Rubric for Blog Project

Blog Expectations for the Class

• The blog will have an introductory post explaining the information that will be shared in the blog. This will be a minimum of 100 words, preferably longer though.  You can introduce yourself and the reasons you are interested in your topic. You can add a picture of yourself as long as it is school appropriate.  You can also add a picture of what your topic is about for clarification.
• The blog will contain at least 2 different blog posts that are a minimum of 250 words in length.  There is a good chance you will end up over 250 words just by the nature of the assignment.  One of the posts will be an informational post about your topic.  It will contain at least 1 link to the information you used to learn more about your topic.  You will also explain why that information is important. Don't just stick a link in and not give your readers a chance to understand why you did it. The second 250+ word post will be a persuasive/argumentative post about your topic.  It will be four paragraphs long and have at least one external link with explanations.  This post will be mostly about one side of the topic but will give at least one negative to the topic with an explanation about why it is important.
• The Blog will have a minimum of 2 videos that are explaining an aspect of your topic. You will record yourself explaining something for 2-5 mins each.  You need to be the one explaining the information.  Rather than you getting up in front of the class and giving speeches or debates, I am allowing you this opportunity to do it in a more private environment.  This needs to be done in a formal tone with appropriate clothing and words.  DO NOT have anything illegal in the video or going on around you.  I have to automatically turn that into the authorities if I see or hear it.  There are more suggestions and requirements on the blog post with my video.  
• You will have to include a minimum of 3 photos within your blog.  You need to credit the photographer and caption the photo to explain why it is important to the topic of the blog. You may take pictures yourself, but be sure to credit them to yourself. DO NOT use copyrighted photos.
• The blog must have a minimum of 3 external links to work or webpages you used to research your information presented within the blog.  I will be going to these links to be sure that you are not plagiarizing anything.  Remember to also put information that you are getting from sites into an annotation log for the research.  This will be part of your grade.
• You, the student, are required to comment with 3-5 sentences on other students blogs within our school.  You will put down on the comment log which blog you commented on, the date you did and a general statement of what you said.  I will then use that information and look at what you actually stated. You need to do this 5 times over the course of the project.
• You will fill out a self-reflection survey to show where you feel you are with various aspects you were to learn with this project.  This will be taken into account with your grade and we will conference about your answers before a final grade is given.

ALL WORK IS TO BE YOUR WORK. ANY PLAGIARIZATION WILL RESULT IN A ZERO FOR THE PROJECT. NO SECOND CHANCES OR OTHER OPPORTUNITIES TO MAKE THIS UP.  A REFERRAL FOR A SUSPENSION WILL ALSO BE GIVEN. PLAGIARIZATION WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED FOR ANYONE, DO YOUR OWN WORK AND CITE ALL SOURCES APPROPRIATELY!

Quotations must be identical to the original, using a narrow segment of the source. They must match the source document word for word and must be attributed to the original author.

Paraphrasing involves putting a passage from source material into your own words. A paraphrase must also be attributed to the original source. Paraphrased material is usually shorter than the original passage, taking a somewhat broader segment of the source and condensing it slightly.

Summarizing involves putting the main idea(s) into your own words, including only the main point(s). Once again, it is necessary to attribute summarized ideas to the original source. Summaries are significantly shorter than the original and take a broad overview of the source material. Purdue Owl on Citing Information

Why blogging should be used in more classroom settings....

Students are regularly asked to show what they know.  Educators have multiple ways of assessing their students and often the assessments come down to a few formats: multiple choice tests, short answers, T/F tests, or projects.  While all these assessments do give some information on what the student knows at that particular moment, ultimately they really don't show what the student really knows how to do. The student needs an opportunity to show in an adequate space what they are capable of to an authentic audience. 

Blogging is a method that allows the student to create a portfolio of sorts, showcasing all they can do in multiple formats.  According to edgeek.com, it is more important than ever before that students can create an online place to engage with the audience around them.  They are learning new digital skills that will allow further proceeding into certifications, jobs, and schooling. It is important that we give our students time to work with the new technologies in workforce environments and to search through multimedia formats.  Students will have those opportunities and more when building a school blog.

While blogging is fairly new in schools but becoming more commonplace, it still takes a bit of work on the school and teacher to get the blogs made.  It takes time to teach expectations, social media risks, go over rules and acceptable behavior.  This time may often seem daunting and overwhelming, leading the teacher to just junk the project.  If all those that that have stock in the project can keep their eyes on the reasons and benefits for pushing for students to blog, the frustrations may be kept to a minimum.

The benefits of students doing web logs, aka blogs, far outweigh the time constraints and possible bad outcomes.  Students will learn lifelong skills, build a portfolio that can be shown to future schools and jobs.  Finally, students can see how their writing and video making actually influence real audiences.  Students need opportunities to have their voice heard beyond their peers and teachers.  Blogging allows that and more.

This is an example of what I want to see for the persuasive or argumentative blog post.  I have shown both sides to the argument, but I clearly have one side I feel is more important.  I have gone through and edited this multiple times, read this aloud two times, and went back and rewrote parts until I published this.  Again this should be a minimum of 250 words, pull in a source from somewhere with an explanation of why I am using it.  I want four paragraphs.  This means that you will likely have nearly 300-400 words.  This one is 343 words.  I also expect to see that you have gone through the writing process from brainstorming, drafting, editing, rewriting, and publishing.  I should not see grammatical errors or spelling errors. The tone should be formal and not include cuss words, slang, or jargon that would not be understood.  The writing should be school appropriate.  Remember this is a public forum and is searchable.  Keep it clean, keep yourself looking good, keep the school looking good.  

