Teachers are asked to help students become better readers, writers, and community members in all subjects. Using a blog in your classroom can help.

Teachers are asked to help students become better readers, writers, and community members in all subjects. Every teacher is a teacher of literacy, even teachers in subjects that don't traditionally require intensive reading and writing. By simply adding a blog to your classroom and then continuing to do what you are already doing, you can both enhance student literacy and get students excited about your class well after they leave your classroom.

Literacy in the Classroom

All teachers are expected to be teachers of literacy, but what is literacy, exactly? Can you write my paper for me cheap? In short, literacy means reading and writing. Teachers in any subject may include reading or writing in their classes by having students read story problems in math or having students write short journal entries and read from textbooks. True literacy, however, goes much deeper than this. According to John F. Szwed's article, "The Ethnography of Literacy," a literacy event has five parts:

• Text (What is being read or written?)
• Context (What are the circumstances under which the reading and writing occurs?)
• Function (What is the purpose of the reading or writing?)
• Participants (Who is involved in the reading and writing process?)
• Motivation (What tensions, desires, or needs motivate the readers and writers?) During a typical literacy event in the classroom - reading a section of the textbook, for example - you have the section of the textbook as the text, reading in class or at home for homework as the context, and gaining further knowledge for class as the function. The participants in this situation are the teacher giving the assignment and the student silently reading. This makes the motivation for the student just to get a good grade.

Blogging and Literacy in the Classroom

Sure, reading the textbook is important, but does it really motivate the student to learn? If you have a really good student who intrinsically wants to do well, that student might be motivated. But what about the students who aren't intrinsically motivated by grades? To help these students with custom writing, you can add a blog to your classroom. Before we discuss some ideas for implementing a blog into the classroom, let's discuss how this changes the motivation of the student.

Using a blog in the classroom changes the entire literacy event. For example, if the teacher publishes a blog post on the classroom blog that links to or quotes an article related to what the class is studying and asks each student to comment on that blog post, the text is somewhat similar to using the textbook. In this case, though, the texts are the blog post and the article cited. There is also an added text when each student is asked to comment on the blog. These comments that are attached to the blog when published are texts themselves. The students must read and respond to the comments as well as the original post and article. The context is going to always be at home, in front of a computer or phone, unless you have electronic devices for student use in your classroom. The function is for the student to read a little further about a topic. The participants are the teacher giving the assignment, as well as every student in class who posts a comment to the blog. The motivation for the students' comments, then, is changed. Each student needs to read and respond to other comments, and must write his or her own comment in such a way that he or she will be understood by other students. Just by adding participants to the literacy event, the students' motivation has been completely enhanced.

Incorporating Blogging into the Classroom

A blog is not necessarily a substitute for more traditional texts, such as textbooks. Rather, blogs should be used as supplemental materials. As the teacher, you have the choice if you want to have one classroom blog on which you post materials and the students comment, or if you want each student to have his or her own blog and require the students to read and comment on each other's.

There are a plethora of free platforms such as Wordpress.com, Blogger.com, as well as paid blogging platforms such as Ning.com. No matter what platform you choose, the improvement to student literacy will be the same. Explore several platforms and chose the one you feel would work best for you and your students.

When you start posting, keep in mind that blogs are multi-media friendly. English, Science, Social Sciences, and Health teachers can use blogs to post short videos, images, and political cartoons as well as articles for students to view. Math teachers can post tutorial videos for students who need extra help with problems. Career and Technical teachers can post jobs appropriate for the students in the community. The possibilities are endless! Just start experimenting and see what works in your classroom!