2¢ Worth » Writing to Communicate
If I were writing a manifesto for 21st century teaching and learning, one of the items would be, “The 21st Century classroom does not teach writing — it teaches communication.”
Web pulls world into classroom | csmonitor.com
When students know that anyone in the school with
an Internet connection – or around the world, for that matter – can read what they have written or created, it is remarkable
how quickly their thinking improves, not to mention the final product.
eSchool News online - School laptop program begets writing gains
Laptops make it easier for students to edit their copy and make changes without getting writer's cramp, he said. As a result, students are writing and revising their work more frequently, which leads to better results. And it's important, Silvernail said, that those skills translated when the test was taken with pen and paper, too.
"It's just a lot easier to edit, to self-critique. Our teachers engage students in a lot of peer editing. Not only are they helping themselves, but they're helping each other as they get to their final projects," Rebar said.
» Thinking ’bout Linking Bud the Teacher
Reflections on how writing for online is different than writing for text. How do we teach connective writing that uses the full potential of what real blogging can be, as opposed to just "writing with blogs"?
Techdirt: Txt Spk In Schools Not A Big Deal
Basically, the research shows that students do sometimes forget and let abbreviations from texting into other writing, but overall the technology use and writing students do improves their writing. Links to multiple studies done in the last several years.
In 2003, there was a study that showed that all this writing online was actually making kids <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20030520/1943254_F.shtml">more comfortable</a> with writing in general. In 2004, a study showed (like this one) that with a little instruction kids easily <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/blog/wireless/articles/20041223/1427218.shtml">understood the difference</a> between texting and writing. In 2005, a study actually found that kids were <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20051031/1836235.shtml">better writers</a> than in the past "using far more complex sentence structures, a wider vocabulary and a more accurate use of capital letters, punctuation and spelling" even if they sometimes let a txtism into their writing. And, in 2006, a study showed that students showed <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20060731/1938242.shtml">no ill effects</a> from widespread text and IM messaging.
2008space -
Collected student work published in an online journal--poetry, stories, animation, photos, and more.
Reflections on Fourth Grade Collaborations | always learning
Kim Cofino reflects on doing the 1001 Flat World Tales with 4th graders--what the students learned and what she learned about managing these types of projects.
Top News - Blogging helps encourage teen writing
Survey results about teens and writing, showing that students who blog write more for personal reasons and are more likely to think writing skills are essential. Most students think their writing would improve if they could use more technology to practice writing for school.
Forty-seven percent of teen bloggers write outside of school for personal reasons several times a week or more, compared with 33 percent of teens without blogs. Sixty-five percent of teen bloggers believe that writing is essential to later success in life; 53 percent of non-bloggers say the same thing.
Most students (82 percent) believe that additional instruction and focus on writing in school would help improve their writing even further--and more than three-quarters of those surveyed (78 percent) think it would help their writing if their teachers used computer-based writing tools such as games, multimedia, or writing software programs or web sites during class.
Blogging and Reading Comprehension Strategies « Classroom Tech Tips
Applying reading comprehension strategies (questioning, making connections, inferring, etc.) and tips for students to improve blog conversations. One of the suggestions is to have a class focus together on one strategy in their comments to each other. I can see how the sentence frames would be very helpful, especially for younger writers.
Innovate: Why Professor Johnny Can't Read: Understanding the Net Generation's Texts
The authors argue that Net Gen students are used to hyperlinked, nonlinear content, so they don't necessarily approach learning with the same kind of linear approach most of their professors do. The premise here focuses on how this affects writing, organizing information, and sense-making. They argue that multimedia projects can demonstrate the same depth of thinking as a traditional linear text. Registration required.
As a result, while N-Gens interact with the world through multimedia, online social networking, and routine multitasking, their professors tend to approach learning linearly, one task at a time, and as an individual activity that is centered largely around printed text (Hartman, Dzubian, and Brophy-Ellison <a target="_blank" href="http://www.webcitation.org/5Xw4B5bKP">2007</a>).
