BP10_2009112_Protagonize_Web2.0_Review

http://www.protagonize.com
Want to get creative? Want to explore your hidden writing talent? That's what the Web 2.0 site, www.protagonize.com boasts. I almost dismissed the site, thinking that it was way over the level of high school freshmen, or that it probably had a lot of expense involved. I am glad that I checked this site out! I truly think that protagonize.com can be utilized in a high school English classroom without any problems. Best of all, it is free to join. Some of the things that can be done at the site are: creating and developing your own stories; contributing to existing stories; following your favorite stories and authors; and discussing and refining your writing, style and technique with other authors (www.protagonize.com).

After looking around the site, I came to the conclusion that I could easily form groups made up of my students. The groups would each write their own stories. The way it works, about twice a week (or however you set it up), the group members would have to add on to their storyline. The site has some "posting guidelines" that it recommends for writers: keep the story fresh and funny; keep the storyline and theme alive; and try not to kill off the main character (www.protagonize.com). Another feature of the site that I liked included the "flagging" of mature content. For freshmen in high school, this feature is a good thing. Even if one of my students wrote something mature, it would be flagged. Of course, I would have guidelines in place for my sudents to follow before we ever began writing. Students who stray from the writing and publishing rules would lose their site privileges.

I really think that protagonize.com could improve my students' writing skills, as well as improving their language conventions. Studies have shown that the more students write, and the more writing that they read by others, the better their writing becomes. Being able to write their stories on the internet for all the other members of the site to read would appeal to my students. Reading each others' writings would be amusing to my classes. Furthermore, I would send home memos to parents, asking them to visit the site to check out their children's writing. Then, this Web 2.0 tool would be utilized by parents, students, and teacher alike.