I'm so sorry about the delay! I realized late this evening that I completely forgot to do the blog this week. I read the chapter Wednesday, but since I hadn't read the articles yet, I somehow forgot to finish everything. I guess this is what I get for trying to work ahead, haha. Sorry again! It's alright if you don't get a chance to respond to my blog this week, of course.
Summary
Sweeny:
This article begins by making the case for incorporating new literacies in literacy instruction. Members of the Digital Age are not only consumers of information and texts, but they are also regularly called upon in their daily and professional lives to be "producers and collaborators" of it (122). Changes in written communication have led people to write less formally and more often incorporate multiple modes of communication, including images and video. Teenagers primarily use new literacies for two purposes: to socialize and to "seek out information" (124). The article continues by describing a few small ways teachers can incorporate technology, such as through online videos about writing or internet workshop lessons. Teachers can also have their students use the internet to communicate with and watch videos made by real authors so that those authors can talk with them about the writing process, which makes the process less "isolating" for students (125). With the internet, students also have access to a wealth of resources that help with the writing process, such as those provided by colleges. Teachers can utilize messaging applications, with which most students are familiar, for assignments in which students must be concise. Online forums work better when students are expected to "work collaboratively and publish their writing" (128).
Hansen & Kissel:
Writing instruction for adolescents must emphasize the power that adolescent writers have to make their own decisions. They must be allowed to choose their own topics, which they are more than capable of doing. They should also choose their genres and their writing process. Teachers may need to restrict students' choices to a few different options or encourage students to step outside their comfort zones, but the decision-making should still lie in the hands of the writer. Adolescents' writing choices are often "influenced by the reader(s) the writer has in mind" for their writing (401). Adolescent writers consider a variety of audiences, although they tend to have more passion for writing to certain audiences, such as those that resemble themselves. Students should not only be allowed to choose their audience, but they should also be encouraged to use their language skills to alter their language to appeal to each of their audiences. When it comes to evaluating drafts of their writing, adolescent writers benefit both from supportive evaluation and self-evaluation, and they willingly participate in both. Unfortunately, much of the evaluation that adolescents are receiving for their writing is less reflective than it should be and implies that there is one "correct" way to write, thanks to high stakes testing environments. Another negative effect of these environments is that students are not taught to value the various discourses and social languages in which they participate on a regular basis--only a single "schooled" discourse is framed as being valuable.
Hinchman & Sheridan-Thomas:
To think like effective writers, students should learn to "[pay] attention to [their] own thoughts" (155). Students should also learn that good revisions involve "mak[ing] substantial changes," rather than minute edits (156). Good writers write with their audience in mind and develop a purpose for their writing that relates to their intended audience. In terms of the CCSS, teachers must keep in mind that "variety is what the standards are seeking"--they should not focus on just one or two types of writing, but rather all types and approaches (160). Writing should be used as a tool that can have two purposes: "for thinking" and for "communicating effectively" in authentic contexts (161). Teachers can use writers' notebooks and give students experiences with writing for a variety of audiences to help them hone this tool. Effective structures for teaching writing within this framework include: giving time for writing in class (to emphasize the importance of writing), setting up individual writing conferences, addressing common issues with whole-class mini-lessons, and creating an environment that encourages "response, collaboration, and sharing" (166).
Response
Sweeny:
I thought it was significant that this article talks about how new literacies "allow for the author to think not only about the content but also about the presentation and the audience" of the text (124). These are some of the most important skills we try to teach our students as writers of and type of text. They seem to be skills that students struggle with the most--many find it a challenge to think about how to tailor their writing to a particular audience or how they should present their writing in the publishing stage of the writing process. New literacies might be the key.
In my experiences and discussions with colleagues, I often find that when they are incorporating technology into their classroom, they do it in a very isolated way. As the article mentioned, one of the main ways students use technology is to socialize and communicate, but often we aren't effectively utilizing this habit of theirs. This relates to one of the questions I have, which I've listed in the questions section.
Hansen & Kissel:
Every aspect of this article hearkens to what I know about adolescents. They are becoming independent, thoughtful young adults, and the things that benefit them most reflect that. They certainly want to feel a sense of choice and autonomy, and good writing instruction seems to accommodate for that. They also benefit well from being trusted to reflect on their writing in addition to the supportive evaluation they get from peers and mentors. Additionally, they suffer when they are not allowed the freedom to explore their individuality (their sense of writing style, their topic choice, their language decisions, etc.), since adolescents are often in search of who they are and what they want to be. Their writing is not separate from that search. If we keep all of these aspects of adolescence in mind, we can both engage our students as writers and help them become better writers while helping them develop their own unique writing voice.
Hinchman & Sheridan-Thomas:
I love the way this chapter frames writing. Writing is the act of "developing these invisible, fleeting notions [thoughts] into something purposeful," and writing is "a matter of controlling attention" (155, 156). I feel like this is really abstract, but if someone had framed writing that way for me when I was an adolescent, I think it would have helped me become a better writer more quickly. Writing is purposeful, which I didn't always realize, but the way we make it purposeful is by figuring out why the thoughts we have matter, and how they fit together to fit the purpose that we have set. I did finally realize later that writing is about controlling attention. I always felt overwhelmed by my own thoughts; I had too many, and they felt haphazard. The writing process that I developed for myself was to jot down all of the thoughts I was having, organize them into categories, and figure out if there was some sort of overarching theme or thesis to them. After I did that, I knew what my purpose was, and I could focus my thoughts enough to begin writing. Not everyone will have that exact writing process, of course, but if we can help our students think about writing in these abstract terms, I think it would help them really think about it as a process and help them understand both how and why we write.
Questions
- Do you think we should treat new literacies as tools for teaching general literacy skills (and helping students with traditional literacies), or do you think that they should be an integral part of literacy instruction because of their value as forms of literacy? What should the balance be?
- How can we best harness students' tendency to socialize (usually through technology) when teaching writing?
- How do you address writing instruction in our high stakes testing environment? Do you maintain student choice, engagement, and reflection? (If yes, how so?)
- Which classroom structures do you use to teach writing? Do you use any of the ones from chapter 9, and do you use others?
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