Pearls & Onions

Your second task in the summer assignment–one you need to begin immediately–is to select three RSS feeds, add them to your Reader, and begin reading–regularly.

At the core of the AP English Language class is argumentation. To understand the qualities that make a strong argument and the strategies writers use, we must immerse ourselves in reading arguments. One of the best places to find such writing is via editorials and opinion pieces.

Where Do I Find 3 Quality RSS Feeds?

There are a number of newspapers, blogs, and websites that host opinion/editorials. As you explore the sites below, allow yourself time to dig around the sites, browse several particular author’s works, skim several columns. Rather than randomly selecting the first three feeds you find, dig a bit to discover a few quality writers or sources–sources you can learn from, sources that add content regularly, sources that write about topics that interest you.  Newspapers, as well many other websites, offer content specific RSS feeds. You might want to subscribe to several feeds from one source. For example, from the LA Times, you may choose to subscribe to Top News, Music Reviews, and Rosa Brooks (an opinion columnist).  If you have trouble finding the RSS feeds from a site, try typing RSS Feeds in the search box.  For the LA Times, an RSS Feed search yielded a page of their feeds, the one displayed in the picture above (if you click the pic, you can see a bigger version).

Check out these other sites for possible feeds:   

I’ve Added 3 Feeds. Now What?

After subscribing to the feeds in your Reader, the next step is to begin reading! Since you’ve organized your iGoogle page with all your favorite widgets–including your Reader–you have a digital desk that makes scanning new content from your feeds a snap. Get in the habit of spending 15-30 minutes a day–or at least three days a week–reading.

Read to keep pace with current events. Read to analyze the strategies opinion writers use. Read to build a stockpile of topics for your own writing. Read to grow as a reader and thinker.

I’ve Been Reading and Thinking. Now, What Do I Write?

After you’ve spent time reading (allow yourself a few weeks of reading time), now it’s time to write. For each feed, write a post that summarizes your reading experience and evaluates the feed:

• How often did you read?
• Did you skim and scan headings in your Reader, reading–in detail–only the pieces that peaked your interest, or did you read every piece?
• Did you like the content in the feed?
• How did you feel about the amount of content produced by the feed? Not enough? Too much? Just right?
• Did you like the writer(s) style (is he/she using any rhetorical devices), topic choices?
• Is this a feed you’d like to keep in your Reader or delete? Why?
• What, if anything, did you learn about how (what particular strategies) the author(s) frames his/her arguments?
• How, if at all, do you think reading this feed regularly would help you grow as a reader, writer, and thinker?

These questions are only thought-starters. Don’t write as if you’re answering the questions. It’s your job to synthesize the ideas, decide on a organizational format, and present your ideas in a way that makes sense and that responds thoroughly to the prompt:

• For each subscription, write a post (this means you’ll write a total of three posts) that summarizes your reading of the feed over several weeks and evaluates the content of the feed.  Be sure to include specific examples and explanations that provide a thorough response.

Where Do I Publish My Responses?

Publish your three blog posts (one for each feed) on your blog. Assign them to the Summer Reading category.

Check out the rubric (coming soon!).

Today, I stumbled upon (literally–not the digital tool) an awesome slideshow–one that explains the power of Web 2.0 tools. Check it out:

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Pretty awesome, huh, that this IBM employee is encouraging co-workers to read, write, and react. Sounds like typical English class behavior, which is exactly why blogging–when done right–can be a powerful tool to make us grow as readers, thinkers, and writers.

So, how do we do blogging right? What does it mean to become a blogger?

Step One

One of the best ways to understand blogging is to check out other blogs–to evaluate their organization, visual appeal, content, writing style.

• How do they utilize pages and posts?
• How do they organize information?
• What widgets do they use?
• About what do they write?
• How do they cite sources–including images?
• What multimedia elements do they use?
• How do they cite sources of text, images–anything taken from somewhere else?
• How many comments do they get? Do they encourage conversations by responding to comments readers leave? If so, how do they respond–with a particular format?

You need to locate some quality blogs to evaluate. Preferably, you’ll find blogs written by students your age; however, since we learn from masters, feel free to evaluate adult bloggers. Check out the sites below to find three blogs. Avoid simply picking the first three you see. Instead, allow yourself time to explore, to locate three solid blogs from which you can learn and find inspiration.

• AP English blogs from 2007
• Nate Stearns’ student blogs (another AP English teacher)
• The Eddies: an annual blog awards by Edublogs–this is a great way to find quality blogs.
• Class Blogs: These are AP Lit students–groups of kids created blogs

You’re certainly not limited to blogs discovered from these pages. If you find a quality blog via another search route, go with it!

Step Two

Spend some time exploring the three blogs you’ve selected. Read their current and archived posts. Consider the questions posted above. Here’s more ideas for analyzing the blogs:

• How long has the blog been in existence?
• How often does the blogger post?
• Does the blog seem to have a niche–a certain topic or theme? Are topics random?
• Does it appear the blogger is carefully crafting his pieces, or do they seem more haphazardly–almost on the fly like a first draft–written?
• Is the writing interesting?
• Does anything about the blog inspire you–give you ideas for your own blog?

Again, these questions are only thought-starters. You may brainstorm other criteria by which you’d like to evaluate the blogs.

