Today we kicked off a third year of writing study with the Hudson Valley Writing Project. This year the teachers are working on a focused two – four week project. The intent is to create a learning scaffold by using multi-genre writing strategies that leads to a digital essay as the culminating event. In his book, Crafting Digital Writing (2013), Troy Hicks, writes about the composition of non-linear text and “the use of hyperlinks, embedded media, and other features that make web-based texts dynamic” (p. 35).
Mid-morning the teachers got a glimpse of crafting a digital essay. Kristen Magyar modeled the process using Google Docs. Then the teachers wrote their own personal essays with hyperlinks to webpages, blogs, videos and music. During the afternoon the teachers began to plan their project. Bonnie Kaplan provided the teachers with a list of multi-genre strategies (based on the work of Tom Romano , Fearless Writing: Multigenre to Motivate and Inspire (2013), and Stephanie Harvey, Nonfiction Matters: Reading, Writing , and Research in Grades 3 – 8 (1998)):
Illustration
Ad/Commercial Collages Cartoons/comics PSA News story Journal Entry Blog Post Tweet Status Update Obituary Sketches Editorial Cartoons |
Poster
Photos/Caption Graph/Chart Travel Poster Wanted Poster Speech Essay Digital Essay Folk Tale Fairy Tale Memo Eyewitness Account Editorial Letter Interview |
Commentary
Contract Lab Report Written debate Poem Play(Scene) Monologue Song Story TV/Radio Script A day in the life Grocery list Recipe Menu Artistic Genres |
Working with Kristen Magyar (Instructional Technology Coach) and Sheri McNair (Library Media Specialist), the teachers identified a topic and talked about the strategies and the resources that they will need to execute the project. Our next meeting is October 28, where we will examine student work and talk about the best assessment practices for learning products like the digital essay.
October 2, 2013 at 9:13 pm
I like your vantage point.
Bonnie