Keeping up with the pace of thinking and reading

This weekend I've been writing up some ideas to teach World Literature to 12th grade students. My goal is to cover a variety of cultures and types of literature as a large-group and then have small groups of students choose a specific world culture to focus on for the semester. Members in the small group will take turns bringing in examples of literature from their chosen culture to share with the rest of the small group. After the small groups have read and discussed examples of literature from their chosen culture over many weeks, they will then compose their own original creative piece to express what they have learned about the culture and in imitation of the styles they have studied. I'm hoping that blogs will serve to log, extend, and share these discussions throughout the semester.

If we have a class blog, this could serve as a space for students to discuss the readings we do as a large group or as a space for small groups to share with the rest of the class the work they have done. Small group blogs could be a place for each group to discuss and track their research on the type of cultural literature they have chosen. And individual blogs could serve as a place for personal reflection. This is a rough draft of a plan and I don't think we will use all three types of blogs, but I hope that whatever type we use will generate discussion beyond the classroom and move us toward Phase II or Phase III digital writing.

I think that blogging is important to incorporate into the classroom because the Internet and all of its resources are changing the way that we think and learn. This morning, I read an article from the New York Times that referenced an article from The Atlantic about the effect of the Internet on our brains and on how we do business. Is it good or bad? Or is it just different?

This is a topic that I find interesting as a possibility for the final project, something about putting into context the changes that the Internet is causing in the way that we read and think.