Blogging etiquette

Here are a proposed set of rules concerning blogging etiquette. Comments?
------------------------------
Remember that the content of most class blogs is accessible to the general public via the internet and reflects, not only on you as an individual, but on your teacher and on St. Benedict's Prep. Therefore, you are asked to use common sense and to follow a few simple rules when contributing to a class blog.

1. A class blog is to be used for academic purposes only, not for general socializing.

2. A blog post is intended to show your ability to write in formal, correct English including a rich variety of vocabulary and sentence structures. Therefore, it should not contain the shortened slang of a chat room or text message, but use proper punctuation and spelling (e.g. capital "I" for the pronoun instead of "i").

3. Avoid using all capital letters; IT'S CONSIDERED SHOUTING. (Exception: Sometimes the use of all caps in the "title" box of a post can be visually attractive. Check with your teacher.)

4. As you would in any formal writing, give proper credit for ideas, quotations, and outside links that are not your own.

5. If you post a comment concerning someone else's post, make sure that your comment adds something to the discussion and is not rude or snide. You can disagree, but do it politely. Foul language is, of course, not tolerated.

Ignoring these general rules may result in your grade being lowered or your blogging privileges being removed.

Writing Improves Reading

As I turn my attention to the Blogging initiative at SBP, I continue to keep in mind the important student performance goals that we have set during our Middle States reaccreditiation: improvement in our students' writing skills, and improvement in our students' critical reading skills.  The involvement of students in contributing to blogs is a vital component of our initiatives that will accomplish these goals.

We should already be aware that writing is an important piece of literacy.  During my reading assignment for the Critical Reading committee, I began to understand the research-based evidence that showed which reading instruction strategies are effective in improving reading skills.  In the same set of documents and books that I read, I also encountered many recommendations that writing ought to be included as one of the strategies that improves reading.

In the report published by the Alliance for Excellent Education (whose program on Higher and Urban Education actively funds research and initiatives in adolescent literacy) entitled Writing to Read: Evidence for How Writing can Improve Reading, the authors describe their meta-analysis of numerous scientific studies of strategies that involve writing as a tool for improving reading.  They describe the overwhelming evidence that writing and reading are linked to improved literacy in adolescent learners.  The authors provide recommendations based on their meta-analysis and their expertise in adolescent literacy:

What will students write about?

As I've been spending time reading more about the process of 'Reading', I have had the blogging initiative in the back of my mind.  The one document that I knew about which correlates between reading and writing was published by the Carnegie Corporation called Writing to read: Evidence for how writing can improve reading.


We don't have to try to invent topics for what students should write about.  Part of the Critical Reading plan ought to involve some writing response about the items that students read in their classes.  This seems obvious, but there will always be the student who will perhaps write something insubstantial, if just to get the writing assignment done.


So rather than describe suggestions for topics, I thought instead about what it would take to get students to write substantial responses to the discussions that we have in class.  By 'substantial', I don't mean lengthy; 'substantial' in this case ought to mean 'with substance'.  I realized during my learning about what other schools are doing that guidelines for 'substantial' writing already exist.  At SBP, we ought to look at some of these guidelines and adapt these into our content area teaching.


Read more after the jump.

Ideas for Promoting Blogs at SBP; My other Blog

I'm posting my 'internal' musings about blog implementation at SBP another blog.  I invite you to view those at this site.

Implementing Blogs and Wiki at SBP

You'll see that I've been writing a lot.  I hope it helps all of us.

Guide for Teachers: How to Create a Classroom Blog

During the past week, I've been working on creating a document which will be a 'guide' or a 'primer' that can be used by fellow faculty to create a team blog for their class/course.  Here is the result:




I am requesting the members of the Blogging Committee to please review this document.  At this point, especially if you are reading this from within our committee's blog (through the link I sent via email), you should already have some familiarity with signing up for a Google/Blogger/Blogspot account; you remember that these are all one and the same.

Since this particular blog entry is an experiment to see whether I could embed a document within a blog post, I also sent an attachment via email.  That attachment is the same as the document that you see above.


Over the next few weeks, please review this guide, and then offer your comments, suggestions, and anything else that you think may help some of our interested fellow faculty to try implementing a classroom blog in their Summer phase course.  Once I include your suggestions, I would like to 'print' this, perhaps make hard copies for those who prefer to read from 'traditional' paper, and distribute it to as many faculty as will read and consider it.

Thank you for doing this during our time off from school.  I have tried not to meet much during the busy school year, and I know that I am making an imposition on your vacation by asking you to do this.  We can make a lot of progress by doing it this way.  I am sincerely grateful for your time and your input.

As another 'exercise' in the blogging experience, please LEAVE A COMMENT in the space below.  It will help me to know that you've visited the blog site.

Again, thanks, and I hope you are having a restful time off.

p.s. In case you cannot see the document above, or you cannot get it from the attachment I sent to your email, here is a direct link.

Guide to creating a Classroom Blog   click the link/words to view

Make way the Gallo's are here!!!!!

blogging from my blackberry

I'm here!

Hello, committee...I think I am set to contribute to our blog!

The Annapolis Trip

Hey, you forgot to mention that the students who went to the US Naval Academy - Annapolis also created a blog. Here's the website/blog address:

http://sbpscience.blogspot.com/

That's the link to the Annapolis trip blog. The students wrote some very nice 'thank you' essays that describe their experiences at the US Naval Academy.

Enjoy!

Yet another posting, by Dennis, from another acoount

As I mentioned in a previous comment, I have too many email accounts.  As 'framingthelight' I have been the administrator of a few other blogs, into which students have been contributing.  Here are the blogs that have been 'completed.'  Please click on the http link so that you can view each site separately.

http://sbphistoryofscience.blogspot.com
This is the blog of the students who were in the most recent "History of Science" elective during Summer Term 2010.

http://framingthelight.blogspot.com
This is the blog of the students who were in the Digital Filmmaking class during Spring Phase 2010.

http://framingthelight.wordpress.com
This is the blog of the students who were in the Digital Photography class during Spring Phase 2009.

These blogs are now 'inactive' in that the students are no longer contributing to the sites, but as you can see, the sites still exist.

Please comment on this posting.  Thanks.

Here's my posting.

I'm adding a copy of the item "Blogging" as a measurement of improved writing (Student Performance Objective) included in our recent Middle States Reaccreditation Self-Study.

Student Performance Objective #2: Writing

By the year 2017, students at St. Benedict’s Prep will improve their writing skills as measured by:

D. An increase to 80% of students doing proficient completion of course blogs.

Baseline: 4% in August, 2010 (23 of 575 students in August, 2010)

June, 2011	30%
June, 2012	40%
June, 2013	50%
June, 2014	60%
June, 2015	70%
June, 2016	80%
June, 2017	80%

(Added by Dennis L: I just realized that I have the ability to edit "another" person's entry).

Beginning the process

On this site, we will learn how to contribute to and administer a group blog.  This type of blog is just a little different from conventional blogs, where usually only one person is the author.  In group blogs, there are several 'contributors' who write entries into the one blog 'site'.

As with conventional (one-person) blogs, there is an ability to comment on each blog entry, or "posting."  The comments can be a good record of the kind of 'conversations' that can occur referring to each particular blog entry.

As we learn how to contribute to and administer this blog, please make an effort to (1) create at least one entry; (2) comment at least once on each other author's entry.  You will see examples below.

Thanks, and good luck to all of us.  With the help of the Spirit, we shall be successful in our effort to improve student writing at SBP.