However, these digital texts do not necessarily lack style, coherence, or organization; they simply present meaning in ways unfamiliar to the instructor. For example, a collection of images on Flickr with authorial comments and tags certainly does not resemble the traditional essay, but the time spent on such a project, the motivation for undertaking it, and its ability to communicate meaning can certainly be equal to the investment and motivation required by the traditional essay—and the photos may actually provide more meaningful communication for their intended audience.
Texts that do not look like books or essays and that are structured in unfamiliar ways may leave educators with the perception that the authors of these texts lack necessary literacy skills. Are these students missing something, or are they coming to us with skills as researchers, readers, writers, and critical thinkers that have been developed in a context that faculty members may not understand and appreciate? The striking differences between the linear, print-based texts of instructors and the interactive, fluctuating, hyperlinked texts of the N-Gen student may keep instructors from fully appreciating the thought processes behind these texts. Learning how to teach the wired student requires a two-pronged effort: to understand how N-Gen student understand and process texts and to create a pedagogy that leverages the learning skills of this type of learner.
Avoiding the 5 Most Common Mistakes in Using Blogs with Students
The 5 mistakes outlined in this article are
- "Ineffective contextualization" (not thinking about the best way to use blogs, usually self-reflection)
- "Unclear Learning Outcomes"
- "Misuse of the environment" (treating blogs like wikis or discussion forums)
- "Illusive grading practices" (lacking clear rubrics)
- "Inadequate time allocation" (both for students to write and instructors to grade and give feedback)
Blogging as Reflective Practice | Adventures in Corporate Education
Thoughts on blogging as reflective practice for learning, with benefits in both the activity of writing and the social connections
So basically when you blog, you have to think about what you have read, how that compares to what you already know or what you have experienced, and that comparison helps you to construct new mental models that you articulate in written form (your blog).
Using threaded comments to build a writing community in your classroom | Reflections on Teaching
A 6th grade teacher talks about the advantage of threaded blog comments for building a writing community. This encourages much more of students talking to each other and makes it easier to follow blog conversations.
One of those is threaded comments. This is rapidly bringing my blogs to the level I had always hoped to acheive–one where the students are talking to each other and not just talking to me.
Writing in the 21st Century
Report from the National Council of Teachers of English with a call to action to teach writing appropriately for the 21st century. Writing now often happens outside school in social spaces where people learn informally through their peers. Includes an overview of how writing has been viewed historically and how that has affected how we teach writing.
"Writing has never been accorded the cultural respect or the support that reading has enjoyed, in part because through reading, society could control its citizens, whereas through writing, citizens might exercise their own control."
"Writing has historically and inextricably been linked to testing."
"In much of this new composing, we are writing to share, yes; to encourage dialogue, perhaps; but mostly, I think, to participate."
"First, we have moved beyond a pyramid-like, sequential model of literacy development in which print literacy comes first and digital literacy comes second and networked literacy practices, if they come at all, come third and last."
2¢ Worth » Working for Value
David Warlick shares stories of authentic assignments and how they motivate learners. Writing & creating for an authentic audience is different from creating content just for a teacher.
<p>When writing, let’s say, to the teacher, you are communicated to be evaluated. Assessment is the outcome, based on some set of expectations involving skills and/or knowledge. </p>
<p>However, when writing to an authentic audience, what you are trying to earn is not an evaluation (though there may be one coming in the process). What you are writing for is a <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">response</span>, and that response will be directed toward what you have invested in the work, not just the facts you have included or the skills you have demonstrated.</p>
Collaborative Blogging as a Means to Develop Elementary Expository Writing Skills
Study on collaborative blogging with third graders that resulted in improved attitudes towards writing, improved quality of writing, and a number of unintended benefits
Weblogs and Their Effects on Writing Skills
Case study of blogs used with fifth graders to improve writing skills. In both classes reviewed, blogs improved "both rich content and author's craft" but not grammar and spelling.
You call this Academic Honesty? | Webb of Thoughts
Great example of why I get so frustrated when I hear people complaining about how terrible it is that students copy and paste content. I'd like to see the teachers and professors stop using uncited content themselves first; I see a lot more problems with people with graduate degrees. This lecturer on effective writing plagiarized content for handouts while simultaneously admonishing students to not plagiarize.
EnTWINEd Narratives
Teachers in New Zealand are learning how to use Twine so they can teach their students how to create interactive stories