By all measures, I am fortunate to work with so many incredible colleagues from the world of education, both K-12 and higher ed. Many times those collaborations happen in just a few hours, or a few says, and they then disappear.
However, sometimes they last for months or even years, and they transform into something much more powerful. Assessing Students’ Digital Writing: Protocols for Looking Closely is one such example of that powerful kind of collaboration.
Here is the book’s description:
Troy Hicks—a leader in the teaching of digital writing—collaborates with seven National Writing Project teacher-consultants to provide a protocol for assessing students’ digital writing. This collection highlights six case studies centered on evidence the authors have uncovered through teacher inquiry and structured conversations about students’ digital writing. Beginning with a digital writing sample, each teacher offers an analysis of a student’s work and a reflection on how collaborative assessment affected his or her teaching. Because the authors include teachers from kindergarten to college, this book provides opportunities for vertical discussions of digital writing development, as well as grade-level conversations about high-quality digital writing. The collection also includes an introduction and conclusion, written by Hicks, that provides context for the inquiry group’s work and recommendations for assessment of digital writing.
Moreover, each of the book’s chapters include online resources available at NWP’s Digital Is website. One note here is a huge shoutout to my friend and NWP colleague Christina Cantrill who has made the companion site on Digital Is a possibility. There are six different pieces in the collection, including:
- Erin Klein’s “Extending Writing Through Augmented Reality“
- Julie Johnson’s “Wondering in Room 114“
- Jeremy Hyler’s “Nurturing Middle School Readers Through Reviews and Book Trailers“
- Jack Zangerle and Bonnie Kaplan’s “‘Seize the Day’ – Finding Voice by Creating Public Service Announcements“
- Christina Puntel’s “Chocolate and Change: Gaming for Social Justice” (Her entire chapter is also available for free download).
- Steph West-Puckett’s “Remix & Remediate: Social Composing for More than Just the Web“
My sincere hope is that the student work shared in this collection and online will spark dialogue amongst teachers about when, why, and how they can and should integrate digital writing into their classrooms. If you have questions, please let me know.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.