So, what do we write about when we're given freedom to write?

Questions for my EN 12 troupe to work with while posting to their blogs (a dual purpose posting)

I'm not excessively ambitious about having  freshmyn students write online as regularly as I do  in my Texts and Contexts class, but I do want them to be privy of online writing spaces (and comfortable working within them). More importantly, I want them to think each week so I can follow their understanding of books, ideas, and personal quests as they create an original argument for books we read in this course (and I mentor their written communication)

Traditionally, I've had students turn in think pieces every week (1 to 2 pages of writing as it reflects on class discussions, personal connections to what we read, and/or quotes from books). These blogs do the same thing - they help to build a community of thinkers. The difference is that classmates can read one another's work, too.

The following are questions students may use to inspire writing each week. I require ONE post a week (but encourage more).

Personal Passions
Students might tap into something they're interested in. They can write about this interest (passion) through writing that matters to them. They might write responses to:

• Why am I interested in this? 
• What's the history of this interest?
• What's my background?
• Who has been involved with this?
• Who else in the world has this interest?
• What communities exist for others with such interest?
• What books and articles are there about this interest?
• What webpages might I hyperlink to this interest?
• What images or You/Tube videos might bring this interest to life?
• What stories do I have about these interests?

Reading Connections

Yet, Texts and Contexts is designed to push students to think more critically about literature and to make original arguments with their writing. A key ingredient is to cite texts properly and to join the community of readers through interpreting texts that make a larger point (argument) about the world. To do this, students need to make text-to-self connections. The following might prompt blog entries:

• What did we read this week and what did I think of it? Why?
• What passages or quotes stood out? Why?
• What interested me the most this week and why?
• This reading reminds me of this book/song/movie and why.
• This reading reminds me of a time in my life and why.
• As I read this writer I couldn't help but notice.....and why
• The part of the reading I don't understand is....
• I wonder if the author wrote this story because.....
• The reading made me think about the activity we did in class because....

Students should write a few paragraphs of developed though. When we wrote in class under a stopwatch, we learned how many words we can get to paper. It is expected that students will spend more than six minutes writing. The goal is to DEVELOP ideas that we all can read and think about together.

From the posts, we can shape larger projects. These are spaces to dump (brainstorm) our ways of knowing and to shape them into more substantial pieces of writing.