A video in your Blog

For your blog posts containing a video, they will be 2-5 minutes long and explain something related to your blog topic. I was able to record with the camera app on the computer and then upload to blogger.  You may be able to do the same with your phone.  Or perhaps you can record with your phone, email it to your ncfcharter.org account and then from there upload. We will have to play with it. Given that I do not know what our laptops will be capable of or what the network at the school will allow we will have to be flexible with this. It appears that we will be able to link from a youtube channel too, so that may be an option.

What I am requiring in the videos:  

• The video must be 2-5 minutes in length. A little longer is fine, but I am sticking with the at least two minutes long.
• The video must cover something about your blog topic.  If your blog is on how to grow potatoes, then the video must cover some aspect of potatoes or growing them.
• You are expected to keep the information in a formal tone.  This means I do not want to hear slang, cuss words, or words that you would not say in front of a judge.
• You should be dressed appropriately.  You will need to follow the school dress code in the videos. Pants, no spaghetti straps or underwear showing, shirts on for the gentlemen, no inappropriate words or images on clothing.
• I also do not want to see illegal material in the video around you or behind you or in use. No drug paraphernalia, weapons, or drug use. 
• Do not use someone else's video. The video needs to be of you speaking and showing the information.

You will be required a minimum of two videos.  They will be 2-5 minutes each.  Above are the guidelines required for the videos.  Not following the guidelines will result in a significant grade drop for this unit.

Why Blogging?

Teachers are constantly asked why do you do what you do in your classroom?  What have you learned from teaching the way you do in your classroom?  What would you change in the classroom next year?  These three things cause the teacher to constantly be metacognitive about what they are doing, what is working, what they are doing that is working, and what they are doing that is causing the tasks to fail.  Just like any other job, we are to be able to understand what we bring into the classroom and what we stop from happening in the classroom.

Last year I decided I wanted to break through the barrier that students had in the classrooms at the school I was teaching in.  Rather than having students go through a preset curriculum, I felt it was necessary for them to have a more authentic approach to learning and doing what they do in the classroom. This is a scary endeavor for not just the teacher, but the school as well.  I failed in some of what I set up in the classroom initially.  There were many nights that I went home thinking that I should just go back to the old curriculum that had been used and make it easier on me.  In the end, I decided that is not what I could do...it was not what was best for the students.  The students needed to see that what they wrote was important to me and that it was about their interests as well.

This year I will continue using google classroom as a means for getting information into the students' hands, explaining what assignments they need to do for credit and to have some sort of organization to the seven classes.  I will also be adding more technology to the classroom though.  There will be books available online to students, these blogs, online videos, and more.  I am excited to see what all the students will come up with and what they are capable of.  To find more information on why blogging is important in the classroom and for students in today's technology filled lives, see the following webpage: 6 Benefits to Blogging in the Classroom.

(This post was about 325 words long.  Notice that it is 3 clear paragraphs all on one topic. This would be an example of an informational blog post.  You need to have at least one source within it.  I expect to see at least 2 blog posts this long. One of your blog posts will be informational like this one and another will be persuasive in nature. I have also included a link to an external website that helps explain what I am thinking and why blogging is important to students.  You will be required to have at least 3 external links with clear explanations for their use in your blog.)

Welcome to the Blog Post.

In this blog, I am hoping to have students get an understanding of what is expected of them in this unit of study. Rather than writing multiple papers over and over again that only I will read I am putting them out into the world as their audience. They will have multiple tasks to accomplish within each of their blogs.  Some of these tasks include creating videos to explain something.  Another is taking photographs and captioning them.  Other tasks yet include having them do some writing on the topic of their blog.  Students will be learning that what they put out on the internet can be seen by all and can be used to judge their personality and value to society.  Students will also learn that word choice and understanding your audience is just as important as the content that you are putting out.  Students will watch, listen, read, and discuss with other students their topics in an appropriate manner showing intelligence and thoughtful understanding of each other.  Students are being expected to show clear thinking with their clear writing and speaking.

So what can students write about?  Anything really as long as it is school appropriate.
Want to learn more about a career, sport, how a transmission in a car works, how to paint the perfect nails, or maybe start a place to put your thoughts on how to land the perfect job?  This is the place to do that.  The students are expected to cite where they are getting information from and to attach links to the blog that both the teacher and others reading the blog can go to for more information about the topic.

At the end of the project, there will be an assessment that both the student and the teacher will fill out to show a clear understanding of what was learned and to what degree the learning took place in.

Image by Nikki Warren (Hibiscus 2019) Students will bloom like a flower if given the opportunity to grow.

(This blog post contains at least 100 words, stays on one topic and has clear information.  I have also included a picture with a credit to the photographer. You, as the student, will also be required 1 post with at least 100 words, 2 posts with at least 250 words, 2 videos explaining something about your topic that are 2-5 minutes long, At least 3 external links with an explanation about why you are including them in your blog, minimum of 3 photos with captions and credits, and finally you will have to comment on at least 5 blog posts of a classmate.)