Blogging and the Summer Reading Assignment

Nothing to report yet, Denise. I won't be offering this course over this summer, but I plan to propose it for the following summer. At any rate, I'm planning to blog about the summer reading book ayway (though the title of the book escapes me), in the hopes that by doing so I'll be able to connect with the minority of students who are interested.

I love this idea. I am a high school English teacher and am thinking about initiating a blog for our honors summer reading. Did you try it out? What was the response?

Blogging and reading? I can't help but be biased. But I will attempt to be objective as I can.

Although I absolutely love blogging, I must admit, it can be quite scary for some. I think that if students "got their feet wet" in blogging first, it would be extremely adventageous to encourage blogging about their feelings of the book.

The only problem is, as Chris hinted on, there are students that openly say it is a "waste of time." Somehow, I don't think these students would willingly post a thoughtful entry on the summer reading.

But, the benefit to allowing students to post their feelings on the book would be great. It will give them the opportunity to express their views and essentially "have a voice," providing that there would be professor involvement. Discussions, if kept interesting, would challenge and motivate the students.

But the most important benefit would be that comments would encourage each student to think critically about his/her opinion, and defend each claim. If the student blogs about how pointless the assignment is, the professor could always ask why, making the student think about his/her opinion and back up any unreferenced claims.

All in all (and, like I said, I have my biases) I feel that the benefits outweigh the negative outcomes. What harm could there be in making someone try something new?

Dr. Jerz, I had to do the summer reading assignment, so I'll try to explain the general feeling I got from the discussions.

They were a little forced, and the advisor who was in charge of each group discussion had a list of questions that we had to answer without any preparation. It was a little awkward, to say the least... Most of us had not read the book quite as critically as we needed to in order to answer the questions fully, because we thought the discussions would be a lot simpler. In that respect, an online discussion would be nice, because it would develop for a much longer period of time and the critical analysis of the book would be much easier with the help of all students who are interested. For those readers who have difficulty analyzing a book in such depth, they could probably read the thoughts and ideas of other people on the blog and choose some that they can agree with, that they feel are significant, even if they would not have noticed them on their own.

On the other hand, I'm not so sure that most of the incoming freshman would dedicate time to a blog that discusses a book they're being forced to read. I talked to a lot of students, both before and after the discussions, that felt the whole thing was a big waste of time.

Altogether, I think the blog would benefit a small, select group of students, but the majority would never really even know or care about it.

I say go for it, because even the smallest amount of benefit is worth it in education.

I didn't enter this school until I transferred my sophomore year so I've never had the summer reading experience. This subject is difficult for me to comment on for it is not really my field or peaks my interest but I am trying to do it as unbiased as possible. Although I am not sure that I would personally participate I do think that a blog dedicated to the summer reading book would help build a community over the summer. Personally, I would not be more motivated to read the book if I knew there was a community of people who were already talking about it simply because that is not something I am interested in but for those who enjoy this, I think it is a great idea. I also agree that if this takes place it would be a phenomenal idea to have some of your future teachers take place in the activity. I think that alone may inspire some students to participate. It would be a chance to get to know some of the faculty a little better in a personal, less structured environment. It would be easier to get better acquainted with "who" your teachers really are rather than just knowing them as Professor Smith or Dr. Smith.

Tiffany, I've been thinking about the Class of 2008 experiment, and wondering whether if a summer orientation issue of The Setonian, published with the articles set to accept comments, might serve a similar purpose. As it turned out, the expectation that incoming freshmen would post entries on 2008 didn't turn out too well, but perhaps if there more content, written especially with incoming freshmen in mind, readers would be prompted to post questions.

While it will never be possible to get 100% of students to read the book, perhaps a summer reading blog will at the very least serve as a reminder that SHU feels the summer reading experience is valuable.

Students who don't like either books or blogs won't benefit much, but perhaps a summer reading blog will be attractive to the committed minority, who read the book over the summer and want to talk about it.

Dr. Jerz,

As one of the three "blogginators" that hosted the freshmen blog I would have to say that it would be a good idea in theory. You see, most students, like myself, don't even pick the book up and look at it after orientation until they have to read it for the book discussion and then it's just about 3/4 of the class that actually reads it. I think that you would have those few students that have already blogged or heard of blogging that would come and check out what was going on like this past summer, but other than that I wouldn't get your hopes up. We did and it turned out that other than Karissa, Amanda and I only Valerie and Evan had an interest that I saw...

Tiff

Thanks for your replies... as it happens, both Neha and Moira are transfer students. Each freshman class reads a book over the summer -- in theory, anyway -- and there is a class-wide discussion in September. The idea is to introduce students to being part of intellectual community. Lots of faculty and staff members who don't usually get the chance to teach literature read the book too, and help lead discussinos.

I'd love to hear from some students who went through the summer reading program.

Hear hear. I completely agree with Moira. Lets live up the to the "new" in New Media already.

"eductation"

maybe I could use some of that thar education myself??

I think the idea is a great one! It will help foster the idea that learning is not something you do just during the school year but rather a lifelong experience. And, anything, ANYTHING, that will get people reading is fabulous!!

I mean, whatever it takes, right? If connecting with a group of like-minded individuals on the internet is what it will take for people to get involved with their eductation beyond the traditional methods and reading, go for it! I mean, you might find that you don't get a lot of interest, but the people who are interested will most likely have something interested to say. I'd say it's worth a shot just to see what happens.

There might be some concerns about the technical aspects of the blogging experience for incoming freshmen who haven't taken, say, writing for the internet, but I think you'll find that the younger the students get (or is it the older we get??), the more familiar they will be with the medium and better able to stumble along alone.

And, by the way, summer reading book? Did I miss something by being a transfer student?

Very specific questions, Dr. Jerz. I think my answer's going to slightly biased because I love reading and blogging (I love how that word has become an acceptable verb!).

If we do have a weblog devoted to summer reading, I think it'll be interesting to see how the thought process develops over the course of the book. As far as I'm concerned, I'll take just about any excuse to stop working to pick up a book, but I think the novelty of the blog (for some at least) will motivate the students to read, even if it will only boil down to checking replies to their comments.

Even better if teachers jump in, because the students will be able to discuss questions and reflections while the readings are still fresh in their minds.