Saturday, September 7, 2013

IW: September - How writing in digital spaces provide learning opportunities you won’t get from traditional writing assignments

Read the article:




1) Which of the four (4) learning opportunities mentioned in the article do you feel is the most valuable for students to experience? Why?
  1. Digital Spaces
  2. Real Audience
  3. Collaborative writing Peer Editing
  4. Digital Citizenship


2) Which of these opportunities is the most challenging to implement in your classroom? Why?


3) Other classroom connections or thoughts? Do you agree or disagree with the article?

24 comments:

  1. 1. Digital Spaces. As someone who struggled(es) with writing, word processing changed my life. I can quickly type my thoughts and easily edit them later. I hope that by providing digit space for my students can also increase writing output and editing.
    2. Real Audience. I need to do some extra steps and grow my own knowledge on how best to provide this opportunity to my students.
    3. I agree, but was a little confused by the part that talked about video links etc.

    ReplyDelete
  2. 1) Which of the four (4) learning opportunities mentioned in the article do you feel is the most valuable for students to experience? Why?

    I feel that real audience is the most valuable for my students to experience. I want them to understand how to participate in threaded discussions and provide comments and feedback that is beneficial to the discussion. Their work is a reflection of them no matter who the audience is. I feel like they don’t always grasp that more than their friends in other classrooms or on blogs can read their work.

    2) Which of these opportunities is the most challenging to implement in your classroom? Why?

    Digital citizenship is the biggest challenge for me to implement in my classroom. I do not feel like I provide enough opportunities for my students to truly feel like they have a voice and are capable of making a difference on a bigger scale. “They need to understand that their work is a digital footprint that has the potential to remain visible forever and that they can begin shaping a positive digital identity through their work right now.” Yes, I want to teach them how to communicate and comment on public work effectively, especially with the advances of social media, but I also want them to know that their digital identity is being shaped now and that their voice matters.

    3) Other classroom connections or thoughts? Do you agree or disagree with the article?

    I agree with the article. Technology is a tool to help enhance our students learning and not be used to simply type a written piece. As frustrating as technology can be and how hard it is to teach our young students how to use it, the benefits of opening their world beyond the comfort of their classroom, far outweighs the negative.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Collaborative writing and peer editing is the most important piece in my classroom. This is truly a "21st Century" skill, one that is becoming increasingly important in the workplace. It is also a stepping stone "learning opportunity" into the other three. By learning to collaborate, students begin to be aware of their classmates as "real audiences" beyond just their teacher. They also begin to develop "digital citizenship" as they give and receive feedback collaboratively, and they enhance their "digital space" awareness as their partners begin to suggest graphics, hyper-links, videos, etc. to enhance their joint projects.

    ReplyDelete
  4. 1. Real audience is the most important for my students to experience. So often, students wonder why they are writing a piece if no one other than myself is reading it. RAFT is a teaching technique that has students focus on audience. Why teach them this method if the audience is never authentic? I love the fact that my students can connect personally with their favorite authors through an email or posting on a blog. It sure beats waiting weeks for a response in the mail, if one ever came!
    2. Collaborative writing and peer editing will be most difficult for me. I know that peer editing is a valuable tool, but I still have difficulty moving my students beyond the generic - I don't want to hurt your feelings - comments.
    3. I agree with the information presented in the article, but I worry a little about the "separate skill that needs to be taught" part. I feel like there is so much more out there than I even know. I don't feel like I can teach my students some of things, but they could probably teach them to me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I worry too about the "separate skill that needs to be taught" part. Some students are far more savvy than myself!

      Delete
  5. 1) I feel like, of the four learning opportunities mentioned in the article, it’s most valuable for students to experience collaborative writing and peer editing. I should say that maybe this is just the one area of the four where I have had some success as a teacher. In fourth grade, students seem to be ready to learn how to collaborate with peers in real time and they can be guided to less superficial peer editing if I work hard at modeling it for them through commenting on their work and revisions. For me, it has been a way to get students to begin to view their work with a more critical eye.

