How We Dove into the Online Ocean: Using Blogs in an
English Classroom
Keri Franklin & Barb James
Whenever you just write the paper and turn it in it’s like you usually just want to put the textbook
answer and just go on, but with the blog you can actually talk about what you think about the
book . . . if you have something really good you want others to see instead of just writing it on a piece
of paper and turning it in, everyone can just read your blog and just see what you think (Ivar,
Interview).
In an era where print-based standardized tests rule the landscape of education, we
sometimes fail to acknowledge the online literacies that students bring to our classrooms. According
to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, nineteen percent of online teens keep a blog and 38%
read blogs. Fifty-seven percent of online teens create content for the internet; thirty-three percent of
online teens share their own creations online (Lenhart & Madden, 2005). Many students’ online
activity and online literacy is abundant. Students create vast amounts of writing and reading with
these out-of-school literacies, which may prepare them for the global work force more than
traditional in-school literacies (Knobel, 2001; Leu & Kinzer, 2003). Students understand and engage in
more textual practices than we may give them credit for.
For years we collaborated and experimented with our classrooms, struggling for ways to
engage students in authentic and meaningful experiences. We had read Will Richardson’s (2003)
article describing students who read and responded to The Secret Life of Bees
(http://weblogs.hcrhs.k12.nj.us/bees/about). As a high school journalism and English teacher, he
used a blog as a space for students to “display
Dr. Keri Franklin is an assistant professor of English
and discuss their artistic interpretations of their
work” (p. 40). He provided specific prompts for
at Missouri State University. She teaches middle
students to respond to. Richardson's blog
and secondary English Language Arts methods
showed great potential for the use of blogs to
courses and is the director of the Ozarks Writing
discuss literature. With this in mind, we
Project, a site of the National Writing Project.
partnered to set up a research project in
Barbara’s classroom. Through the use of the
blog, students had the opportunity to respond
authentically, without prompts to the literature,
learn about composing online texts, and build a
community of learners.
Heading Out to Sea: What’s in a Blog?
Blogs, or weblogs, are simply web pages,
chronological online postings, a replacement of
the “home page.” Bloggers publish on a daily
Barbara James currently teaches reading and
English at Parkview High School in Springfield,
Missouri. A veteran teacher of twenty-six years,
Barbara has experience as a teacher trainer with
the Missouri Reading Initiative and serves as a
Teacher Consultant with the Ozarks Writing Project.
Recently, she served as a facilitator for the MWPN
Literacy Academy.
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