National Writing Project

Teachers Teaching Teachers #156 - 06.17.09 - (2 of 3) Teaching the New Writing - Glen, Jeff, and Paul talk about collaboration

Glen Bledsoe, Jeff Schwartz, and Paul Allison will be interviewed by Kevin Hodgson on this podcast. We talked about collaboration and the tools we use to collaborate in the classroom.

Glen, Jeff, and Paul are chapter authors and Kevin is one of the editors of a recently published book Teaching the New Writing: Technology, Change, and Assessment in the 21st-Century Classroom.

Chapter authors Paul Allison, a high school teacher, technology liaison at the New York City Writing Project, and facilitator of TTT; Glen Bledsoe, an elementary teacher and teacher consultant at the Oregon Writing Project at the University of Oregon; and Jeff Schwartz, high school teacher and member of the Bread Loaf Teachers Network, will shared examples of their classroom practices.

Glen Bledsoe, Jeff Schwartz, and Paul Allison are interviewed by Kevin Hodgson on this podcast. We talked about collaboration and the tools we use to collaborate in the classroom.

Here’s how the National Writing Project described what we would be talking about on this show.

As educators move forward into the terrain of digital literacy and learning with their students, part of the challenge is balancing the innovation of new technology with the accountability of assessment.

The recently published book Teaching the New Writing: Technology, Change, and Assessment in the 21st-Century Classroom explores these balancing acts through case studies of elementary through university-level classrooms where teachers are integrating technology with writing and where the assessment of the digital work and student learning is being explored.

Chapter authors Paul Allison, a high school teacher, technology liaison at the New York City Writing Project, and facilitator of TTT; Glen Bledsoe, an elementary teacher and teacher consultant at the Oregon Writing Project at the University of Oregon; and Jeff Schwartz, high school teacher and member of the Bread Loaf Teachers Network, will share examples of their classroom practices to prompt a discussion about the collaborative nature of writing when using technology in the classroom.

Please enjoy the podcast, and add a comment with your story about how writing is changing in your classroom.

This podcast is the second of three Teachers Teaching Teachers shows this month that focused on this book. On TTT#155 (June 10) we interviewed the editors of this book. On TTT#157 (June 24), we had various authors from the different chapters of Teaching the New Writing on the show.

Click Read more to see a transcript of a chat that was happening during the webcast.

 

Teachers Teaching Teachers #155 - 06.10.09 - (1 of 3) What's So New About Teaching the New Writing?

On the June 10th Teachers Teaching Teachers the editors of Teaching the New Writing, a new book from The National Writing Project, a MacArthur grantee. They discuss[ed] new directions in student composing as the boundaries between written, spoken, and visual blur and audiences expand. Editors Anne Herrington, Kevin Hodgson, and Charles Moran from the Western Massachusetts Writing Project ... address[ed] these and other questions in this podcast, drawing from insights and discoveries they made while writing their new book, Teaching the New Writing.

Here's a couple of quotes from a MacArthur Spotlight that describes what you'll hear on this podcast:

On June 10th [the] editors of Teaching the New Writing, a new book from The National Writing Project, a MacArthur grantee. They discuss[ed] new directions in student composing as the boundaries between written, spoken, and visual blur and audiences expand.

 

Editors Anne Herrington, Kevin Hodgson, and Charles Moran from the Western Massachusetts Writing Project ... address[ed] these and other questions in this podcast, drawing from insights and discoveries they made while writing their new book, Teaching the New Writing. The book pulls together teachers’ stories, practices, and examples of students’ creative and expository writing from online and multimedia projects such as blogs, wikis, podcasts, and electronic poetry.
 

Jenna McWilliams (Indiana University) joined us in the chat room during the live webcast. She sparked a lot of lively conversation, and after the show, Jenna wrote a thoughtful revew of Teaching the New Writing:

The drive in these narratives is toward considering how new media technologies, and the accompanying valued mindsets, skillsets, and practices, change how we think about writing. Allison writes that "social networking technology allows us to ask the essential question: How do you get your work noticed online?" In "Senior Boards: Multimedia Presentations from Yearlong Research and Community-Based Culminating Project," Bryan Ripley Crandall describes his effort to shift senior project requirements to prepare learners for "writing for the real world":

[A]s an English teacher, I've had to adapt with new technology to keep up. I feel obligated to provide students the best technological resources I can because I recognize an online, digital life is what my students know and where they'll be in the future. Digital literacy is a growing expectation of higher education, employers, parents, and students.



