Stefanie Welty EDTECH 597 Classroom Blogging Activity Course: Language Arts 8 Topic: House of the Scorpion Reflective

Blogging Background: House of the Scorpion is a science fiction novel that tackles the issue of human cloning that we read each year with our 8th grade students. Great discussions arise on this topic and whether or not human cloning should be allowed. As a result, students will be researching human cloning and its effects throughout the novel study, choosing a side, preparing an argument, and debating the topic at the end of the unit. By this point in the year, students will be creating their own personal blogs, and for this assignment, will be using them as a reflective tool. Learning Objectives: Because this activity is a part of a larger unit, there are many learning objectives for students. Below are three that apply most directly to the blogging activity itself. Self-reflect on learning process at regular intervals throughout the unit. Use media technology (blogging) to improve writing skills. Use media technology (blogging) to practice writing for an audience as well as interact with your audience through comments. Blogging Activity Process: The entire unit for the novel House of the Scorpion will take approximately 5 weeks of the school year. Throughout this unit, students will be required to use their own personal blogs to reflect on their learning. They will not necessarily be given a specific prompt to write to, but will have a list of suggestions to help them start their reflection. Topics to blog about include new information they have learned about cloning, their position on human cloning, changes that have occurred in their thinking, and their status in the research process. A specific schedule will be given to students with exact due dates for blog posts that will reflect the school calendar. Reflective blog posts will be due every 3 days on their own blogs. Students will then be required to appropriately comment on at least 2 other classmates blogs in the interim time. Essentially students will post a blog and then have two more days to comment on classmates blogs before posting

their next blog on the third day. There will be a total of 9 required blog posts and 18 comments by the end of the unit. The goal of this activity is that students will improve their writing skills, both mechanically and in terms of writing for audience. Additionally, students will gain experience with a multi-media platform that they might not normally use and will have the opportunity to practice proper netiquette when commenting on other blogs. In the end, students should be able to look back over their blog posts to see where their thinking started and where they have ended a month later with the hope that they will see growth! Assessment: Because the purpose of this blogging activity is for students to practice selfreflection and monitor their growth, there will not be a grade given for right or wrong posts. Students will be assessed based completing the assignment given, that is they must have the minimum number of posts (9) that meet the designated criteria (answer the prompts given above), and they must have appropriately and constructively commented on at least 2 other classmates blogs per entry (a total of 18 comments).