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
Standards
(points)
Incomplete
(0)
Not yet proficient
(2)
Partially Proficient
(4)
Proficient
(6)
Exemplary
(8)
Writing Process
Challenging to
understand the main
idea, there are lots of
errors in regards to
spelling and grammar
Information is
incomplete or not
correct. The blog page
does not have a clear
purpose or central
theme
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
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.
Layout
There is no structure
or organization
Uses headings’
sections labeled some
formatting
Organized and
consistent; good
formatting
Development of work
Written sheet
submitted to teacher
Title or subtitles not
bolded and
challenging to
distinguish between
topics
Text for page entered
into simple word
processor and edited
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.
Appearance of the
page looks
professional
Evidence of revision of
page; text relates very
closely to original plan
A reflection of
development process
is given to the teacher
Comments
Creates comments to
others blogs that don’t
relate to their entries
Draft page is
submitted and text for
entries relates to
original plan
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
Content
Creates comments
that relate to peers
‘entries
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.
(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.
(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.
(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.
(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.
(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.
(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.
(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.
(13): The learner receive the
Roman Empire review and are
given the time to work on
completing it.
(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.
(9): Students create a fiveparagraph essay about
gladiators. They use the fiveparagraph 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.
(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
• http://libraryresources3.pbwiki.com/