US History – News Blog Project

Your third cycle project is to create a personal blog where you read about and comment on news stories. This page contains your instructions and a list of requirements for the project’s completion.

Create a Free Blog

First, you need to create a blog. Previously, we created blogs at WordPress. You could use this site and create a new account. You could also go to Blogger.

Do not use a Facebook or Myspace page. This website/blog should be created specifically for this project.

Read and Comment on News Stories

The major purpose of this website is to share and comment on news stories.

You will be responsible for making eight posts throughout the semester about news stories. Each post should contain a link to a news story at a reputable news source (i.e. NY Times, USA Today, or another major newspaper), a brief description of the article, and a response or reaction to the article.

Each post should therefore be 2-3 paragraphs – about one paragraph for a summary and one paragraph for a reaction.

Customize Your Blog

20% of your grade is to customize your website and make it look original. Small ways to do that are to change the title, add links to other classmates blogs, and switch to one of the pre-made templates. If you do nothing to change your website, you won’t get any credit for this 20%.

Don’t Make All Posts in One Day/Week

You should spread your posts out throughout the semester. Do not make eight posts the day before the project is due. The point is to continuously read the news and comment on it – on average about once per week.

Therefore there will be three checkpoints throughout the semester. By the first date, you should have completed three posts. By the second date, you should have completed six posts. By the final date, you should have completed all eight posts.

• Feb. 29, 2008 – Complete first three posts
• Mar. 14, 2008 – Complete second three posts
• Apr. 4, 2008 – Complete last two posts

To recap, here are the basic requirements for the project.

• Create a blog (using a site like WordPress or Blogger.
• Post eight news stories and reactions.
• Customize the blog, including a title, style/color scheme, and links.