Details of How To Do a Bulletin Board Week

(Step 1) ANSWER A QUESTION: Go to the current week's bulletin board and answer the question of the week. Each week, I will ask a specific question for you to write about. Each time you do this, you should write a 200+ word answer.

SIMPLE DIRECTIONS: (1) find the first message of the week, click on it, and (2) write your answer.

(Step 2) REPLY TO SOMEONE ELSE: Then, each week in the same bulletin board, you also should read what others have said and then reply to someone. To do this, you should write a 200+ word reply.

SIMPLE DIRECTIONS: (1) Read all the messages in the week, and (2) write your reply.

(Step 3) READ AN OLDER WEEK: And finally, you should go back to the most recent older week that bulletin board class was held; then read what people said in their answers and in their replies to you and others.

SIMPLE DIRECTIONS: (1) find your old message in the previous week, and (2) read the replies that come after it.

The messages you write each week will always be on the current week's BB. And the total number of messages you write on the current week's bulletin board is two, each of them 200+ words in length, for a total length of 400+ words. Below are more details about these three steps.

(STEP 1) ANSWER A QUESTION: Your first step each week on the BB is to answer a specific question I will provide. Each time you do this, you should write 200 words minimum, more if you want. (200 words equals about 20 lines of average bulletin-board writing.) To do this first step,

(b) write your message, click on "Save Page," and don't do anything else until after you see your message appear again

Note: You may offer opinion, fact, or any mix of it, as long as you explain what you say. Before you load it onto the bulletin board, read it over and make simple corrections/additions/spacing to help others in the class read it more easily.

          This week's question says to talk about our best and worst experiences with writing. I've had several best experiences, but one that I think about now actually happened when I was about five years old. I was in kindergarten, and we were supposed to write a book. I was so impressed with the idea that I was actually going to write a book that I was kind of stunned by it. My mom helped me.
          I really liked my neighbor's chickens, and the Easter bunny had brought me a baby chick (don't ask what happened to it eventually!), so I wrote my book about the baby chick. I called the book Charlie the Chicken after the name of my baby chick. I cut out pictures of chickens from farm magazines (I lived on a farm), and my mom helped me write the actual captions beside each picture, like "Here's Charlie the Chicken," "Charlie is a baby," "Here's Charlie's mom," etc.
           I was so excited when I was done that I could hardly contain myself. I carried the book everywhere, showing it to everyone I could.

Note: If you're the first person on that week's bulletin board, there will be no message, yet. To start one, click on "New Discussion" and then simply write your message as described above. (Anyone coming after there is a starting message on the BB should simply go into the first message and click on "Reply," as described above.)

(STEP 2) REPLY TO SOMEONE ELSE: Then, in the same week, your second step is to read what others have written. Then you write a 200+ word message replying to one or more people. (200 words equals about 20 lines of average bulletin-board writing.) To do this,

(a) if you aren't still in the week, click on the current week in the left-hand column

(b) click on "Discussion & Replies" in the upper-right corner by the word "View"

(c) go to the first message from a student (click on "Prev 20" in the upper-left corner to go back to the first message, if necessary); click on it

(e) read all the messages (at the bottom, you may need to click on "Next" to see the rest)

(b) write your reply; start each part by writing on a line of its own, "In response to [name]:"

In your reply, you may respond to one person, two, three, or even more, as long as the responses all are in one and the same message, with a total of 200 words or more for all the responses in that one message. Be sure to be caring, thoughtful, and polite--even more so than in a physical classroom because it is easier to misunderstand the written word than someone's face and verbal intonations. Before you load it onto the bulletin board, read it over and make simple corrections/additions/spacing to help others in the class read it more easily and to make sure that you are conveying a positive tone: things like exclamation points (!), smile faces :-), and expressive words (e.g., "Wow," "Far out," etc.) often help.

Reply to Richard J.:

That was a cool story about your baby chicken, "Charlie," and your book. I especially liked the part about showing it to everyone (the book, not the chicken). :-) When I was younger, I used to want to show off my writing to others, too. Now, though, I get kind of embarrassed about it because I'm worried everyone will see my grammar mistakes.

Reply to Jan T.:

Jan, I'm really sorry you had such a bad experience with that second-grade teacher. Nobody should flunk second grade just because their handwriting was unreadable. What do the rest of you think--anybody heard of anything like this happening?

Reply to Kim X.:

Wow! I wish I had had a poem of mine published in high school like you did. That would make me feel great. I remember the time Mrs. Yannish in high school asked me to read my social sciences report to the whole class. At first I thought she wanted me to do it because it was so bad, and she was going to take it apart (like another teacher actually did to me in my first year of high school), but then she told me it was very good and everyone should hear it. I felt pretty proud about that. If I would have had it published in a real magazine like you did, I would have been bursting.

(STEP 3) READ AN OLDER WEEK: And finally, you should go back to the previous week of bulletin board class. Then read what people said in response to you and others. To do this,

(b) click on "Discussion & Replies" in the upper-right corner by the word "View"

(c) find your own first message (click on "Prev 20" or "Next 20" in the upper-left corner to find it, if necessary); then click on it

(b) find and read the remaining messages that are replies to other people (at the bottom, you may need to click on "Next" to see the rest), looking especially for replies to your own messages

Note: If there was a holiday or other no-BB class in the previous week, then skip back two weeks: for example, if the current week is Week 10, and if Week 9 was a holiday with no BB class, then you would go back to Week 8.)

ROUGH-DRAFT WRITING: When you write on the bulletin board, you do not need to take a great deal of time to think about what you will say, as long as you are following the directions. Neither do you need to worry about mechanics--about grammar, spelling, or punctuation. You may consider these messages rough drafts--written quickly without a lot of planning ahead of time. However, do read over what you have written before you send a message: make simple corrections/additions/spacing to help others in the class read it more easily, and revise so that you are conveying a positive tone.

HOW OFTEN: You may do all three steps in just one visit per week that should take roughly one class time of 1:10 (1 hr. & 10 min.), or you may break up the steps and do them in two or three visits. However, if you are one of the first several people on the BB, you won't have much to reply to (Step 2), so you might want to come back a few days later to write your reply. (The very first person on the BB will have to come back again later to write the Step 2 reply, as this person will have no one else to reply to, in the beginning.)

WHEN IN THE WEEK TO DO IT: You may do the visit(s) anytime from Sunday a.m. through Saturday noon . However, your steps must be done by Saturday noon for you to get credit for BB class attendance.

If you work on the BB classes for several weeks, you will become accustomed to this pattern. Until then, please read and follow all directions carefully, and email or call me if you are confused: richard@jewell.net, (612) 870-7024.

The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the page author.The contents of this page have not been reviewed or approved by the University of Minnesota.

The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the page author.
The contents of this page have not been reviewed or approved by the University of Minnesota.