My new thoughts on blogging

Last summer, when I wrote a proposal to incorporate blogs into the TE 448 course, I wasn't sure where the project would lead. Since I was pretty new to blogging myself, I knew that I was going to have to learn along with all of you and draw heavily on the expertise of the class. Thank you for making the project so successful!

Part of my identity and practice as a teacher is to analyze student work and consider student feedback as I teach. Sometimes I do this more formally in action research projects, and sometimes I just think of it as part of good teaching. Usually I try to share what I've learned with the class in some way, although this is the first time I've gone "public" with my reflections! (And, since I, like all of you, will need a portfolio when I begin my job search, this record of my thinking will come in handy!)

I've spent today summarizing results of our end of the semester feedback activity, rereading your blogs (especially from the day we did a completely on-line discussion), thinking about how we seemed to use them for different purposes, reflecting on the discussions we had throughout the semester, rereading the correspondences from different authors, looking at our "public" site for final projects, and even revisiting the post-its that are stuck to the wall by my desk that say things like "How can I encourage more commenting???".

Here's what I'm planning for next semester:

• Sharing your feedback with the new TE 448 instructor who is planning on continuing to use blogs. I'll talk to her about whether she might offer more or a different structure that would encourage more focus and commenting. For example, I wonder if only subscribing to your group's blogs would have focused conversation. Or, maybe a schedule? The tension for me here is that this feels less authentic. I usually think of blogging as writing that one does as the spirit moves you!

• Developing a community, class blog for TE 348 next semester, decreasing the number of required posts, and making a rough schedule for posting/commenting. I'm hoping that this will focus discussion and make the project more manageable. Since TE 348 is a prerequisite for TE 448, I'm also thinking about this as a kind of scaffolding that might make individual blogs in TE 448 more manageable.

Here are my new questions:

• Will having a community blog focus on-line discussion so that people feel that others are reading and responding to their ideas?
• Will the change shift the interaction patterns? For example, will there be more student-student interactions, rather than student-instructor-student interactions? Or will students think of the blog as "my space"? (Ha, ha... You know what I mean!)
  
• Will there be something lost in the process? For example, I hope that students from this semester continue to write on their blogs. (HINT, HINT) Will students feel less ownership and/or stop blogging after the semester is done?
  
• How will the work load change for me as an instructor? Will it feel more manageable?
  

I'm sure that this newest experiment will raise new questions and innovations! For anyone who would like to see how it goes, you are welcome to read and comment on the TE 348, SS08 blog!

Your thoughts on blogging

As promised, I'm going to post a couple of more times! For anyone who is interested, these are the results of the feedback on blogging you gave me on the last day of class. Although I've added comments here and there, my next post will say a little bit about how I will use it to think about next semester!

Responses to end of semester feedback:
47 responses
(if numbers don't add up, it is because some people wrote more than one answer per question)

How much experience/knowledge of blogging did we have before the semester?

• No experience with blogs before the class (29)
  
• Heard of blogs and/or had read someone else's blog (10)
  
• Quite a bit of experience--they had their own personal blogs or had used them in a class (8)
  

This makes me even more excited that you reported you felt comfortable with blogs at the end of the semester and also makes me appreciate how much you all collaborated with each other.

How comfortable do we feel now?

• Wow. Everyone said that they feel comfortable reading and managing their blogs! Three people did say that they were careful about what they posted since blogs are so public. Many people said that they knew what they wanted to keep learning--sometimes these responses were technical, sometimes they were more about becoming familiar with other blogs and the genre in general.
  

I hope you all keep blogging and "learning along the way". I'm still subscribed to all of your blogs, so you may hear from me!

Will you continue to use blogs? If so, in what capacity?

• Yes, they will continue to use blogs in these ways: (35)
  
• Incorporating them in their classrooms (20). Two of those students mentioned bookclubs specifically.
  
• Reading and sharing ideas (general) (7)
  
• Communicating with parents (5); other teachers (4); and with friends (4)
  
• Finding books/researching (3)
• Adding to a professional portfolio (1)

• In the future as teachers, but weren't planning on doing it soon. (3)
  
• Maybe, but didn't elaborate (3)
  
• No. (6) Although everyone said they would do it if assigned for another class! Several people said it was because they didn't enjoy blogging and that it took too much time.

I hope I hear about how this goes! One topic we didn't talk about is that you may be working in communities where blogging is common and you may work with people who are new to the technology.

What was gained by including blogs in the class?

