An innovative, practical guide for middle and high school teachers, this book is packed with specific ways that technology can help serve the goals of effective writing instruction. It provides ready-to-implement strategies for teaching students to compose and edit written work electronically; conduct Internet inquiry; create blogs, websites, and podcasts; and use text messaging and Twitter productively. The book is grounded in state-of-the-art research on the writing process and the role of writing in content-area learning. Teacher-friendly features include vivid classroom examples, differentiation tips, links to online resources, and reproducible worksheets and forms. The large-size format facilitates photocopying.

A practical guide on how one professor employs the transformative changes of digital media in the research, writing, and teaching of history

This book takes a fresh look at what it means to learn and develop as a writer in response to concerns on both sides of the Atlantic, and elsewhere in the world, about standards in writing. In this book, the authors seek answers to some perennial questions: Why does performance in writing tend to lag behind that in reading? Are the productive skills of speaking and writing more difficult because they require the learner to make something new? What does it mean to develop as a writer? This book provides the foundation for developing the teaching of writing. It does so by: Reviewing and comparing models of writing pedagogy from the last fifty years Discussing the notion of development in depth Developing a new theory and model for writing in the multimodal and digital age Its basic premise is that writing needs to be re-conceived as one crucial component of communication among other modes. Andrews and Smith argue that although existing theories have provided insights into the teaching and learning of writing, we need to bring such theories up to date in the digital and multimodal age. Developing Writers is designed for teachers, academics, researchers, curriculum designers, parents and others who are interested in writing development. It will also be intended for anyone who is interested in developing their own writing, and who wishes to understand the principles on which such development is based. Continue the conversation at www.developingwriters.org.

Each activity in this book is tagged with a recommended level, main technologies used, and literacy covered, and all are aligned to the NETS•S and Common Core State Standards. You can easily adapt the majority of the activities for any level with minor modifications, including for student with special needs and English language learners.

Writing History in the Digital Age began as a “what-if” experiment by posing a question: How have Internet technologies influenced how historians think, teach, author, and publish? To illustrate their answer, the contributors agreed to share the stages of their book-in-progress as it was constructed on the public web. To facilitate this innovative volume, editors Jack Dougherty and Kristen Nawrotzki designed a born-digital, open-access, and open peer review process to capture commentary from appointed experts and general readers. A customized WordPress plug-in allowed audiences to add page- and paragraph-level comments to the manuscript, transforming it into a socially networked text. The initial six-week proposal phase generated over 250 comments, and the subsequent eight-week public review of full drafts drew 942 additional comments from readers across different parts of the globe. The finished product now presents 20 essays from a wide array of notable scholars, each examining (and then breaking apart and reexamining) if and how digital and emergent technologies have changed the historical profession.

How can you create an authentic learning environment—one where students ask questions, do research, and explore subjects that fascinate them—in today’s standards-driven atmosphere? Author Larissa Pahomov offers insightful answers based on her experience as a classroom teacher at the Science Leadership Academy—a public high school in Philadelphia that offers a rigorous college-prep curriculum and boasts a 99 percent graduation rate. Pahomov outlines a framework for learning structured around five core values: inquiry, research collaboration, presentation and reflection. For each value, she presents: * A detailed description of how the value can transform classroom practice and how a “digital connection” can enhance its application. * A step-by-step outline for how to implement the value, with examples from teachers in all subject areas. * Solutions to possible challenges and roadblocks that teachers may experience. * Suggestions for how to expand the value beyond the classroom to schoolwide practice.* Anecdotes from students, offering their perspectives on how they experienced the value in the classroom and after graduation. The framework is a guide, not a prescription, and middle and high school teachers—individually or as a team—can use it to structure whatever content and skills their current school or district requires. The book also includes suggestions for how to integrate technology into inquiry-based education, but the principles and approaches it describes can be applied successfully even in places without abundant technology. Both practical and inspiring, Authentic Learning in the Digital Age is an indispensable handbook for reinvigorating teaching and learning in a new era.