Here, Crandall points to two key sentiments that run through Teaching the New Writing: That writing teachers recognize the need to integrate new media technologies and practices into their classrooms, and that they feel a little desperate at finding strategies for keeping up with the technological and cultural changes that give rise to this need.

See Jenna's entire Book review: Teaching the New Writing: Technology, change, and assessment in the 21st-century classroom

This podcast is the first of three Teachers Teaching Teachers shows this month that will focus on this book. On TTT#156 (June 17) and TTT#157 (June 24), we will have had various authors from the different chapters of Teaching the New Writing on the show.

Join us for Download this podcast and the next two as well.

Click Read more to see a transcript of a chat that was happening during the webcast.

Teachers Teaching Teachers #154 - Resiliency: What are we learning with our colleagues (Part 2 of 2) -06.03.09

On this second of a two-part podcast, Paul Allison and Susan Ettenheim were joined for a second time by five Writing Project teachers from around the country:

  • DeWayne Dickens, Oklahoma State Writing Project
  • Suzanne Linebarger, Northern California Writing Project
  • Irina McGrath, Louisville Writing Project
  • Lynette Herring-Harris, Thinking Partner for Rural Sites Network, Mississippi State University Writing/Thinking Project
  • Vanessa Brown, Thinking Partner for the Urban Sites Network, Philadelphia Writing Project

Enjoy their conversation! It is laced with provocative questions, inspiring stories, detailed descriptions, and political urgency. In this second podcast, you will hear DeWayne, Suzanne, Irina, Lynette, and Vanessa discussing how resiliency:

  • helps them to understand and to demand the use of technology to give students voice, social comptency, and power
  • and provides a important context for the professional development work they do with their colleagues within their own schools in in their Writing Project sites.

This podcast is the second part of a two-part webcast about Resiliency, produced with the help of Christina Cantrill and the Urban Sites and Rual Sites Networks of the National Writing Project.

On the first of these two shows (TTT#151) our guests gave personal definitions for this field of educational research that describes resiliency in students, we asked these Writing Project teachers to describe what it look like in the classroom:

What specific structures, decisions, books, approaches, projects or technologies have you learned to employ in your classroom to provide the "protective factors" that enable "at-risk" students to develop the resiliency they need to succeed?

On this podcast, Paul Allison and Susan Ettenheim were joined for a second time by five Writing Project teachers from around the country:

  • DeWayne Dickens, Oklahoma State Writing Project
  • Suzanne Linebarger, Northern California Writing Project
  • Irina McGrath, Louisville Writing Project
  • Lynette Herring-Harris, Thinking Partner for Rural Sites Network, Mississippi State University Writing/Thinking Project
  • Vanessa Brown, Thinking Partner for the Urban Sites Network, Philadelphia Writing Project

Enjoy their conversation! It is laced with provocative questions, inspiring stories, detailed descriptions, and political urgency. In this second podcast, you will hear DeWayne, Suzanne, Irina, Lynette, and Vanessa discussing how resiliency:

  • helps them to understand and to demand the use of technology to give students voice, social comptency, and power
  • and provides a important context for the professional development work they do with their colleagues within their own schools in in their Writing Project sites.

That's a mouthful, but we think you'll understand after you listen to these engaging teachers describe the work that resilency has inspired them to do with their students and colleagues. Enjoy!

Image Credit: "resilient spirit," Uploaded on January 6, 2006 by dlemieux.