• Wider range of ideas were shared in the class. (39) People talked about four factors that we gained with the blogs: people had time to think about ideas before responding, we had more time to communicate since we weren't bounded by the class session, and that it was easier for shy people to get in on the conversation. The number of people who said that blogs enriched participation convinces me that they were valuable in the class. At the same time, I need to think about creating a classroom community in which more people feel comfortable participating!
  
• Good preparation for teaching (4)
  
• Project helped them work through a fear of technology. (2) Me too! :-)
  
• Blogging felt "safer" than face to face conversation when talking about serious subjects. (2)
  
• Each of the following was positive: development of artifact, access to information, gained a new literacy skill, found resources, and served as a record of the course. (1 each)
  
• Nothing was gained (1)
  

What was difficult and/or potentially lost?

• Nothing was hard (14)
  
• Remembering to read or post was hard (8)
• Number of blogs was unwieldy (7); several people said that it meant that people weren't responding to each other enough because of this. I agree. I hope the restructuring at the end of the semester helped with this.
  
• Blogs can't be substitute for face to face discussion (6)
  
• Coming up with ideas to write about was difficult (5) You know I struggled with this! You all had so many good ideas in class, which I wanted you to see as legitimate to write about!
  
• Workload/time (4)
  
• Technology was confusing (2)
• Blogging sometimes felt forced, so we didn't get depth (2)
• Fear (1)
  

Would you recommend continuing to use blogs as part of the course?

• Yes, continue using blogs (42)
  
• No, don't use blogs (3)
• Undecided (1)
• Make it optional, maybe for extra credit (1)

If so, are there any changes you think I should make?

• Develop a clear schedule of when people should post (7)
  
• Use prompts (6)
• Require a different mix of posts/comments (3)
• Require more posts (2)
• Require fewer posts (2)
  
• Clarify grading (2): What counts as "a post with substance" To clarify, I meant a focused idea, not necessarily length or elaboration. I emphasized this because I saw some responses like "I agree" without any elaboration. My posts on this blog aren't always a good example of brevity and focus!
  
• Talk about the fact that the general public doesn't have this as part of their lives; require responses; don't require responses; talk more about how to write shorter posts; build in reading author blogs; provide time in class; have a class blog. (1 person each)
  

Final session (and beyond!)

It is Tuesday and I've realized that I may have confused people in the Wednesday session by putting this up too early. For Wednesday (section 001), all you have to do is post your final projects posts (3-5 reviews, 1 professional review, and 1 post reflecting on your project). I will go over the final post and public post in class on Wednesday.

I will say this in class, but thank you for a wonderful semester! Talking to you about books and reading your writing has helped me think of the books we've read and the ideas we've explored in new ways!

Please keep in touch. I'm always happy to talk about a new book or think about a classroom challenge! (I'm still subscribed to your blogs, so if you keep writing, I'll keep reading and responding!)

A final checklist: Everything is due by Monday or Wednesday of next week.

• Hand in blog log. If you don't have it in class, drop it by Erickson 357 (and drop me an email so that I know to expect it)
• On your blog you should have:
• Final project: 3 fiction reviews, 1 professional resource review, 1 post in which you reflect on an aspect of your project as a whole
• Final course post: Find some time in the upcoming week to reread your questioning the text papers, look over the course syllabus, and page through the course readings. Then write a short reflection that highlights how your thinking about diverse literature has changed over the semester. What have you learned? How has your reading/understanding of diverse literature changed over the semester? Do you have new questions/concerns? Where will you go from here? Focus on whichever prompt(s) make sense for you! (This is not a course paper. The idea is to highlight, in a concise manner, a few key points!)
• "Public post" for final project:
  
• In the next couple of days you will receive an email on your MSU account inviting you to be a contributor to the "Issues of Diversity in Children's and Adolescent Literature" blog. Respond as directed to this email.
• Post one or more of your final project posts to this blog. Remember to follow the model for a full citation and labels for the posts.
• Future classes will build on your work, so keep your eyes open!

I know this is a lot to do at a busy time of the year. Email if you have questions. (I'm also around to meet in person!)

What was it like to talk with your group on-line?

For those of you who held your discussion on-line what was that experience like? How was it similar or different from meeting in class? What seemed to be gained or lost? How might this experience impact how you think about your own future teaching?

What was it like to meet, in person, out of class?

For those of you who have met in person for your discussion, what was that experience like? (Where did you meet? How did conversation go? etc.) How was it similar or different from meeting in class? What seemed to be gained or lost? How might this experience impact how you think about your own future teaching?

