Math 135: Applied calculus
Guidelines for blog postings

Purpose. The purposes of the blog posting are:
• to give you multiple exposures to the course material,
• to help you identify your specific points of difficulty, and eventually, to become your own teacher,
• to help me allocate lecture time effectively,
• to encourage transfer of mathematics to other areas of your academic/professional/personal life.
In short, these blogging assignments can be a tremendously valuable learning tool for you. In addition,
before your final exam, you can go back through your blogs to review your specific points of difficulty.
Finally, note that data collected in other classes1 shows that blog grades correlate with final grades
much more strongly than midterm exam grades do, even though in that class midterms were worth 40%
of the final grade and blogs were only worth 10%.
Content. Each blog posting has three parts:
1. Answer the question “What are the main points of the reading assignment for tomorrow?” You
should explain these in your own words, as if you were explaining them to a friend or family member.
2. Answer the question “What about the material challenged you?” “Nothing” is not an acceptable
answer. If nothing challenges you, then you should think about the material at a deeper level and
generate some honest questions. If you still cannot generate a genuine challenge, then answer the
question “What do you think was the most difficult part of the material for most people in the class?”
3. Write anything reflective about the material. Some suggestions are “what was the most interesting
part of the material and why?” or “how does this material connect to something else you have
learned in mathematics?” or “how is this material useful/relevant to your intellectual or career
interests?” but anything genuine, honest, and original will suffice.
Format. Question #1, #2, and #3 should each be answered in a separate paragraph. The paragraphs
should be given the labels “Main points,” “Challenges,” and “Reflections” respectively. You do not need
to write essays. A couple of sentences answering each question may be sufficient.
Deadline. You must post by 11:59 p.m. on the night before each lecture that has a new reading
assignment. If there is a technical problem with blogger.com, you can always email your posting to me
as a last resort and add it to your blog when blogger.com is fixed.
Grading. Blogging is worth 10% of your final grade. I randomly select which blogs to read for each
lecture. On average, I will grade your blog approximately once per week. You will not know in advance
when I will grade your blog. If your blog posting is not online when I sit down to read it (sometime
between midnight and lecture time) you will receive a 0 for that post. Blogs are graded according to the
rubric below. Each blog posting is graded out of a total of three points.
Question #1 Question #2 Question #3
0 pts None or some of the main
points summarized in your own
words.
No genuine specific/actionable
challenges identified. No original reflection provided.
1 pt Most or all of the main points
summarized in your own words. At least one genuine specific/
actionable challenge identified. Original reflection provided.
Examples. A bit later in the term I will distribute examples of blog entries that satisfy the criterial above.