Instructions for class blog postings - "Of Mice and Men"

For each reading in Of Mice and Men, two students will be assigned to post discussion questions. If it is not your day to write a question, then your job is to choose one of the discussion questions and write a response.

Writing Discussion Questions:·
· Entitle your post “Of Mice and Men Ch. __ .” You may include something about your question as well (e.g. “Of Mice and Men Ch. 1: Lennie’s dead mouse”) to introduce your topic if you wish. Type your full question in the body of the post.
· Discussion questions must be posted on the blog by 10:00 p.m. two school nights before the reading is due (e.g. by 10 on Tuesday for reading due Thursday) in order to allow your classmates time to respond.
· You will be graded on your questions. They should be thoughtful, interesting, and designed to provoke excellent discussion and debate!

Writing Responses to the Questions:
· Choose one of the posted discussion questions and write a journal entry – 150 to 300 words – in response. Read what others have written and respond to their thoughts as well as to the original question. Try to be additive, not repetitive; bring new ideas into the dialogue.
· Use details from the book to support your response.
· Proofread your work.
· Post your response on the blog by the beginning of class. Add it to the blog as a comment under the question you are discussing, not as a new post, so that questions and discussion will be grouped together. You can write your response in the Comment box or write it in Word and copy it. Either way, you will need to log into the blog before you can post.
• Responses will be graded for thoroughness, thoughtfulness, clarity, and insight into the book.

For the adventurous who want to try a little HTML in their comments:
· To italicize something, put < i > before what you want italicized and < /i > after it. For example, if you type:
"I think you are an < i > incredible < /i > Guitar Hero player."
then the following will appear on the blog:
"I think you are an incredible Guitar Hero player."
· Similarly, to bold something, put < b > before and < /b > after.