Click Read more to see a transcript of a chat that was happening during the webcast

Teachers Teaching Teachers #151 - 05.13.09 - Resiliency: What are we learning from our students? (Part 1)

Our guests on this podcast are: DeWayne Dickens, Oklahoma State Writing Project; Suzanne Linebarger, Northern California Writing Project; Sandra Hogue, Louisville Writing Project; Irina McGrath, Louisville Writing Project; Lynette Herring-Harris, Thinking Partner for Rural Sites Network; Vanessa Brown, Thinking Partner for the Urban Sites Network, Philadelphia Writing Project

Resiliency theories have been shared for over a decade. These teachers are just a few of the members of the National Writing Project's Urban and Rural Sites Networks, who have been discussing the implications of resiliency research for classroom practice. On this podcast you will hear what each of them see and do when stakes are high, supports are limited, and odds are tough—and kids rise above it all.

This podcast is the first of a special two-part Teachers Teaching Teachers sponsored by the Urban Sites Network and Rural Sites Network of the National Writing Project. The next webcast will be on Wednesday June 3, 2009 right here at EdTechTalk.

This is the first of a two-part podcast. Please listen to part two as well: Teachers Teaching Teachers #154 - Resiliency: What are we learning with our colleagues (Part 2 of 2) -06.03.09

Please consider this podcast to be an invitation, perhaps even a request for you to join us in the National Writing Project in this conversation about resiliency, writing, and teaching in these difficult times. We ask that you listen to this podcast, then add your own story (by posting a comment) about a student who exhibited the qualities of resiliency that we are seeking to nurture in our classrooms. What specific structures, decisions, books, approaches, projects or technologies have you learned to employ in your classroom to provide the "protective factors" that enable "at-risk" students to develop the resiliency they need to succeed?

Our guests on this podcast are:

  • DeWayne Dickens, Oklahoma State Writing Project
  • Suzanne Linebarger, Northern California Writing Project
  • Sandra Hogue, Louisville Writing Project
  • Irina McGrath, Louisville Writing Project
  • Lynette Herring-Harris, Thinking Partner for Rural Sites Network
  • Vanessa Brown, Thinking Partner for the Urban Sites Network, Philadelphia Writing Project

Resiliency theories have been shared for over a decade. These teachers are just a few of the members of the National Writing Project's Urban and Rural Sites Networks, who have been discussing the implications of resiliency research for classroom practice. On this podcast you will hear what they see and do when stakes are high, supports are limited, and odds are tough—and kids rise above it all.

  • DeWayne tells us about a woman in her late-30's who has failed Composition II three times, but is not giving up.
  • Suzanne describes Jermaine, the Mayor of Liondot Avenue, and a video project that draws him into school.
  • Sandra relates a story about six-year-old "Richard" who had been removed from his home and placed with his aunt, but who finds himself in literature.
  • Irina tells us about her work with English Language Learners, her Spanish-speaking students who found community by telling their stories in Spanish.
  • Lynette talks about a letter she wrote to her students with a quarter for a phone call. Many of her rural students used these quarters, connecting with a teacher who cared. They were kids who had the odds against them, but they found success.

This podcast is the first of a special two-part Teachers Teaching Teachers sponsored by the Urban Sites Network and Rural Sites Network of the National Writing Project. The next webcast will be on Wednesday June 3, 2009 right here at EdTechTalk at 9:00pm Eastern / 6:00pm Pacific USA Wednesday / 01:00 UTC Thursdays World Times.

After the webcast, DeWayne sent around a statement by a student that represents his thinking on resilience: "Overall, I feel as though I have accomplished the impossible. I has not been easy, nor has it been without failure, but it has been the hardships that have made the successes not only more important but much more meaningful."

Another example from DeWayne:

A student from this semester with visual impairment represents the resilience needed to make it through school. Some days he was angry. Some days he seemed lost because he could not see the white board, the classroom text books, or the computer screens. He had to learn how to make requests of staff, faculty, and students--in a mature and respectful manner that placed people in a mode of wanting to help him. At the beginning of the semester, most comments were angry and forceful. Toward the end of the semester, the comments shifted to engaging others in helping him solve his problems by his suggesting possible alternate ways for others to provide him work. He had moved to appreciating his academic skills and his need to master even subjects he detested. This young father became an agent in his learning, not just a bystander hoping to gather some crumbs from what others distributed at will. I call him my "Seeing Better Now" student.

