Blogs

=Blogs= These are a collection of blogs and ideas to promote blogging and writing. The basic idea of a blog is that the writer continues adding new content daily, weekly or monthly and that it is an unending task. Try to also think about blogging as having a beginning and end point. Blogs can serve a purpose to encourage writing, peer review, constructive criticism and collaboration for discreet projects of a unit of work or terms length as well.

Ideas to promote blogging

 * Writing a blog novel (inspired by this [|e-zine article]) as an idividual author or collaboratively with another person or persons. Comment on your peers blogs as they comment on yours.
 * Write a blog in character. You will be given a current affairs topic or issue to write a blog post about and must write in character in a style that reflects how the character might feel about it. Examples: [|Mozart's Sister - A Diary], [|The Orwell diaries]and [|The diary of Samuel Pepys]
 * 100 words. Write 100 words a day on any topic that appeals to you. for a set period of time eg 1 month
 * Debating blog - Write a blog post defending or opposing the topic you have been assigned in your group by your teacher
 * Build your vocabulary blog. Write a blog post once a week for say 3 months. Each post must include 3 words not previously part of your vocabulary. Use them in context and highlight these words in your post in a different colour font or style to make them stand out. Subscribe to a 'word of the day' website for inspiration.
 * Film study. Write about various aspects of the film you are studying as specified by your teacher. Eg the first 5 blogs will be written about each of the main characters in turn. The 6th blog post will be about themes and so on
 * Visual literacy blog
 * Belonging blog examining various aspects of the key theme. written as an individual or even better as a collaborative group
 * Run a mock newspaper with journalists, photographers and editor. Articles must be submitted in draft form, edited and published. This can work well when various author can be given differnt roles within the blog such as aithor and contributor (as in edublogs). Comments to the blog can be seen as letters to the editor. Rotate the roles amongst the students.
 * Act as reviewer and critic to your favourite films and or books.
 * Explore the idea of a blog chain (see [|e-zine article] for an explanation of the concept and [|Annie writes about writing blog] for an example).

Blogs about books
The Diary of Anne Frank - [|The Diary in the Class] [|The Secret Life of Bees] - Will Richardson's senior study of the novel as blog posts. Interesting additional section by the author Sue Monk-Kidd who was invited to read the students work and comment on it.

Blogs exploring aspects of writing and teaching English
[|Bronte Blog] - A blog about all things Bronte including theatre and film reviews and a plethora of Bronte links and resources such as e-texts. [|The English Teachers Blog]- Blog post "LOL cats and internet grammar"' [|The Musings of Christine Fonseca] - Thoughts on writing, life and other great things [|The Archetype Writing Blog]: Psychology, writing and life by Carolyn Kaufman - Blog post "Avoiding ad naseum: telling fresh stories".

Book Review Blogs
[|Zero to eight] - young readers