Course Requirements

Course Requirements

The power in a book study comes from the dialogue regarding the reading.  For that reason, there are requirements related to your answering each posted question and to responding to others' posts.

Prior to the final due date for the blog, 26th August, 2014, participants must:

• Respond to each question posted.  There will be 4 "sessions" with about 3 questions each.
• At least 2 times per "session," post comments that specifically address other participants' responses.  To allow us to track your comments, include the other participant's blog name and the date he/she posted at the start of your comment.  You may agree or disagree with participants, but be sure to include your reasoning.  "I agree" is not a meaningful response that contributes to the conversation.  "I agree because..." is more likely to contribute to the dialogue.

Unlike our previous book study blogs, all questions will be posted at the same time.  If you do the book study early, you will need to visit again in order to respond to other people's posts and to dialogue about yours.

Instructions for Blogging:

1) Click on "comments" below the post (question) to which you want to respond. Type your comment in the box. If you write a lot, you can use the light gray bar to scroll up and down within the comment box.

2) When you finish typing your comment, click on the little black arrow beside "Select profile…"Choose "Name/URL" which is near the bottom of your choices.

3) In the box under "Name:" type in what you want to be known as in our book study and use the same name for each post. It is MOST helpful if you use your first name and last initial or last name and first initial (nicknames are fine provided we know who you are in the beginning so you will receive credit for your posts) – something that lets us know who you are. (For example, I'd probably call myself BarbaraC or BCofer.)

4) Leave the URL box blank and click on "Continue”. You’ll notice that whatever you typed in replaced "Select profile…"

5) Now click on "Post Comment". Another box will pop up for word verification. This step prevents spam from being posted by other computers on blogs. Just type the word, or combination of letters, that you are given in the box.

6) Then click "Finish". If you didn't quite get the word/letter right, it will give you a different word or group of letters. It might take a minute or two, but then your comment will be posted with the date and time. You'll know your comment is posted because you'll get a notice saying it was, and the comment will appear on the page, just below the other's post.

7) Hint: The blog page does not have spell check. In addition, there have been times when the blog page “hiccupped”, losing the response you typed in the comment box. To reduce frustration, protect your thoughts, and allow for spell check, we advise that you compose your response in Microsoft Word (or other word processing software) and then copy and paste it into the comment box for step 1 under these instructions.

Session I - pages 1 - 72

Session I - Question 1

Session I - Question 1:  Why do you believe it is important to understand the characteristics of gifted students?

Session I - Question 2

Session I - Question 2:  How can we as educators assist gifted students to stay engaged in course work?  Site page numbers.

Session I - Question 3

Session I - Question 3:  What were your "A-HA" moments while reading this session?