"Free" applications/Feed by M.T. Anderson

The other day in class I shared the concerns coming out of the Dean's office about using Google applications for university business. (The main concerns being around copyright, privacy, and the fact that the information might not be backed up.) I'm going to start being more careful about reading user agreements before clicking "I agree" and would encourage all of you to check out the Blogger agreement. :-)

I've noticed that a couple of people's blogs have public service announcements in them now. If yours is one of them, did you place those announcements/ads there? Or did Google? Or did Google, with your permission? Why might this matter? Would it matter more if you were blogging with your own students? Are there shades of gray? In other words, is a public service announcement ok, but an ad for soda not?

What about applications like Facebook, which collect marketing data based on one's profile? Would that be ok to use in the classroom?

I don't want to scare people away from using technology, but I do think we have to become increasingly more savvy about our choices. Particularly as teachers! I haven't decided whether to stick with Blogger or move to Edublogs or another application for next semester... What do people think?

I can't end this post without mentioning one of my all-time favorite young adult novels--Feed by M.T. Anderson. What intrigues me about the book is that it suggests so much about how technology might change our lives--for good or bad.

Child_lit mailing list

For anyone who likes keeping up on news having to do with children's literature and/or wants to join a virtual community of people who are interested in children's literature more generally, I would suggest joining the child_lit list serve.

To give you a taste of the types of conversations that we have I went back to look over the emails from the last several days. Right now I'm following a spirited debate about religious objections (and, for a few, praise) to Philip Pullman's Dark Materials Trilogy. (More on that later.) Yesterday there was a strand of discussion on "basketball poetry" and representations of jail/prisons.

For more information about the list serve, including how to subscribe, visit:

http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~mjoseph/childlit/about.html

The only downside to the list is that it can fill up your box pretty quickly! There is an option to subscribe and receive everything in a a daily "batch" email.

Session 12: Jewish American Literature

We won't be meeting together for session 12. Instead, you will have the option of arranging to meet with your discussion group for a face to face discussion and/or discussing the texts through blog posts.

As is indicated in the syllabus, everyone will read:

• Confessions of a Closet Catholic
  
• Silver (2002): What criteria does Silver suggest for evaluating books?
  
• Kimmel (2003): How does Kimmel understand the "Jewish content" of his stories?
  
• Group C members write a questioning the text paper and submit it to the dropbox by 6 pm the evening before your class was scheduled.

Here are some additional texts for you to consider. (We would have looked at in class):

• Read "The Shoebox" (posted on Angel). Which shoebox do you think the boy intended to take with him? How does this story connect to larger themes/issues related to Jewish identity and history?
• "Jewish book choice" memo. (posted on Angel): This is a letter that I wrote to the team when we were trying to decide which book to use as the selection for this week. After reading about the options, which would you choose for the course? Why?
  
• One of Kimmel's picture books. (Available at most libraries/bookstores) Do you agree that his work includes "positive Jewish content"? Do the stories seem universal in some respects? You might also check out some of the award winners.
  

If you are going to meet in person:

• Arrange when and where to meet with your discussion group. You can meet on campus, for coffee, at someone's house. (Just be sensitive to transportation/$ issues.) In some ways this might be a more "authentic" discussion than an in-class meeting.
  
• Discuss Confessions, the readings, and "The Shoebox", and/or the letter.
  
• Take notes on what you discuss and whether/how this meeting felt different or lead to different types of ideas than a whole class session.
• Post a description of your meeting and 1-2 key ideas that came out of discussion on your blog. You may also contribute a comment to the "what was it like to meet out of class?" post on the class blog.
• You are welcome to read other blogs and participate in those discussions as well!
  

If you are going to have your discussion on-line:

• Cs begin one strand of discussion on their blogs by posting a very abbreviated version of their QTT paper
  
• As and Bs (and Cs, if they want) should begin strands of discussion on their own blogs. Here are some ideas: post a short response to the Silver/Kimmel articles. (This could be an interesting quote, idea, question, connection, etc.), post a response to "The Shoebox" or "Jewish book choice", raise another question related to Confessions, share a profession resource you find on-line, etc. Remember that short, focus posts often lead to focused responses!
  
• Everyone in your discussion group needs to participate in each strand of discussion. You might set up a schedule to decide when the initial posts are made and a "closing time".
• Contribute a comment to the "What was it like to discuss ideas on-line?" post on the class website.

We'll talk about the timing of all of this. Remember that you'll be preparing for session 13 as well, so you'll have to manage your time (especially because some of you will be traveling over the Thanksgiving break)!

Feel free to comment and ask questions (particularly since we won't meet this session!)

Manga as a genre/Different blog format

I've been poking around to see how other instructors use blogging in their literature/literacy classes and I found Everyday Literacies. Here's a link to a post two students did on Manga, a genre we aren't addressing! (Although I will bring in a graphic novel in a couple of weeks.)

