(11/05/12) I am a Tempered Rebel, Hear Me Roar

            i don’t really feel like bloggin today. Im not sick but some days I just don’t want to have to deal with writing this thing. But anywho, I thought the readings were interesting enough. I didn’t really get the piece about relay writing though. I would be so frustrated with trying to write a relay novel cause other people would keep changing the direction of what I wanted to write, I mean, wtf. I guess the relay compliment activity would be okay cause it never hurts to get complimented, but still I don’t know if it would be a great thing to do in a classroom on a consistent basis. Well, that’s all I can handle writing today. Adios

            Above is my best attempt to position myself as a “tempered rebel” similarly to Evan in the West article we read for this week’s class (West, 2008). I was very interested by the article and I think it shined a positive light on the possibilities of blogging in the classroom, as even posts like mine above “use strategies that English teachers in our school model and expect from their students in terms of literary response in these entries” (West, 2008). It was especially interesting to read this article because we have been blogging this entire semester, and have had to position ourselves within our own online identity. This has probably been my biggest struggle, because I have been unable to really break from my traditional identity as a more formal writer (although I am attempting to do so with this post). Most of my blog posts have been written in a similar form to essays that I write, but I actually think secondary students would have an easier time relaxing their writing within an online community. Adolescents have constant exposure to informal digital authorship, from Facebook to text messaging, and it is increasingly important for modern English teachers to bring these new modes of literacy into the classroom. These less formal genres (including the online blog post) allow students a safer space to really contemplate the reading and curriculum they are encountering, without the constraints of a “formal” paper, and to engage in online literacy communities. As West argues, blog posts allow students to find a way to be both “normative” and “creative” in their writing, which can help engage students beyond traditional writing forms found in English classrooms. Ultimately, the more we can incorporate new literacy practices within the classroom, the more we can engage students in meaningful forms of expression.