    2) The most challenging opportunity for me to address is teaching students how to become a digital citizen. I feel a little overwhelmed when I begin to think about the digital footprint that they are creating because I can see far-reaching implications and I am not sure how to go about implementing the instruction that will meet their needs in these areas. It seems as if the classroom community just expanded exponentially.

    3) I have truly appreciated the gift of being able to give students immediate and specific feedback on their digital writing as they go through the process and to see how this feedback can, in many cases, guide the course of their work. I agree with the article’s assertion that these are ways that can transform writing, but I also believe that the routines and procedures that exist in my classroom need to be transformed too, to keep up with their needs as digital citizens.

    ReplyDelete
  6. It’s not that I don’t agree with the article, I do. My young writers crave an audience, constantly. Don’t most of us? Be honest, we write to be heard. Students want their writing to be heard, and the lag time between writing and publishing in a writer’s workshop (the format for writing instruction for my third grade) is too long.

    It’s just that my third graders are at the beginning of a steep learning curve. I haven’t begun to teach using a Googledoc or because we are going slow to learn our passwords, where the keys are, and how to troubleshoot typical and frequent problems so that we can be quicker down the road. I know it’s coming. It’s hard to be patient when I read posts about blogs and email correspondence between students and authors.

    So I am looking at the most useful digital tool for my writers RIGHT NOW. Interestingly enough, the place where I am beginning is digital citizenship; third graders keyboarding skills are not in a place where creating digital docs or even peer collaboration is coming soon.

    I want to begin with digital citizenship and getting students’ writing into the world with a blog--I would love a GoogleGroup, but I can’t get that figured out myself. Students will learn about the permanence and public nature of writing published online. It seems like starting with digital citizenship makes sense, though, don’t you think? If third graders can begin to take perspectives other than their own and think about how others might think or feel after reading their writing, I think that’s a pretty nice trajectory to begin their digital writing careers.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tracy,

      I think it's fantastic that you are beginning with citizenship! I can't think of a better way to start. Of course you have to work with 3rd graders on keyboarding and as a 4th grade teacher, I am so glad that you do. You send your students amazingly well prepared...thank you!

      Tami

      Delete
  7. 1. Using digital workspaces is the biggest challenge right now for my third graders. I get frustrated with how long it takes to get everyone logged in to Discovery and the one day I tried to get into Google Docs; it took nearly the entire block to log in and name a document. I know that this is process involves multiple steps and that finding the correct key, remembering how and when to use a capital and where the @ button is really hard for many of my students but I have hope that with each time it will become a little easier.
    2. They are all challenging but collaborative writing and editing processes seem very far down the road. Maybe once we get the passwords down, everything else will get easier.
    3. I think about the TPAC model with all these activities and really question if some would be better with or without a tech portion. It is a balance especially with the age of my students.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jennifer,

      Hang in there and know your efforts with your students are so appreciated when they move to us for 4th grade. It does take forever, but it really does help them moving forward to get more efficient. Finding balance in anything we do is key, so make sure you keep working towards that as you know your students and your teaching style the best!

      Penny

      Delete
  8. 1) I think the most valuable piece is the real audience it creates for our students. This audience includes collaborating with their peers as well. Not only can families access their work, but students in other classrooms and schools as well. The article made a great point that it forces them to think about editing and writing in a different way. They need to work harder while editing as they put their work out to the "world." It engages them in a way it hasn't before.

    2) The biggest challenge I face right now is in relation to this expanded audience. I want my students to share their work with a broader audience, but am still trying to figure out those logistics. I want to connect with a classroom outside of my building, so right now I am working on doing that. I feel like once I do this, I will be able to push my students even further.

    3) I think this article is spot on and reinforces why we should appreciate our 1 to 1 technology. We wouldn't be able to do any of this work without it. It is still a work in progress in certain regards, but overall they are really using this technology to create some amazing work. I also appreciate that it gets some of my reluctant writers to buy in when they wouldn't have otherwise. I appreciate how many individual student needs it addresses.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I think the most valuable piece is the authentic audience. Who wants to write so a teacher can look at it and fill out a checklist? Having an authentic audience is exciting and increases student engagement.

