Thing 4-Get Others Obsessive About Bloggin'

In my search for blogging grading guidelines, I stumbled upon many different ideas!  I was shocked to see the pro-graders versus the anti-graders.  I just assumed that everyone would be pro-grading (I guess I thought this because of the bubble I live in!). While doing Thing 3 and Thing 4, I came up with a blogging assignment for my advance students; I have taken all these thoughts and meshed them with my teacher world.   One thing I read described basing grades on goals (http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/how-are-you-going-to-grade-this-evaluating-classroom-blogs/24935)…what is the end product you want the students take away with them from the blogging experience?  Blogging really is not about punctuation and proper mechanics.  It is about getting your thoughts out there and forming opinions on topics.  If blogs were graded for proper grammar and punctuation, I think my grade would plummet!  I always type straight into a word document, but I do not blog formally.  This is a very informal “thing” for me, so I can be ME and not Teacher.    

The goals I came up for my blogging assignment (which is almost finished being created so I can take action!!!) is for the students to acknowledge due dates (not the most important part by any means, but due dates are important for 8^th graders), create a science dialogue, forming opinions on science topics, and asking insightful questions.  The assignment would be taking their current event presentations and creating blogs.  They would have to find any science article, summarize, and give their opinion on the article.  Within their groups, they will respond and ask questions so they start talking about science and hopefully will help them start forming opinions outside of what their parents and teachers tell them about the world around us.  The main purpose for blogging would be the creation of science dialogue.  What I have noticed from current event presentations is that they do not really care what everyone is saying because they are just listening to someone ramble and they have not read the article themselves.  The blog will help them to take their time thinking of how they really feel and trying to portray that to their peers in a healthy, educational way.  The current event does not have to relate to Physical Science, but it does need to be school appropriate and relate to science in some way.  I have already discussed all this with my advance classes and they are excited!  (The excitement makes me so happy since whenever students hear the phrase “current event” it is usually followed by groans.)

I was reading one blog (http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=46889) where they were discussing why grading blogs is a ludicrous idea and should never happen, because it is not what blogging is about.  This really got me thinking about how I would grade my students based on the goals I have come up with, since there are so many aspects of blogs that make them different from writing a report or paper.  When I kept reading the comments left on this blog, someone said something that really got my gears turning!  The blogs can be graded not on content, but on the quality of the reasoning, that supports their opinion.  As an adult, it is normal for us not to all agree on one topic, but when we broach these topics, we know to support our opinion with proof.  These are 13/14 year old young adults.  They may not know that you cannot just give an opinion and have someone believe them.  We the teachers need to start helping them develop supporting opinion with fact, so why couldn’t their blogs be graded on this theory?  Well, I did base the rubric on this great idea!  It is still a work in progress, but it is really starting to form a shape that I am ready to give to my students.   

Criteria	Unacceptable	Acceptable	Target
Blog Posts by Students	Student summarized the article found. Opinion was not formulated or defended.	Student summarized the article found and gave opinion.  Opinion was supported briefly, but more research should have been done to fully defend the opinion.	Student summarized the article found and gave opinion.  Opinion was supported with facts and details, along with links to the sources used in the development of the opinion.
Comments or Responses that students leave on other student blogs	Student leaves a comment being “good” or agree/disagree with opinion. Student asks a question that can be answered within the article.	Student leaves a comment that agrees/disagrees and gives a reason why. Student asks a question that requires more research besides the article written about.	Student leaves a comment that agrees/disagrees and gives a detailed reason why with a link to his/her source of information.  Student asks a question that requires more research besides the article written about.