Why Blog in English I?

A blog (short for "Web Log") is an online posting of entries, similar to a journal or diary. Years ago when I was semi-actively writing on a blog, the most popular websites for blogs were Wordpress and Blogger. While both of these are still up and running, now most blog sites are actually multi-purpose platforms where you can build a complete website including a blog and a "storefront," and the opportunity to reach a wider audience because they are connected to a more public space. (Examples: Weebly, Medium, Wix)  Most of them have drag-and-drop options for those who are not familiar with building a website from scratch, and there are so many tutorials and YouTube videos on the best way to build and customize, that you can't hardly go wrong with any choice you make. For most people, it probably comes down to cost, the time required to maintain, and overall ease of use. Most tools contained in a blog are standard across the board - social network sharing options, comments, tags, and personalization options, for example. After exploring websites and reading reviews, I ended up with the simple blog site that I'm familiar with - Blogger (obviously, for here you are.) 

In comparison, blogs are written entries over certain topics, events, recipes paired with stories, etc., while vlogs are video postings of the same sorts of things. Both of these typically allow comments wherein people can make statements regarding the posts, ask questions for discussion, and reply to others. In contrast, a discussion board is more of a back-and-forth interaction that is more like a "real-time" conversation.

Blogs afford students opportunities such as reading and writing at their own discretion and pace. It can allow us to have a discussion with the opportunity to read, process, and think over what we believe about a certain topic before talking about it. Since it is an online platform, blogs provide us the chance to use the internet and hopefully become more familiar with its uses. As independent users, a blog also affords us autonomy, giving us quite a bit of control over our own learning and usage abilities. This differs from many other educational options because blogs are more "permanent" fixtures than simply writing a paper and turning it in, keeping up with it after it's graded and returned, etc. With blog postings, I can revisit a discussion, form new ideas, and have more chances to process my writing (and that of my peers) in order to grow as a reader and a writer.

Teaching Freshman English will provide me with many opportunities where a blog would be successful. I could establish one for each class period, and use it as a space for the kids to share various writings on the topics at hand. When we do our poetry section, for example, they could post their own poems as well as poems that inspire them, and have open, ongoing discussions over them. This would be an Augmentation level activity. To take this to a M/R level, when we are reading American Born Chinese, students could blog about social issues addressed in the book, pairing it with a research project where they link to current events as well as happenings in the past to relate to those issues. Part of the assignment here might be to specifically read others' blog posts and take notes in order to later engage in class discussions.

Both of these options meet multiple TEKS and grade standards for year one of high school ELAR. This engagement platform would hopefully inspire some higher-level thinking skills such as analyzing and evaluating, thus also encouraging more mature communication. The beauty of a blog in English class is that I think every area within our scope could have a space therein: Language skills, collaborative work, reading with purpose, ability to analyze, and generating questions over reading passages, just to name a few. Using a blog aligns beautifully with every pedagogical strategy: they are constructing sources for their own learning, it is collaborative, integrative, allows multiple opportunities for reflection, and is richly in inquiry-based learning. My ideas of use are based on my own experiences and other teachers I have found online who include blogs in their classes. By using the technological tools of blogging, students are able to learn in a different context - rather than a personal spiral of journaling that gets tucked away on a classroom shelf, they have a social, interactive one they can access at any time. The ease of the tools allow students to revisit ideas, learning objectives, and content on their own time. 

I would say the main obstacle to the overall success of using a blog would be if students do not have internet access at home. Many of our students (we are a rural, Title I school district,) may not always be able to connect to wi-fi away from campus. This could be an issue if the requirements of blogging extended past the school day - such as assigned homework. For this reason, it's possible that our blogging opportunities may be limited to classroom time ... or at least the "required" parts of assignments would be. Still, as long as the students are given adequate time to accomplish what's necessary, having the blog to process, learn, and return to would be well worth it.