    The biggest challenge for me is peer editing. Often times this becomes an exercise in the blind leading the blind. The kids are telling the other students where to insert commas and periods, but they aren't helping them revise.

    ReplyDelete
  10. 1. The learning opportunity mentioned in the article that I feel is most valuable for students to experience is “collaborative writing and peer editing”. Although all four learning opportunities are important, I believe the collaborative piece is the most important because of how important it is for students to be able to work with others, and for them to get ready to work with other adults in life after school. Truly collaborating with others can be a hard skill to learn and execute, even for adults. The emphasis in schools has shifted towards concepts and processes rather than focusing on correct answers, which means higher level thinking and problem solving that requires different perspectives and working with others. These skills transfer over to the “real world” when students are getting jobs that are high pressure and require creative problem solving. Students need to be able to listen to others and respond in a respectful way, and collaborative writing and peer editing is a great way to practice this.

    2. The learning opportunity that is the most challenging to implement in my classroom is “real audience”. I have had students post on blogs and wikis before with hopes that someone would respond. I have asked people I know to check in and respond, including parents. I usually get one or two people that check in a few times, but then stop posting responses. It is hard to keep the students’ excitement going when there is no one responding to their posts. I have yet to find a good way to get readers to my site, or a way for students to make it exciting enough to draw the attention of unknown people from the internet.

    3. I agree with this article that these four learning opportunities are important, yet I need to find a balance of how to effectively implement these things into my classroom. Finding the time when I have numerous other things to accomplish throughout the day and technology issues and problems that pop up, makes it hard to really dive into this.

    ReplyDelete
  11. 1. The most valuable learning opportunity for my students is collaborating with peers and editing. Students are able to see each others homework writing. They are also able to constructively criticize or praise others in their class. I even had a students redo their post this week after reading what other students in our class had written.
    2. The learning opportunity I find the most challenging is real audience. Having others login and post things when I do not know the person scares me. I think parents of elementary students might be hesitant as it is to have students do homework online. To have something occur that is negative and associated with the blog would be hard for me to see. This is why I supposed the comment approval is in play on my blog. I don't know how to get more of a real audience into my classroom while ensuring the safety and comfort with our own peers.
    3. I agree with the article, however, I am not there yet. I have not incorporated technology to the depth that is discussed in the article. I would love to continue learning about new opportunities to safely and creatively incorporate all four learning opportunities.

    ReplyDelete
  12. As I think about teaching students to become writers, I believe that motivation is crucial to their success. Writing is too difficult to do well if one is not engaged. I think that digital writing spaces have opened doors to motivate our students by providing them with real audience, as well as a way to enhance their writing.

    The purpose of writing is to express one’s ideas and - with the exception of private reflection - to express our ideas we need an audience to listen to us, celebrate us, and critique us. Having a real audience, both inside and outside of the school walls, allows students the authentic audience. Now, they are writing opinion pieces questioning “Should There Be Zoos?” (Tony Stead), and rather than having the pieces stay in a writer’s notebook and shoved in their dark abyss of a desk, the pieces of writings are sent to zoos, to local papers, and to other students across the nation that are debating the same question.

    Students are also tremendously motivated by the ability to make their text interactive, by including the hyperlinks or embedding graphics, graphs, and tools. It is acknowledging that they are real writers, and we are giving them the opportunities to write like the text that they see and interact with.

    Collaborating with peers tends to be the most difficult for me. It’s a vital step of the process, and I don’t believe that technology is hindering the work; it is more encouraging them to stay focused on revising the piece instead of using peer editing time to chat. This happens both digitally and in person.

    ReplyDelete
  13. 1. I think the collaboration with peers and editing is the most important learning opportunity for my sixth graders at this point in the year. So many of them are coming to us with text-speak, that I have found many times they struggle to revise and edit their own work. Sometimes a fresh perspective really helps. Also, when the students realize that their peers are saying the same things I am, (Yes, you DO need to capitalize the word I!), they are more likely to do it.
    2. Although I am a firm believer in real audiences, I, too, struggle with the safety component. I'm hoping to set up some online partnerships with other sixth grade classes in other buildings - (perhaps you, Jen Chavers?) - as the year progresses. Then, we can move toward taking things beyond our safe little district and out into the rest of the world.
    3. I agree with the article, and it made me realize how much I still have to learn! I'm hoping that by reading articles like this and taking advantage of staff development opportunities and cohort groups like Inspired Writing, that I will continue to learn and grow right along with my students.

