I have taught this type of writing several times, so I decided it would be a good opportunity to add a new component: blogging. I've told my students that we are focusing on the audience and purpose for writing because with a blog, a potential audience could actually read their material. This made a few of my students a little nervous at first, but since I am allowing them to create an anonymous blog, their fears were short lived.
However, I realized today that I underestimated the amount of time that is necessary to learn about blogging and to create a blog. We had a computer lab scheduled today, and I had several goals planned, goals that now seem pretty lofty. I planned to: 1) watch a short YouTube video about blogging (see my last post), 2) show them this blog as an example, 3) set up our blogs, 4) review some examples, 5) create a first blog post about the example blogs. We only got through items 1, 2, and 3 today. It took over an hour to complete these things. I am realizing that blogging is a big time investment. I hope that this investment will be worth it.
I have some fun ideas planned for blogging in this class, and I hope I have the time to use them. I want to teach the method of rhetorical analysis through music videos because I think it will be an easier way to help students understand rhetorical elements and how to evaluate the strength of an argument. Also, I think it will be fun to ask students to choose a music video, add a YouTube music video to their blog, and complete a rhetorical analysis for their chosen video, that they will then share with the class. I can see my students reading each other's blogs, listening to/viewing several videos, and commenting about their classmates' analyses. Yet, after today I am worried about how much time this will take.
I am hopeful that I can help my students become comfortable with blogs so that they can post blogs as homework outside of class. However, my students range in age from 19 to their late 50s and vary in technical experience, so I think they will need a good amount of guided practice. I'll have to see how it goes.
I am hopeful that I can help my students become comfortable with blogs so that they can post blogs as homework outside of class. However, my students range in age from 19 to their late 50s and vary in technical experience, so I think they will need a good amount of guided practice. I'll have to see how it goes.
To be continued...
It's great to see that you let your students pick their topic. We all know that it is easier to write about something when we have an interest in the subject. At my community college in Pittsburgh, I was never given this opportunity. Blogging should give an interesting aspect to this assignment in that the act of blogging is a little more relaxed. It also takes the personal aspect of writing into a deeper level.
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