Sample: Class Blog Post

Below is a sample of a blog post I wrote for a graduate class.  It includes the types of details you should aim for: It was related to our class discussion, included Creative Commons licensed images, and hyper-linked to further reading. You don't have to do all of these things in every blog post, but you can if you like :)

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/luisbg/2072134438/lightbox/

Since reading Book Whisperer, Donalyn Miller's blog post "Let My People Read," I have not been able to stop thinking about my personal frustrations with the common views of high school reading. As an English teacher, I feel constantly caught in between two opposing forces regarding student reading. On one side are those who believe teaching whole class novels and classics creates a hatred of reading in students.  These folks tend to push for student choice and student choice alone, regarding those who teach the classics as old-fashioned.  The other side is composed of those who see little to no value in the young adult and contemporary books students choose when left to their own devices. For me, balance is key.  I wholeheartedly agree with the importance of student driven book selection. How can anyone develop a love of reading if they are never given encouragement to figure out what type of books make them see all that fiction and non-fiction have to offer?  However, I don't believe we have to throw the classics out altogether.  They offer valuable windows into the pasts of myriad cultures, and we must sometimes look back in order to move forward with purpose.

 As teachers, we need to offer students support as they read the texts we have chosen.   We need to help them with the challenge, but also must prove to them that the books we select have a value rather than expecting that they will endure our choices just because we say they should.  In addition, we have to make the study of every book, poem, or article relevant to the real life experiences of the young people we teach. When we do this successfully and use student chosen independent readings as a bridge to teacher chosen texts, tools like Spark Notes become less appealing because students have been given a reason to become curious about the literature itself.  The hope is that we can help students find books to love that will enlighten and maybe even challenge them, especially when reading ability and interest for adults are steadily declining.  

The bottom line is, worthwhile reading isn't really about how old or new the piece of writing is.  It's about the impact the words have on the reader. The best works, whether they are classic or contemporary, teacher selected or student choice, enliven some kind of emotion within us and challenge us to think about ourselves and our place within the world. If we can share this with students, they will find the joy in reading.