This week’s WAC-friendly highlighted assignment
Professor: Anne Leonard; original assignment design by Maura Smale
Course: LIB 1201 – Research & Documentation for the Information Age, Fall 2012
Assignment: Course Blogging
Professor Leonard requires students to write a minimum of 20 posts of at least 100 words each for their class blog. She divides blog posts into several types, some linked to specific stages of the course.
Reading response (posts from 8/29-11/19; see syllabus for details):
Write a blog post discussing one of the readings assigned for the class. Identify a topic or theme from the reading, briefly summarize it, and analyze it in relation to other readings and themes in the course. Does this reading raise any questions in your mind?
Research journal (posts from 10/29-11/14; see syllabus for details):
Write a blog post discussing and documenting your process and progress on the research paper for this course. You may write about any aspect of this process, for example: deciding on a research topic, finding sources, writing the proposal/annotated bibliography/paper, etc. What have you found difficult or frustrating about this process? What successful strategies have you used?
Blog comment (throughout the semester; see syllabus for details):
Select a blog post by one of your classmates and write a response to her/his post. What other perspectives on this topic can you offer? How does the blog post connect to the course readings and themes? Comments must also be a minimum of 100 words.
What WAC principle(s) does this assignment exemplify?
Professor Leonard’s blog assignments engage students with course content deeply and meaningfully and are excellent examples of informal “writing to learn” and “exploratory writing” assignments. “Reading response” assignments encourage students to identify key ideas of the text while at the same time teaching the difference between summary and analysis, thus promoting critical thinking and reading skills. “Research journal” assignments offer students an opportunity to reflect on and evaluate their research strategies and articulate questions and difficulties early in the research process. In addition, Professor Leonard encourages students use the blog to explore ideas that they may wish to develop more fully in their research papers, thus encouraging the view of writing as a multi-stage process and providing opportunity to receive feedback.
How might this type of assignment be used in other courses across the curriculum?
Informal writing assignments asking students to identify and summarize a text or reflect on and describe various stages of a project can be used in courses in any discipline. Requiring students to post on a course blog regularly can help them keep up with the reading and/or various stages of the project. Blog assignments can be especially useful in courses with a large number of students, or courses where students have few opportunities for class discussion.
