Using blogs to heighten the learning experience about the Roman Empire By Robert Tuma

Objectives writes clear and concise blog posts about the Roman Empire create a five paragraph essay about gladiators comment on peer's entries and give objective feedback reviews comments by peers and incorporates those comments in a re-posting summarizes section information by using the text and/or web sites and giving the "big ideas

The Project Students will be working on this activity for the next three weeks by using this Pbwiki site and PowerPoint presentations for sections 7.1 to 7.5 as reference tools. They will be creating their own blog site that will contain nine different posts throughout the unit. In addition, learners will be expected to analyze and make comments to work done on peer's blog sites on four different occasions. The students will utilize the comments made by peers to reinvestigate some previous posts and re-post them with revisions.

Standards (points) Incomplete (0) Not yet proficient (2) Partially Proficient (4) Proficient (6) Exemplary (8) Writing ProcessChallenging to understand the main idea, there are lots of errors in regards to spelling and grammar There is a lot of errors, but the main idea is distinguishable Easy to understand with some errors Clear, concise, and basically well written; still with a few errors Clear, concise, and well written and edited with no serious errors ContentInformation is incomplete or not correct. The blog page does not have a clear purpose or central theme Information is not always clear or correct. The theme or main idea of the Web page is more or less clear, but does not relate to the purpose or theme of the project Information is clear and correct. The theme or main idea of the blog is more or less clear and related to the purpose or theme of the project The content has accurate and useful information. The theme or main idea of the blog is clear and related to the purpose or theme of the project. The theme or main idea of the blog is clear, and pages link to related information. The content has accurate and very useful information. The theme or main idea is very clear. The blog pages link to quality information. LayoutThere is no structure or organization Title or subtitles not bolded and challenging to distinguish between topics Uses headings’ sections labeled some formatting Organized and consistent; good formatting Appearance of the page looks professional Development of workWritten sheet submitted to teacher Text for page entered into simple word processor and edited Draft page is submitted and text for entries relates to original plan Evidence of revision of page; text relates very closely to original plan A reflection of development process is given to the teacher CommentsCreates comments to others blogs that don’t relate to their entries Creates comments that relate to peers ‘entries Comments about peers entries are related to their topics and give feedback that summarizes the authors entry Comments about peers entry is information that can be used to help them add more information to their post Comments about peers entry is information that can be used to help them add more information to their post and author uses comments to add more detail by reposting an entry

Calendar of Events (1): Discuss and demonstrate how to create a blog. Students create their own blog site and get the address of five peer’s sites. Learners are given rubric for blog project. Calendar of events is handed out and discussed. Students are introduced to the class Pbwiki site as a reference tool. (2): 7.1 is the first section of the World History textbook. Students are introduced to the Roman Empire through a PowerPoint presentation discussing terms such as dictator and republic. They read the section together as a group. Students complete paragraph response to comprehension question for the section and make that their first blog post. (3): 7.2 is the second section of the chapter. Students are introduced to the Roman Empire through a PowerPoint presentation discussing Hannibal and Spartacus. They read the section together as a group from the World History textbook. Students complete paragraph response to comprehension question for the section and make their second blog post. (4): Students directed to reference web sites on Pbwiki. They will utilize those select search engines and text materials to cite information on blog posts for key people. Students create first post for Spartacus. (5): Students review two peers’ posts on Spartacus and give feedback on their work. Learners are given the opportunity to work on the layout of their blog site. (6): 7.3 is the third section of the chapter. Students are introduced to the first two hundred years of the Roman Empire through a PowerPoint presentation discussing the Gracchi brothers. They read the section together as a group from the World History textbook. Students complete paragraph response to comprehension question for the section and make their third blog post. (7): Students review the comments made about their Spartacus post. They take that information and change and make another post about Spartacus using their comments. This is their fourth post. (8): 7.4 is the fourth section of the chapter. Students are introduced to Roman society and culture through a PowerPoint presentation discussing the gladiators. They read the section together as a group from the World History textbook. Students complete paragraph response to comprehension question for the section and make their fifth blog post. (9): Students create a five- paragraph essay about gladiators. They use the five- paragraph template from their Communications 11 class. They post their five-paragraph essay for their sixth post. (10): Students complete their post on gladiators. The learners are directed to review and make comments on two different peers blogs. Students utilize the comments and make changes to their five-paragraph essay and make another post for their gladiator essay with the changes. This is their seventh blog post. (11): 7.5 is the fifth section of the chapter. Students are introduced to the Roman Empire and Christianity presentation discussing the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. They read the section together as a group from the World History textbook. Students complete paragraph response to comprehension question for the section and make their eighth blog post. (12): Students are to comment on two different peer’s blog post in regards to the section 7.5 question. The learners then take the comments given, make changes and make another post of the 7.5 question for their ninth and final blog. (13): The learner receive the Roman Empire review and are given the time to work on completing it. (14): Students go through their review guide of the chapter on the Roman Empire. They are given the opportunity to review their blog site to make sure that all nine blogs are given and that they have commented four different times on peer’s blog posts. (15): Students complete the test on the Roman Empire. The blog posts are due.

Writing strategy Writing Strategy for interpreting a writing prompt or assignment and developing a plan in advance of writing: Pay attention to the prompt/assignment (What am I being asked to write about? How should I develop this?) List main ideas (at least 3 for the development of an essay). Add supporting ideas (at least 3 details, examples, elaborations for each main idea). Number your ideas in the order you plan to write about them.

Writing Strategy For continued planning and reminders during the writing of the prompt or assignment: Work from you PLAN to develop a thesis statement and an introduction. Remember you goals. Include transitions in each paragraph (except maybe the introduction). Try to use different kinds of sentence (remember the sentence patterns). Exciting, interesting, mature words- use them (try to use vocab words).

Pbwiki site