Author: Ken Martin Summary: Ken Martin, director of the Maine WP, shares lessons learned as the site transitioned from a traditional face-to-face summer Invitational Institute to a year round, online institute. This thoughtful and comprehensive study reviews the rationale for moving to an online institute documenting the successes, struggles, and...
Author: Kathleen Costanza Summary: This article describes the work of immigrant youth in the South Bronx as they discuss Sold, a novel about a Nepali girl whose stepfather sells her into slavery. A LRNG grant developed by the NYC Writing Project and four teachers enabled youth and teachers to use the Youth Voices...
Guests: Richard Beach, Antero Garcia, Nicole Mirra, and Lara Trale Summary: This recording provides an in-depth look at supporting youth to create and curate digital texts. Richard Beach and university/school colleagues discuss practices that encourage youth as they create digital texts to define purpose and audience, make connections between digital...
Authors: Nanci Werner-Burke, Jane Spohn, Jessica Spencer, Bobbi Button, and Missie Morral Summary: This article describes how middle school teachers looked closely at their own practice with the goal of increasing student engagement. As they explored digital tools and multimodal texts and publishing, they came to recognize the need to interweave...
Summary: This keynote discussion from the Scratch @ MIT 2014 Conference, featuring Mitch Resnick (MIT/Scratch) interviewing Elyse Eidman-Aadahl (National Writing Project) and Dale Dougherty (Maker Education Initiative), emphasizes making, coding, and writing as deeply related modes of creating meaning and sharing it with the world.
Author: Tiffany Chiao Summary: Concerned about students’ safe and responsible internet use? This resource describes Common Sense Media, an interactive website that helps kids navigate the Internet safely and interact with their peers responsibly and respectfully. The website also provides resources for parents and curriculum for teachers to serve those...
Author: Jack Zangerle Summary: This blog post describes an alternative research-writing project: developing public service announcements (PSAs). This resource may be helpful as a model for any instructors who want their students to develop PSAs for civic engagement or for the development of digital skills and message-making. This digital “making”...
Summary: How are teens and writing project teachers using twitter and short forms of composition? This brief article provides short descriptions and links to information about how National Writing Project teachers have used Twitter in their classroom, in professional development and networking — all of which provide ideas/insights for professional...
Summary: Twenty-five participants from 15 sites met online to discuss provocative issues related to the recruitment and retention of content area teachers at writing project sites. The group shared thoughts about and experiences with content area literacy and the expansion of sites to include content area literacy teachers into the...
Author: Kevin Hodgson Summary: An innovative and multi-purpose webcomic provides an example of how to: 1) survey and represent data from students about their use of technology and media (mostly outside of school), and 2) document and reflect on one’s teaching (and use of digital tools) in a useful format...