Example and Directions for .5 Blog Post

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Oh Blogging About Lit…my favorite project of all.

This is what my students are always like…right?

Each semester I look forward to reading the ACTUAL THOUGHTS of students about books, written in their own voices rather than being forced into academic voice (don’t get me wrong, I understand the need to write in academic voice, but come on, we have to have other options here).

This is an example of what I’d like you to write for your first post. The overall directions are: What is your book? Why did you pick it? Who are you reading with (if you are)? What are you looking forward to in this project? What are you apprehensive about? What are you going to do to ensure your success? –
(150 words, why you are reading that book, at least one image). This is due by the end of the block on Friday.

I’m going to be reading Iona Iverson’s Rules for Commuting by Clare Pooley. I’ve been meaning to read this book for awhile now, as it was our neighborhood book club’s book a few months ago. However, I didn’t get a copy in time and the overall conversation during the book club didn’t really make me want to go out and read it. I’m looking forward to reading it, though, because it is described as escapist fiction, which I am here for. I have enough stress and worry, so it’s hard to read books that are so dark (also, I assign all the dark ones to my classes, so I need some lightness ;))

I love talking/writing about my thoughts on books, so I can’t wait to blog about this, but I am quite the procrastinator, so the schedule worries me a bit. I know that if I have a directly written out schedule, I’m usually better at sticking to it, so that’s what I’m going to do.

Also, I wanted to use this post to share some of my favorite Crucible memes/Sparknotes posts:

Here’s a random Crucible meme for us all

Columbus, De las Casas, and Red Cloud Discussion

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1. With your group you are going to talk about our large topic (Cultural Encounters and Frontiers) and how it can be tied to the three most recent readings we have done.

Columbus' Confusion About the New World | Travel | Smithsonian Magazine

What MESSAGE ABOUT cultural encounters and frontiers do these three selections communicate? Not just that they show cultures encountering one another, but detail out a specific message about the encounters that they show.  Please use textual evidence in your argument.

Post your group’s answer as a comment and make sure all of your names are listed in the text of the reply.

Once your group has discussed the topic “Frontiers and Cultural Encounters” and tied these three authors to it (and written it with textual evidence as a reply to this), work on your own to answer the next question.  (You will answer this on your blog)

2. Do you think any of these (de las Casas’, Columbus’, Red Cloud’s) accounts changed the audience? How? Why yes or no? If no, what could they have done to more affect their audience?

Aim for around a paragraph, making sure to answer all of the questions and connecting them to each author. This answer doesn’t have to have direct textual evidence, but paraphrasing could help you identify specific points where you think it was strong/could be stronger.