Check out our new class wiki! Beginning today, students will work collaboratively to design, edit, and maintain a wiki based on your reading of Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird. You will be expected to provide information about the novel, reflections on your reading, illustrations, podcasts, and other work related to the novel on your group’s wiki. Each entry will be assigned based on the careful reading and reflection of chapters from the novel.

Yet again, articles about texting and its impact on student writing are in the news. I doubt this topic will go away anytime soon. Here’s a link to two recent articles, from the Pew Research Center, Writing, Technology, and Teens and from the New York Times, Informal Style of Electronic Messages is Showing Up in School Work, Study Finds.

After asking you to write the blog entry about texting a few weeks ago, I noticed that the Associated Press just came out with a story about texting and its impact on student writing. Read the article, For Teen Writers, Makes Way Into Work, found on the front page of today’s Register Guard.

As I read through your blog entries, I find myself impressed by the quality and depth of many of the responses I read. I thought I’d give a shout out to the notable blog entries of the first few weeks. A bonus for those students who write notable blog entries: 5 points extra credit! Make your blogs great, something people would enjoy reading, and perhaps you’ll be listed among the notable entries…

Kyra, Jessica, Bryan, Amanda, Andrea, and Ryan have some interesting thoughts on blogging.

Nicole, whose natural, fluid style makes for enjoyable reading of every blog she writes, wove together a powerful entry about the insight gained from reading David Spoto’s Enchantment.

Nikolas discussed some solid reasoning for picking up a copy of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle.

Interested in hearing podcasts created by Thurston High School students?

Check out the ColtCast website and click on the project, booktalks or storymaps, that you’d like to subscribe to.  These student created podcasts are now available through iTunes!

During the trimester, you will have an opportunity to create your own blog, a space where you will be encouraged to think about, share, and respond to the literature and writing that happens in class. You will take part in virtual discussions with your peers about the books you are reading and the pieces of writing you draft.

This blog is intended to provide you with information about the course, including assignments and links to your grades, as well as useful resources such as websites.

Check out the Assignments Tab at the top of the page for an up-to-date listing of class assignments.

Can’t decide what you’d like to read? Check out the book review podcasts Thurston High School students created this year.

ColtCast

Interested in recording your own podcast? See me for more information.