Step Three

Now, you’re ready to begin drafting. Write a 600-800 word (which is roughly 3-4 pages) evaluation of the three blogs. Remember the basics of good writing:

• Begin with a compelling introduction that includes an attention-getter and a thesis sentence.
• Use an organizational strategy that makes sense and that allows your ideas to flow smoothly from one to another throughout the essay.
• Take note of your diction: Use strong verbs and precise words.
• Include concrete details–specific examples–for every claim you make.
• Include ample commentary to explain thoroughly your ideas.
• Include a concluding paragraph that brings closure and ideally, ties with your attention-getting strategy.
• Revise and edit carefully to avoid mechanical, usage, and grammatical errors.

Since you are evaluating, this is a persuasive piece: You are making judgments–claims–about the value of these blogs. Be clear in your claims:

• What–exactly–are you saying about each blog?
• Why–what specific reasons–do you make these claims?
• What evidence–specific examples–can you give to support your claims?
• Are you building a clear, logical argument–one that makes sense and is likely to convince your reader?
• Are your arguments thoughtful, taking into consideration the quality (in your opinion) of the blog–its visual appeal, its ease of navigation, its functionality, its quality of writing (and any other aspects you wish to judge)?

Be sure to link to the blogs as well as to any other online material (including images) you use. Should you reference any print materials, include a list of those sources in MLA format.

This slideshow might help you get started crafting your argument:

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With a wealth of multimedia elements at your fingertips, are there any visuals you might include to enhance your argument?

Check out the rubric. It should serve as a writer’s checklist.

Publish Your Evaluation

When you’re satisfied that you’ve crafted a compelling evaluation of the three blogs, publish the piece (as a post) to your blog.  You must publish it no later than midnight Friday, June 27. Create a “Summer Assignment” category, and assign the post to this category. Make certain your categories are displaying in your sidebar (or bottom of page–depending on your theme choice) so that readers can easily locate your post.

If you need help with the technical aspects of your blog, check out the Edublog tutorial page. They provide a forum, tutorial videos, and frequently asked questions. If you’re still having problems–and can’t troubleshoot and solve them on your own or with the help of a classmate–e-mail me.

This quarter we’re reading one of my all-time favorites, The Awakening by Kate Chopin. The book fits nicely in our gender thematic study. Though it is literature–classical fiction–rather than nonfiction, try to read with your rhetorical eyes, thinking of the text as an argument.

The picture above tells the tale of your journal requirements. Thanks to Amberly and Elizabeth for crafting these.

For those of you who prefer text…
Lit. Circle 1: 3/19 pp. 1-40
Lit. Circle 2: 4/1 pp. 40-78
Lit. Circle 3: 4/7 pp. 78-116
Come to class with journal (1-2-3-4) entries completed, ready to discuss the text with your literature circle.

In the spirit of becoming better bloggers, take a few minutes to read two these two articles:

Give me feedback via Comments. What do you think? Do you agree? Can you reflect on their writing style, ideas, formatting…?

Someone once said writing is the inking of our thinking. Before we can write profound analyses of text, we need to mull over the text, reading and re-reading it deeply, thinking and discussing the text, bouncing our ideas off other critical readers of the same text. Good discussions help us all polish–or sometimes discover–our ideas. This polishing allows us to ink our thoughts.

In the spirit of discussion, we will undertake e-Circles this nine weeks. Here’s how it works:

Below are the dates for the four discussions. I will grade each week’s discussion each Monday. To allow time for everyone to comment, the host must post discussion questions no later than Friday each week.

Six days. Five-hundred forty minutes. Thirty-two thousand four hundred seconds. We must make those 32,400 seconds between now and Christmas break count–every single one of them. To that end, I’ve decided to combine our brain power, creative energies, and critical thinking skills to create tutorial videos to review the key skills we’ve learned this semester to prepare you for the semester exam. Read the rest

This Thanksgiving, I hope you’ll spend some time hunting for more than just turkey and dressing. As we continue our journey to give voice to the techniques writers use to “play” with language, we’re starting to appreciate how challenging acquiring a rhetorical vocabulary can be. It can seem a bit daunting–especially when multiple terms exist for one device. Don’t lose hope. Though hundreds of terms exist, we need only learn a few of the most common. About.com has a wonderful list: Top 20 Figures of Speech. Though these aren’t the only devices we must know for the AP exam, they are a wonderful start. Read the rest

Many of you are becoming expert bloggers: writing interesting, thought-provoking posts, including links to relevant sites, embedding pictures or videos relating to your posts, incorporating original graphics that enhance the look and readability of your site, eliciting comments from peers and unknowns. As we continue to hone our blogging skills, we need to consider our sidebars and the navigation of our blogs. Read the rest

Part of your daily ritual should now be sitting down to your computer, signing in to iGoogle, skimming through your Google Reader widget, checking out what new content your peers and your teacher have added to their blogs. Some of us have encountered a problem, however, in being able to subscribe to both POSTS and COMMENTS. I think–with some help from Clare–we may have solved the problem. Read the rest

Have you noticed how long posts clutter your blog pages, making them not-so-pretty to look at and not-so-easy to navigate? Your reader has to scroll, and scroll, and scroll to view all your posts.

To solve this problem, many authors create teasers. Read the rest