I thought that it was interesting that:

• Rather than each student having a blog, all the class members are authors of the same class blog
• The writing style seems more "chatty" or relaxed(?) than the type of writing we've been doing.
• The writing seems to serve multiple purposes: collaboration, sharing information, floating ideas, etc.
  

One of the key ideas I want people to have as they leave this class is that our design choices have pedagogical consequences! After looking at this site, do you see any advantages or disadvantages to the blog's design? (Or maybe it makes sense to talk about this in terms of different purposes?)

Remember to log blog activity!

This weekend I spent some time looking at your blogs and catching up on reading posts and comments. Today I realized that I wasn't systematically recording people's participation! (Good news in terms of what it says in terms of how engaged I am in your writing, bad news in terms of record keeping.)

Please continue to keep track of your posting and commenting activity on the log that is at the end of the syllabus! It will help me "catch" any work you've done that I've missed!

Citing sources/Giving credit for ideas

Although we've talked about how blogs are somewhat informal writing, I want to clarify that you still need to give credit for the sources from which you draw ideas. (And certainly need to indicate direct quotes and their sources, regardless of whether they are from print or electronic media.)

For example,

• If you use a direct quote you need to put it in quotation marks or off-set it and give the source.
  
• If you paraphrase someone else's idea, you need to indicate that you've done so.

In most cases I think that doing this informally is fine. (Meaning you don't have to do a reference list like you might in a course paper.) For example, indicating the author's name and year of publication when you are drawing from a course reading or including the web address of where you drew a quote or big idea.

Here's where things get a little fuzzier, since a lot of our work is collaborative.

• If you are summarizing ideas formed in group discussion or sharing an idea that one of your classmates developed, you need to indicate that.

For example, if your analysis of a book is the product of a whole group discussion that helped you think of the book in new ways, say so. For example, "Class discussion helped me see..." or "One of my group members helped me understand..." or "Our debriefing after the such-and-such activity made me realize..." Or maybe leading with, "One of my group members wrote a questioning the text paper that made me look at the book in a different way".

Several positive things come out of acknowledging sources: it allows readers to track down written sources, it reminds us of the value of talking through ideas and hearing multiple interpretations of text and it keeps us "honest" in terms of sharing the credit for ideas.

I know there may be times when the issue of what counts as one's own idea and what is drawn more directly from others may seem blurry. Let's keep this conversation open!

Final project

The final project is an opportunity to practice selecting, reviewing, and researching books on a topic of your choice. More importantly, you'll be sharing your work with a larger educational community!

During session 7 we will read through the directions and rubric for the final project. (You should have picked up a hard copy of these documents in class last week. They are also posted on Angel.)

Here are some links that you might find helpful:

• Sample book review that models the format of the review: MLA citation, book cover, summary of book, critical component, labels. (Remember that "critical" can be a positive or negative evaluation. The important aspect is that you draw on our work in the class to thoughtfully consider the text as a piece of literature.)
• Sample professional/critical resource: Remember that this can be a review of a resource as a whole OR can be a post in which you share a focused idea/question from the resource.
  
• Link to "public site" at which you'll post one or more of your reviews. (Don't worry about this now, I'll provide directions on selecting and posting your final work later in the semester.)
  

Although this is an optional post, you might want to write about why you are focusing on your topic and/or where you are "coming from" as a reader. Here's an example post in which one of your classmates talks about her interests.

Please post questions and comments about this project here. That way everyone will benefit from the discussion and responses that result from your queries!

Teaching Tolerance arrived today!

I just went to my mailbox and my copy of "Teaching Tolerance" had arrived! I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but I can already see that there are articles on a number of topics we've discussed in class in recent weeks. The cover story is:

• "One Nation, Many Gods: A California school district learns how studying religion can open minds rather than close debate"

But there are also articles on inclusion, integration, "dismissing stereotypes about people living in poverty", "Christian normalcy", and gender-based bullying.

Blogging idea: Check out the on-line Fall 2007 edition of Teaching Tolerance and choose an article to read. Then summarize it and respond to one of the ideas presented in the article. (Remember, responding can be about elaboration, challenging, questioning, etc.)

Blogging: Which posts seem to invite comments?

As an author of a blog I want people to read my posts, but I also want responses and interaction from my readers!

You might also analyze what has been happening with our own posts. (In a similar way to what I did when I read through the blogs to analyze how we were using them.)

• What moves you to comment on a post? (No fair saying that it fulfills an assignment!)
  
• What do you notice about the structure or content of the posts that seem to provoke comments? (And I mean provoke in a nice way!)
• How might thinking about the genre of blogs/our discourse community shape how you write in the future!

