Category: Assessment
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Keynote from Reinventing the Classroom 2014 Virtual Conference
My thanks to Steve Hargadon for an invitation to speak during the Reinventing the Classroom virtual conference last week. The archive of my webinar is available on YouTube. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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Conversation with Carl Young’s Class
Last night, I had a Skype conversation with students of my friend and colleague, Carl Young, who are taking a course on teaching composition and reading The Digital Writing Workshop. It was a robust conversation, and they had really smart questions. I have, with permission, simply copied and pasted the text from their original wiki…
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WRAB III Wrap Up
This has been both a personally and professionally fulfilling week for me, as I was able to travel with colleagues from the US to participate in the Writing Research Across Borders III conference in Paris. Along with the sightseeing, which has been wonderful, the general spirit of inquiry and collegiality from around the world has…
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Updates from Recent Collegial Conversations
Over the past few months, I’ve continue to have wonderful opportunities to speak at conferences and workshops, publish my work, and then share in conversations with fellow teachers. Two conversations in particular stand out as we had for the end of the calendar year. First, Kristen Turner and I were contacted earlier this fall by…
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Crafting Digital Writing
So pleased to announce that Crafting Digital Writing: Composing Texts Across Media and Genres was officially released today by Heinemann. Here is the text from the back cover: “We have an opportunity to help this generation define itself on its own terms. The question is no longer whether or not we should use technology to teach writing;…
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Is There (Finally) a New Paradigm for “Teacher Accountability?”
Two compelling events happened yesterday, each raising the possibility of a new paradigm for teacher accountability and each important in its own way. First, Bill Gates published an op-ed in the Washington Post, “A fairer way to evaluate teachers.” Here is the heart of the piece: This is one reason there is a backlash against…
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Out Like a Lamb, On to the Showers
Well, March certainly treated me like a lion would — full of travel, committee obligations, teaching, and lots of writing for some upcoming chapters — and I’m happy to say that this final weekend was much more lamb-like. That said, tomorrow I jump into the April showers, and when it rains it pours. Here are…
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A Few Thoughts for Pre-Service Teachers on Standards and Standardized Tests
This week, a colleague invited me to share some brief thoughts about standards and standardized testing with her preservice teachers in a private discussion forum for her class. I composed this quickly, but I hope that it has something to say for those of us who are interested in teaching writing, authentic writing, and substantive…
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What Have We Learned from Digital Learning Day
The tweets have slowed to a trickle. The webcasts are all archived. And the proclamations about the power of digital learning are a distant memory in our multi-tasked lives. Digital Learning Day 2013 is in the books. The post that follows is, really, in two distinct parts. First, I summarize my cynical vision of what…
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Open Letter to Educators: (Re)Defining Digital Learning Day
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Dear Educator: Tomorrow (well, technically today by the time I am done writing this) is the second annual Digital Learning Day. Cool. I’m all for digital learning, as the title of my blog implies. But, as we prepare for the onslaught of tweets, blog posts, videos, webinars, and other celebrations, it is worth exploring the definition…