There are some teachers who don’t like it when students ask some variation of the existential high school question “Why do I have to do this?”  I, on the other hand, am delighted by questions such as these because they give me a rare opportunity to discuss pedagogy with fifteen-year-olds.  Granted, most of the time the answer I give them is much longer than the answer they were looking for.

One student asked this question today.

And it was a fantastic question for which I had a fantastic answer.

And he nodded his head in agreement and seemed happy with the answer.

And I was happy that he was happy.

Because, the question was about the blogs that I routinely make my students sign up for and write.  It always surprises me that these “digital natives” have such a difficult time setting up and getting started with blogging, but I press forward with the lesson nevertheless because I feel that using this particular platform gives the students something that regular English class writing assignments don’t: a real audience.

And this real audience comes along with some very real benefits.  Aside from the frequent reading and writing practice (and the practice of digital citizenship and technology to boot) the students have an audience who will read and respond to what they say – an audience that may or may not have read the book that they are talking about, or who may or may not share their thoughts and opinions.  If ELA is about teaching students the best way to express themselves in a variety of formats, then this format provides a place where the ability to express oneself in writing (or in pictures…or video…) is paramount.