Assignment Overview:
The class blog is a space to explore your reactions and interpretive responses to Shakespeare’s plays. You should see this as an opportunity take chances with ideas that are not fully formed. This might seem odd to you, if you are used to turning in work that is only fully formulated, but the point of this kind of writing is to help you explore and develop new ideas.
You will be sharing your blog work in two different ways. First, you will be divided into five groups of four members–we will call these our “blogging circles.” As a group you will contribute to a blog created for your group in Hawksites; you will post a response to the week’s readings roughly every other week over the course of the semester (see the Schedule for details).
In the alternating weeks, we will post one “Featured Post” from each blog circle (for a total of seven posts). Each student will have one post featured on the main site during the course of the term (assigned on a randomly generated schedule). In these weeks, the class (including the featured posters) will be responsible for commenting on these posts (see below).
Assignment Details:
During the weeks you are assigned to blog in your circle, you should post a response of roughly 500-600 words to your circle’s blog that is based in response to the play and reading that we are discussing that week. Your post is due by end of the day Wednesday (12:00 midnight). During our blogging circle weeks you will also post at least two comments on other group member’s posts. These can be brief (about 100 words), but should be substantive and engage with the post. Comments will be due by the end of the day Sunday (12:00 midnight).
During the weeks that “Featured Posts” are published to the main page, you will be responsible for posting at least two responses in the comments to the main posts that week. Your comments are due by Wednesday at midnight.
How to Write your Posts:
Aside from the first post, the blogging in this class will be open-ended. There are a number of ways to approach these open-ended posts: consider the reading in relation to its historical or theoretical context; write about an aspect of the day’s reading that you don’t understand, or something that really affected you; formulate an insightful question or two about the reading and then attempt to answer your own questions; or respond to another student’s post, building upon it, disagreeing with it, or re-thinking it. In any case, strive for thoughtfulness and nuance. It is also possible you have another strategy entirely, and I encourage you to follow your interest and ideas.
Make sure you give your post a title (other than something generic like “Blog 1”!). When you have finished writing your post, please “tag” it using the tag field in WordPress that describe your post (you should include the title of the play, as well as any other key words.)
To help you get a feel for what makes an excellent blog entry, consider these posts, which were evaluated with the following rubric (the same one I will use when grading your posts):
| Rating | Characteristics |
| 4 | Exceptional. The blog post makes a strong point and has evidence to support it. Entry is focused and coherently integrates examples with explanations or analysis. Writing is exploratory and probing, opening various questions and ideas for further reading, writing, and interpretation. The entry reflects in-depth engagement with the material. |
| 3 | Satisfactory.The point of the blog post is a little unclear, or the evidence to support it is somewhat unclear. Entry is reasonably focused, and explanations or analysis are mostly based on examples or other evidence. Writing goes into some depth, but does not frequently explore other ideas or open new questions for further inquiry and reading. The entry reflects moderate engagement with the material. |
| 2 | Underdeveloped. Blog post doesn’t have a main point. Entry is mostly description or summary, without consideration of alternative perspectives, and very little engagement with the language or ideas of the text. The entry reflects very limited engagement with the material. |
| 1 | Limited. The blog entry is unfocused, or simply rehashes previous comments, and displays no evidence of student engagement with the material. |
| 0 | No Credit. The blog entry is missing or consists of one or two disconnected sentences. |
Grading:
The blogging assignment will count for 30% of your course grade, evaluated as follows:
Posts You will write six posts in your blogging circles over the course of the term. Following a random schedule, I will evaluate THREE of these posts using the rubric above. The others will be graded Pass/Fail. Your Featured Post will not be evaluated any differently; these are simply to promote online discussion and investigation of our plays. You must, however, complete all of the posts for this assignment in order to receive a passing grade for the class.
Comments will be graded Pass/Fail: If you miss more than four comments over the course of the term you will receive a deduction of one grade on the blogging assignment.
Portfolio at the end of the term you will assemble your posts into a portfolio and write a reflection on your writing and the assignment. This portfolio will count for 20% of your final grade on the assignment.
Rubric and assignment adapted from Mark Sample
