Blogfolio Assignment

A blogfolio, as I'm using the term, is an electronic portfolio that offers many opportunities for creativity while demanding very few technical skills. It's very easy to make connections using blogs: connections between things you've read, written, seen, heard, etc. And since it's instantly published on the Web, a blog makes it easy for other people to connect with you and your ideas. The -folio suffix refers to the fact that, as with a portfolio, you are being asked to include generically-specified content in order to support assessment of your work.

While it may seem a bit heavy-handed, I'm going to require that you set up a new blog using Google's free Blogger application. I want us to be able to help each other develop these blogs, so I want us to be using the same tools. If you're already a blogger and/or you'd like to use another blogging tool, please feel free to make links to those other blogs in your 111 Blogger blogfolio.

This assignment represents the 25% eLearning hybrid portion of this course, so the blogfolio itself will count for 25% of your course grade, as follows:

• 5 posts on your own blog x 2 percentage points possible per post = 10%

• 5 comments on classmates' blogs x 1 percentage point each = 5%

• 1 final reflective post on your own blog = 10%

Every other week, you'll write a post that makes a connection between something you've read for this class and something else in your life. It could be something else you've read, a personal experience, plans for the future, or something I haven't thought of. You could embed images, links to other sites on the Web, audio clips, poems or stories you've written, or something else I haven't thought of. Just be sure to explain the connection for your readers. If the post is either on time or follows these instructions, it will earn a point. If it's both, it will earn two points. Posts are due before midnight on even-numbered week Thursdays.

On odd weeks, you'll post a comment on a classmate's blog. The point is to make connections, so your comment should be more than an evaluation of the post. It should make an explicit connection either to something else we've read in class or something else in your own life (or both). Comments are due before midnight on odd-numbered week Thursdays.

The final post should take the form of an essay that reflects on your development of a better understanding and appreciation of literature (the catalog's stated goals for this course). Focus on some aspect of that development in your thesis statement and support it by pointing to evidence in your blogfolio. The final reflective post is due on Wednesday, December 10^th. As with the other essays you'll write for this class, this final post will be graded according to how well it displays

• a clearly stated thesis, supported by relevant and properly cited textual evidence.

• a coherent structure with introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion.

• paragraphs that are each unified by a topic sentence.

• sentences that are grammatically correct and properly punctuated.

• the writer’s ability to follow accurately the instructions for the assignment.