English 90 versus ESL 93

In Spring 2007, I've decided to extend the opportunity for blog writing to my developmental English students in this English 90 course. We spend about half the time Reading and the other half writing these blogs. I have found that students work very hard and without complaint during the first hour, and then go right to work continuing the blog topics that I provide for them. The skills of these students varies considerably, but one of the major complaints among them are poor spelling and an inability to write clear sentences. Thanks to spell check programs, spelling is no longer the terrific burden for these students as it once was, and frankly I see little point in going beyond recognition skills during the in-class portion of the course. If I can teach students to become aware of how to go about correcting their spelling, then their talents and confidence in writing will improve. Building sentence skills by way of the blog is a more complex matter, but basically somewhere within the strings of words sequenced by most of these students are the fundamentals of sentences. So, I find time to tutor on an individual basis aspects of punctuation in these blogs to make them clearer for the reader. Students also need help with logical aspect of their sentence structures and with organization within the paragraph. For these challenges, I discuss with the student exactly what they would like to express, and in time we work together to improve the quality of their work. All the blog essays contributed here represent the real lives of students and have some very interesting perspectives. Please read and enjoy.