Blogging ideas, take 2

It seems like there's an even split in the class between those who like the very open nature of blogging and those who feel like they need more guidance in thinking of what to write. For those who feel like prompts constrain them, keep writing as the spirit moves you!

For those who want more direction, you might be inspired by what your classmates are doing! Here are a some of ways that I've seen people using the blogs so far:

• Erin wrote a book review
  
• Lindsay and Laura responded to articles that were available in class, but we didn't discuss
• Lindsay and Stephanie commented on current events that they connected to themes of the class
  
• Lisa tried to clarify a term
• Tara extended a class discussion by adding a perspective that we didn't hear in class
  
• Tricia raised a question about an article
• Trisha made a connection to a community event
• Courtney reflected on how discussion changed her reading of a text
• Jessica shared a resource related to a class reading
• Katie made a connection with an idea from class and another text (In this case, a Disney movie)
• Katie D. posed a question about a Habibi that prompted a discussion of gender
• Many students have used a prompt from class to state their position on a key topic (I linked to Lauren's as an example). This one was assigned, but you could do this with any theme from the class. In class prompts and those in the "Sessions" posts might give you ideas.
  
• Mike introduced himself by letting use know about his reading interests
• Molly shared background information on an author we are reading
  
• Paula share questions from her questioning the text paper

Remember that blog posts are generally short and focused. You don't need to take on the world in your post, you just have to share an idea, question, resource, etc.

As people have other ideas, add them as comments! We should be able to build quite a list by the end of the semester!

Blogging: Keeping track of comments

I discovered a new feature that might be of use to the class. Using Google Reader or another aggregator will let you know when people add new post to blogs that you want to follow.

However, even if you subscribe to your own blog, you won't know when someone comments on what you've written. (Unless there's a feature I'm missing on Google Reader.)

So how do you know when someone has written a comment to one of your posts?

• Go to the settings tab
• Under settings click on "Comments"
• At the end of the page there is a "Comment notification" feature which allows you to enter an email address so that you get an alert when a comment is posted.

You all know that I'm learning this technology right along with you. If there's an easier/better way to keep track of comments, let us know!

What do we think of blogging so far?

I would like us to start a conversation on how you feel about our use of blogs in the class. Although no one is required to post, please do so if you have a comment or question to add to the discussion.

You might write about:

• What you find valuable about our use of blogs
• What you find to be limiting or frustrating
• How you can imagine using blogs in the future
• Questions you have about the blogs
• Ideas for mini-lessons/discussions we might have in class
  

I'll read the posts carefully, both to guide my planning this semester and think about the use of blogs in future classes.

Blogging and copyright

A number of people have been making connections between current events and the course. Wonderful!

In terms of copyrighted material, you need to be aware of what you can and can not post on your blog. Posting the full text of a copyrighted article, for example, is a no-no. Providing a link to that article, a short excerpt, or summary of the article is fine.

When we get to posting book reviews we'll have to talk about how to post pictures of the front covers of the books.

I'm not an expert in this area--let's ask around and see if we can find more authoritative guidelines on the topic.

New book!: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Here's a link to a book review on Debbie Reese's blog that you might find interesting:

Reviews: Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

I haven't read the book yet, but it looks like it is well received! If you are thinking about focusing on Native American literature for your final project, this might be an interesting selection.

I can't resist a couple of thoughts on blogging:

• When you want to create a link to a particular post, rather than the general address where the blog is located, you can use the "permanent link" that is specific to the post you are citing.
  
• You'll see that an anonymous reader posted a comment and Debbie Reese responded. This type of discussion is what blogs are all about! (Although it is unfortunate that the comment is nasty. This is one of the reasons I set my blog so that readers can not post anonymously!)
  

Subscribing to blogs

Although we have links to the class blogs on this site, you can imagine that it would be pretty inefficient for any of us to check 50 blogs on a regular basis to see if particular people had posted!

Rather than going out and looking for posts, there's a way to subscribe to content on blogs/webpages that brings new posts to you!

In order to do this, you need to set up an account with an aggregator program like Google Reader. This is a free service that you can sign up for with your google account.

Whenever you go to a webpage or a blog that you want to keep tabs on, you'll click on the RSS feed icon. (The orange icon to the right in the address bar.) You'll get a prompt to add the subscription to your account. (You can keep your subscriptions in folders, change their names, etc.)

Then, when you are ready to read blog posts, you can go to your Google Reader page and you'll see all of the new posts from the blogs to which you've subscribed!

Questions? Any advice from people who have experience subscribing to blogs? Post questions and comments!