Suzanne wanted to add to the conversation that she found the webcast to be "inspirational...much needed right now!" She continues, "I've been thinking about the development of the resiliency research. It began, I believe with Emmy Werner's work in Kauai. Bonnie Benard built on that work, and later researchers like Tim Burns and Nan Henderson built on Benard's work. My husband did his doctoral work by creating a sort of backward resilience study with students in a small rural high school who had been in the community since kindergarten."

Suzanne also points us to what might be next:

I'm wondering if there's a place for new thinking... where to from here... in our next conversation [June 3]. Is there a place for us to continue the work? Dewayne's study of persistance is powerful, as is thinking about the far reaching results of Kentucky's professional learning community. Around here [Northern California], many of our schools used to use Dorothy Rich's book MegaSkils to foster resiliency, but shifted to a weekly list of character traits, which everyone is finding not nearly as effective as people had hoped. This is certainly a perfect time to revisit resiliency. New applications...New ideas...California teachers for sure are hungry for any hopeful thinking!

Finally, Suzanne point us to an article, "Fostering Resiliency in Kids," Bonnie Benard, Educational Leadership Vol. 51, Number 3 November 1993. Other resources for Benard's work can be found at this National Writing Project resource: The Importance of Resiliency in Learning and Writing, by Art Peterson.

It's probably evident that this is an ongoing conversation between theory and practice. We would love to include your story of what you have learned from your resilient students. How has working with students such as the ones in this podcast transformed your teaching? We would be pleased if you would take the time to describe the students in your classroom by leaving a comment.

And, of course, please join us again on Wednesday June 3, 2009 right here at EdTechTalk at 9:00pm Eastern / 6:00pm Pacific USA Wednesday / 01:00 UTC Thursdays World Times.

 

Click Read more to see a transcript of a chat that was happening during the webcast.

 

Teachers Teaching Teachers #143 Videos to the New President! - 03.11.09

Listen to this podcast to learn about an exciting opportunity for your students to make videos that address the Obama Administration.

David Cole from the Pearson Foundation and Paul Oh from the National Writing Project joined us on this episode on Teachers Teaching Teachers. We invited them to talk about the latest iteration of the Letters to the Next President project that involves video.

A National Writing Project teacher,

Chris Sloan

, who had already registered for the project, joined as well to talk about his purposes and motivations for involving his students in the project.

Ron Link

, a video teacher from the Bronx added his perspective as well.

Got a video project? Wish you did? Want to provide a platform for your students’ videos?

Listen to this podcast to learn about an exciting opportunity for your students to make videos that address the Obama Administration.

David Cole from the Pearson Foundation and Paul Oh from the National Writing Project joined us on this episode on Teachers Teaching Teachers. We invited them to talk about the latest iteration of the Letters to the Next President project that involves video.

A National Writing Project teacher, Chris Sloan, who had already registered for the project, joined as well to talk about his purposes and motivations for involving his students in the project. Ron Link, a video teacher from the Bronx added

On this podcast you'll learn more about -- then you'll probably want to sign up for:

Letters to the Next President: The Video Campaign Encourages Teen Filmmakers to Address Obama Administration - National Writing Project

Letters to the Next President: The Video Campaign, sponsored by the Pearson Foundation and the National Writing Project (NWP), encourages filmmakers ages 13–18, with the support of their teachers, to voice their points of view by creating and sharing digital videos about the issues they want President Obama and his new administration to address.

The video campaign extends the popular Letters to the Next President letter-writing campaign launched in 2008 by NWP and Google Docs, which engaged over 6,500 high school and middle school students across the United States, as well as the hundreds of teachers and mentors who guided them. Students identified topics that reflected their specific personal, regional, and age-related interests, and with the help of Google Docs published their work online for their peers, parents, and the public on the Letters to the Next President: Writing Our Future website: www.letters2president.org.

The new initiative is open to all young people whose teachers register their class to participate. The deadline for registration is March 27, 2009. Full registration and publication guidelines can be found at www.digitalartsalliance.org. In early April, participating teachers will be able to upload their students’ videos and publish them for the global community. The complete collection of student work will be posted at www.digitalartsalliance.org and www.letters2president.org.

 

Enjoy the pocast, and sign up this week!

 

Click Read more to see a transcript of a chat that was happening during the webcast.

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