Author: Stephanie West-Puckett Summary: Educator Stephanie West-Puckett describes her experience using collaboratively designed digital badges as a networked, contextual, and participatory form of writing assessment in a college first-year writing course. She describes how this “community-based assessment” supported diverse conceptions of writing and prompted critical discussion about what constitutes successful...
Author: Laura Roop Summary: This article describes how the Red Cedar Writing Project designed a four-day capacity-building workshop, focused on 21st century literacies, for every NWP site in their state (Michigan). Any site can use this piece as a discussion starter to plan a similar workshop and to determine what...
Author: Connected Learning Alliance Summary: This profile of a 14-year-old aspiring photographer from a New York City public high school illustrates the power of connected learning, showing what is possible when a young person is able to openly pursue a personal interest with the collective support of friends and compassionate...
Author: Scott Glass Summary: Are you looking for resources to help teachers use digital media in their classes in safe and positive ways? This teacher’s brief essay describes the curriculum he created to support his students to develop a productive digital routine, craft a positive online identity, and use social...
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: Lorna Collier Summary: This short article outlines the findings of Troy Hicks and Kristen Hawley Turner’s Connected Reading: Teaching Adolescent Readers in a Digital World. The book uses survey data and in-depth interviews to explore the reading lives of middle- and high-school students, and the ways teachers are using...
Summary: Guests on this radio program were part of NWP’s College-Ready Writers Program (CRWP) who participated in an online version of a lesson study focused on two mini-units. Guests talk about how the structure of the lesson study has impacted their practice, their experience with teaching the mini-units in their...
Summary: This Youth Voices website gives a detailed look into a multi-week summer youth writing program including examples of student work (writing, video, and audio) as well as a detailed weekly and daily agenda. Included in the agendas are links to many of the activities and resources used throughout the...
Author: Judith Rance-Roney Summary: Interested in introducing digital storytelling in a writing classroom? Rance-Roney, a teacher with the Hudson Valley Writing Project, explains digital storytelling, discusses its strengths in promoting literacy, and, by documenting her own multilingual classroom work, suggests a path for getting started with this technology.
Author: Christina Puntel Summary: In this sample chapter from Assessing Students’ Digital Writing: Protocols for Looking Closely, a teacher-consultant shares insights from the collegial feedback she received on a student-led food justice project and the implications for her instruction and assessment. For teachers whose students engage in complex projects, this...