Lorri Hewett will be joining us!!!

Hi everybody,

I've got some really exciting news. I managed to get in touch with Lorri Hewett, the author of the novel! This is what she wrote me:

Dear Mr. Bueler,

I'm so happy to learn that you are using my
novel Coming of Age in your classes! (...)

I would love to participate in your blog activity, or anything else related to the book. Just tell me what you would like me to do. I'm happy to respond to any questions they may have, as I was about their age when i originally wrote the novel.

Looking
forward to hearing from you--Lorri Hewett

So please take your chances and write one or two meaningful questions that you have about the novel or about the author and that you would like Lorri Hewett to answer, and put them as a post into your personal blog. This is indeed a unique opportunity, as not every author is so kind and helpful as she is! We are really lucky!! :)

Starting your reading log

What I’d like you to do now is to start writing a so-called reading log into your blog. In that reading log you are supposed to collect your thoughts, questions and ideas about the book. Apart from writing texts you can also add photos, other material from magazines or websites or also drawings that you think have to do with the chapters that you have read.

First of all please number the chapters in the book. This will make it easier to refer to the chapters. You should end up having 45 chapters altogether.
When you read the book, please stop after each chapter or after 2-4 short chapters of which you feel that they somehow belong together and make an entry about it/them into your blog. You do this by starting a new post.

What to write down into the post:

• a short summary of what happens (please use the present tense)
  your personal reactions to the characters or events you’ve read about: aspects you like or don’t like
• situations or ideas that surprised or touched you
• questions that come to your mind while reading
• reflections on your own reading process: what did you find easy/difficult, where did you stop reading and why?
• add photos or texts and explain why you put them into your reading log (you can put in photos from the internet as well, or write down hyperlinks where the readers can find additional information)

The most important thing is that you try to be creative! There is no right or wrong – it is your thoughts that count! But of course use only English!!

Also log on to your coursemates‘ weblogs and feel free to comment on their posts. Do not 'steal' ideas from the other blogs though!

How to become a real blogger :)

Now that you have created your own blog, take some time to get accustomed to the different ways of personalizing it, e.g. find out how to write posts and how to add extra features. Feel free to give your blog an individual 'touch', so that is really becomes YOUR personal blog.

Make sure that only your coursemates and me can access your blog and write comments. In order to do this you must click on 'Berechtigungen' and scroll down to 'Blog-Autoren'. Under the question 'Wer kann dieses Blog anzeigen?' you tick 'Nur von mir ausgewählte Nutzer' and write down the e-mail addresses of all your classmates as well as mine. You can copy and paste them from the e-mail I have sent you.

You should then click on 'Kommentare' and answer the question 'Wer darf Kommentare erstellen' by choosing 'JEDER'.

Again: If you have problems doing all this, just click on the comment button here under this entry and ask for help!

Creating your own blog

The first step will be to create your own blog. In order to do this, please log on to www.blogger.com and simply follow the instructions. Please use the e-mail address and the password that you have already used to log on to my blog.
If you have any problems doing this, just add a comment here. You will get help either from me or from one of your coursemates who read your comment. :)