    ReplyDelete
  14. 1. Collaborative writing and peer editing is the most valuable learning experience for my students. Some actually know more about how to do this digitally than I do. This is where the young digital natives teach their teacher a thing or two. For example, I was trying to brainstorm how they could work collaboratively on a social studies project. One student asks, "Can we do this on Google docs?" No problem. Then other group members say, "Share with me tonight." Another comments, "Let's all get on line at the same time." It was amazing, and I had absolutely nothing to do with it. (This classroom conversation happened in front of my assistant principal while he was observing me)! Some students are savvy and possess the skills to collaborate and peer edit successfully while others don't. This leads to #2.
    2. The most difficult opportunity is teaching writing in digital spaces because of all the different technological ability levels kids come with to middle school. Some do not even know how to keyboard while others type faster than me. The learning curve is huge. Routines, rituals, practice and baby steps are what it takes with some learners.
    3. I agree with the article in all areas, however, finding the time to implement them all effectively in my classroom is one huge challenge. When students come each year more prepared than the previous year, teaching digital writing becomes a little easier. TIME is always the issue.

    ReplyDelete
  15. 1) Which of the four (4) learning opportunities mentioned in the article do you feel is the most valuable for students to experience? Why?

    Collaborative writing Peer Editing: I think this piece is huge to a third grader. Even before mentioning collaborating or peer editing, the ability to edit in a digital space is such a relief to a 3rd grader, especially if they struggle with writing. With pencil and paper, the though of editing and then rewriting a final draft is daunting to a student. After conferencing and then being able to insert changes directly into a piece of work, makes the student feel more successful and more willing to make changes to their writing.
    Once students are introduced to sharing their documents and collaborating with each other on stories or presentations, their interest level increases. Last year I had students spending free time to research and collaborate on presentations that they were eager to then share with the class. That level of engagement is something I had not built in my previous 7 years of teaching.


    2) Which of these opportunities is the most challenging to implement in your classroom? Why?
    Writing for real audiences. I feel like I am still stuck in the publish and print phase of using technology. I also worry about putting third graders in too public of venues such as blogging.


    3) Other classroom connections or thoughts? Do you agree or disagree with the article?
    I wholeheartedly agree with the article and the benefits of writing in digital spaces. My students' engagement in writer's workshop or any type of writing has increased with the use of our classroom netbooks.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's interesting that you chose collaboration as your most important opportunity, because it made me realize that the different opportunities are somewhat subject to scaffolding and age (at least in importance). I chose real audiences, but I teach middle school students who are beginning to interact in more authentic ways online. They definitely need peer editing, but I've taken that as almost a standard element of my class at this age. I would venture to say the ultimate goal then would be digital citizenship since we are trying to develop global citizens.

      Delete
  16. 1. I think real audience is a very valuable thing for students to experience and it's one that we don't often get in school.

    2. Even with digital spaces, I find that authentic audiences are difficult to find and I don't know that I'm comfortable trying to find them always. I worry about exposing my students to the outside world.

    3. I think the article offers some interesting things to think about, but I do think that the way we implement it needs to be age appropriate.

    ReplyDelete
  17. 1. I think the real audience opportunity is the most valuable for students because I think it reflects a far more authentic learning experience than the standard class essay format. Having a real audience means real accountability and a stronger sense of ownership in the students' writing and interaction through technology. I also think it ties in to the digital citizenship opportunity because having an authentic audience means interacting beyond the classroom setting. This may come in the form of publishing work on a school website for parents to view, or corresponding with businesses, organizations, or other students through the internet.
    2. Digital citizenship is probably the most challenging in my classroom, if simply for the sake that there is risk in exposing students to a digital world of criticism (among other things). Finding valuable resources to develop digital citizenship seems daunting, and it has an element of liability for teachers if not closely chosen and monitored. While students are frequently told that they leave a trail, such cautions are dismissed as paranoia or ignored in favor of peer pressures.
    3. The article speaks of the potential of digital learning opportunities, but I know teachers are still intimidated by the learning curve or investment such opportunities can require. I also think that it takes a lot of creativity to integrate these opportunities to the standards. Teachers must have these learning goals in mind when mapping their curricula if they hope to achieve any level of success with them. I could simply have students print out their essays and peer edit, or I can invest in teaching them to peer edit digitally, knowing it will take more time and patience. It ultimately comes down to my dedication and commitment to take advantage of these opportunities.

