I’ve decided that I will post all of my coursework for my graduate courses online from this point on, in an effort to think about the differences between writing for a class and writing for a global audience. Although most of the courses I’m taking in pursuit of a masters of education degree from the University of Colorado at Denver have a blended, or hybrid, component- we are supposed to post much of our work in an e-college course shell- I want to experiment with 21st century participation by putting all my work in open online spaces, including, but not limited to Blogger, YouTube, and SoundCloud. Also, I plan to tweet each of my blog posts in an attempt to gather feedback from a wide audience that might inform my participation in the class.
Here’s the current context:
My masters will be in reading and writing curriculum, when I complete my remaining four courses. This semester, I enrolled in a course about young adult literature. In our first meeting, our instructor let us know that he requires students to read 20 young adult titles over the 16-week course and asks that we not reread books that we’ve read previously. For each book we read, we have to post a brief writing in the course discussion forum that amounts to a written book talk. These writings must provide some background about the book and also convey my impression of the book. I must also include any potential concerns that using the book in class could cause for another teacher. For example, I would need to indicate if there were offensive language in the book.
What’s Next:
The first few action items for me in this class are as follows:
Here’s the current context:
My masters will be in reading and writing curriculum, when I complete my remaining four courses. This semester, I enrolled in a course about young adult literature. In our first meeting, our instructor let us know that he requires students to read 20 young adult titles over the 16-week course and asks that we not reread books that we’ve read previously. For each book we read, we have to post a brief writing in the course discussion forum that amounts to a written book talk. These writings must provide some background about the book and also convey my impression of the book. I must also include any potential concerns that using the book in class could cause for another teacher. For example, I would need to indicate if there were offensive language in the book.
What’s Next:
The first few action items for me in this class are as follows:
- Reread The Outsiders, by SE Hinton. (It will be the only common text in the course and it does not count as one of my 20 titles.)
- I have to generate a list of the 20 books I will read for the course.
- Before February 6th, I have to read Reading Ladders, by Teri S. Lesesne. I’ll present the book with a few of my classmates, and they’ve asked me to try to “cover”chapters 6 and 7. I’ve agreed, although I’m already thinking about creating an activity for the class with th time I’m allotted or writing a commentary I have tentatively titled, “From Reading Ladders to Reading Trailheads: Inspiring wide reading in engaged adolescents.” I may just whip up a quick outline of my chapter to hold up my end of the bargain with my group and pass it out along with copies of the as-yet-unwritten commentary.
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