Blogging Pedagogy

The University of Minnesota Library's Assignment Calculator is a helpful resource for students who would like to view a step-by-step guide to completing their assignments and for educators who would like to emphasize that complex writing tasks can be broken down into a number of discrete activities.

By supplying a "start" date and a final due date, students get a plan of action that urges them to research, outline, draft, revise and correctly reference their papers before specific dates in the process. Additionally, each step is linked to several web resources (such as the Purdue OWL) that explain them in detail. I have found that showing this tool to my students has been helpful for reinforcing steps taught in class and a good guide for pacing in-class activities that talk students through some of the most significant steps.

I also really like the fact that the UM Library calculator does not take any steps for granted: it begins with resources that help with understanding writing prompts, topic selection, and thesis development before going into research strategies and drafting.

If you would like to check out the University of Minnesota Library's Assignment calculator, please visit the following link:

http://www.lib.umn.edu/help/calculator/