometimes I was rushing around last minute, but I still liked getting to talk about things that we didn't talk about in class. Sometimes really interesting thoughts would come up in the blogs and that could be carried over to a class discussion. I do think though, that sometimes there would be so many comments on one blog that people wouldn’t really go back and read all of the comments. I felt sometimes like I had to answer a specific blog, even if I didn’t have a strong opinion about the topic, just because I needed to answer a specific amount of blogs. You should try to see if there is some way to let students post topics, this way if we really don’t feel strongly about the blogs that are up we can post our own and get another discussion going.
i don't know, it was just really annoying to remember to do it. we have enough homework as it is. i wasn't really a fan of it because well....we already get PLENTY of school stuff thrown at us outside of school, any more is certainly not welcomed. but i gotta say some were interesting to do, maybe it should be like an extra credit thing where you can only do like 2 or 3 per month, it's just extra points so people who don't have a lot of free time don't get punished for not sitting on the computer for extended periods of time.
I like them. They're unique, to the point, and they discuss what WE think, not what random literary critics think. And they're a way to just open up and write about whatever it is we want to write about. Easy assignment just for expressing ourselves on subjects, I guess. They're pretty cool. Keep them forever :)
i think the blogs were definatly not successful. Most of us rushed to do them at the end of every month, and sometimes even forgot them completely. They are a good idea but are difficult to put into practice. it may be better to make them optional or if you really want to make them mandatory just make one or two mandatory and the rest extra credit or optional. but w/e you clearly dont care about how i feel since you brought mr.hall into class.
I liked the blogs in some cases. Like when we watched that "film" Crimes and Misdemeanors. We didn't really get to discuss it in class. But overall I thought some of them were just busy-work type questions. And everyone does them at once, so like everyone said...there is no real discussion. Next year I'd say the blogs should be more focused on necessary things that aren't covered in class (the Madame Bovary picture one was good and AP stuff). But I feel like it should be less mandatory -- like you have to do 3 a month. I actually think that way it's really hard to remember to do them. But i guess it's just a college thing.
I like tonis idea of making it more discussion-based, but im not sure how we'd do that. MAybe the printing out (like we did with Raskolnikov) and discussing a few in class would be more helpful. That may lead to a bigger discussion if you choose one blog a month to talk about in class.
As much as I would complain about the blogs and make a big fus about writing them, there's a part of me that actually enjoyed them. There were certain topics that we would never discuss in class and that really piqued my attention so I was able to just express my opinion about the situation. It was pretty cool to be able to get a chance to say what you say because it didn't always work out that way in class. Sometimes my ideas would come to me later and there would be a blog on them so it helped me personally because I was able to say what I never would have said. Like Toni said, the opinion-based questions were the best. I liked going on my rants, kind of like now, about how I feel personally about something. Overall, I really do feel like they were a success.
There is nothing wrong with blogs, just with the people who bash them. They are not tedious, they are grade boosters. Just sit down and take the half-hour to do them. But foremost, blogs are great for fostering meaningful discussions. Blogs are a new tool part of 21st century education curriculum. Although highly informal, they can really provide for some analysis and discussion. Bottom line, keep the blogs. I guarantee within a few years kids will grow to love them.
I like the blogs, and would recommend keeping them. Yeah, some people tend to wait to the last minute and then do them all, or on occasion forget to do them at all (yes I am looking in a mirror right now), but they can definitely be effective for some people and for some topics. Something that definitely needs to be done is MORE BLOGS.
Also, if you plan on reusing some blogs, I would reccommend finding a way to hide the blog entries already done for the previous year.
I do think that the blogs are a good idea and should be kept for next year. Although I never really loved doing them, I think that they are a good way to express ideas you might not feel like sharing in class. Personally, I usually like to just listen to what others have to say in class and don't participate a whole lot so I feel like the blogs are a good way to get my opinions accross. Also, higher level english classes tend to usually be based on only a few grades per quarter so it's nice to have a few small grades, like blogs, you know you can get full credit on.
by successful, do you mean worth doing? because i think many of the blogs were very worth doing. Some were thought provoking, and allowed us to comment on topics that we wouldn't really talk about in a classroom. though, i would say one thing: for next year you should do the blogs, but since some of us do the blogs at the start/middle/end, we never really get to read other people's responses (or forget or don't feel like going back to read them). so maybe during like 15 minutes of "poetry fridays" you could pick a blog and allow people to comment on the topic, even if it's just like summer reading, or "what is love" or whatever. it'd be interesting.
I think that the blogs were pretty creative. Since I was one of the people that was one of the last few to post, I enjoyed reading and listening everyones thoughts and opinions. Everyone had something totally different to say, and it was also fun to see the little online arguments. It was also fun for me to share my ideas because i dont really talk too much during class. They might be kind of pointless for the people that do them right away and never go back to check what others wrote becasue they arent really disscussing anyhting with anyone..just answering a question or giving there opinion. Maybe a good idea would be after the blogs are due, one month, the other month instead of posting new ones for the next month, we should instead go back to the ones we already did, and comment on whose ideas were good and who had interesting points. This way everyone would have to go back and read what others had to say.
I deffinitely agree with describing the blogs as creative. I've never done anything like them before, so I'm honestly glad I had the chance to try something new before moving off to college. Change is always good! Plus they were pretty open ended. Open ended is always good for me.
I cant forget to mention that I, at times, was scrambling to get them done in the last few hours before they were due. But, I still did enjoy writing responses to some of them. I can even say some of them were pretty clever Mr. Cianflone. I would keep them going for next year and I wouldn't change much. The only thing is that maybe next years class could get more involved on whats posted on the blog? Not sure how well that would work though...
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