    ReplyDelete
  18. 1) Collaborative Writing Peer Editing. I believe this to be the most valuable because it is one that is not limited to the language arts classroom, but allows for other content to inspire writing in their own classrooms knowing students will be help accountable for their work. Being able to see their revision processes, allow for sharing with peers, and generating templates so that all outlines/brainstorms/finals look and are formatted all the same (the "right" way, versus constant fighting to get students to write down the format their teacher is asking for).

    2) Real audience. There are so many restrictions, limitations, and signatures that would need to be signed in order to allow for true online publishing to multiple audiences (beyond myself or their peers). Once they realize others have the opportunity to read it, t\I think their engagement would sore. I am just curious haw much room we have as teachers to allow students to publish their work, their name, and essential parts of their identity online.

    3) I agree that 1:1 access to technology is beneficial to all students, teachers, and schools. My concern is that once the technology is made so accessible at school, what does a student who does not have that access to technology do once they get home? And further, it discussed teaching the skills and techniques in order to utilize the technology; when is this taught and who is responsible for teaching it?

    ReplyDelete
  19. Collaborative writing and peer-editing is such an important skill for students to learn. It is critical for them to function well in their future careers. When I ran an internship program for high school seniors, I was told repeatedly by multiple companies that collaboration was the most important skill students needed for success in the workplace. The students would get training on the specific knowledge required, but they needed to come to the company with the collaboration skill-set. In the education field, how often are we required or do we desire to collaborate on a writing project? I feel it’s incredibly valuable for students to learn and practice this process before they enter the workplace or even college. Utilizing Google Docs, as the author suggests, for real-time, group peer-editing can be very beneficial by providing a mechanism with the revision history to see the thinking process. Learning group dynamics, collaboration and cooperation are essential skills
    Even though peer editing is beneficial, I find it challenging in that the students like to just hurry and get through it. I’m not sure how to encourage thoughtful responses; they want to say positive comments only. They incorrectly adjust conventions on other’s work. In one sense, it’s hard to expect students who are learning correct grammar to be able fix errors on another. I do think the benefits outweigh, but these deficits are challenges to overcome.
    3. What I particularly liked about the author’s assessment was that digital writing is much more than “simply having students type what they would have written on paper into Microsoft Word.” Truly transformative. I think he hit the 4 key elements very well.

    ReplyDelete
  20. 1) Which of the four (4) learning opportunities mentioned in the article do you feel is the most valuable for students to experience? Why?


    I think that collaborating with peers is the most valuable tool for students to experience. Often, students get stuck in cycle of 'one-way to do things' type of writing (yes, I did invent that phrase :) ). And, in that phase, there's not much room for growth or movement as a writer. However, when working with peers, students are guided towards thinking about writing differently, which ultimately helps them to grow as a writer.




    2) Which of these opportunities is the most challenging to implement in your classroom? Why?

    I think developing digital citizenship is the most challenging to implement in my classroom. First, it takes a lot of time to set up and manage. There are multiple layers of lessons that accompany this skill. And frankly, with the number of standards that a LA teacher covers, I wouldn't want to focus my attention in this arena when I think there are better, more concise ways to have students integrate technology in the classroom. And, I hate to say it like that, but it's how I perceive the reality of the time allotment and the standards.

    3) Other classroom connections or thoughts? Do you agree or disagree with the article?

    I'm not sure I either agree or disagree with the article; I felt that it was more informative and provided a very concise, practical look at integrating technology into the classroom!

    ReplyDelete