New report offers guidance on how to update writing curriculum to include blogs, wikis, and other forms of communication
Primary Topic Channel: Curriculum
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The prevalence of blogs, wikis, and social-networking web sites has changed the way students learn to write, according to the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE)--and schools must adapt in turn by developing new modes of writing, designing new curricula to support these models, and creating plans for teaching these curricula.
"It's time for us to join the future and support all forms of 21st-century literacies, [both] inside ... and outside school," said Kathleen Blake Yancey, a professor of English at Florida State University, past NCTE president, and author of a new report titled "Writing in the 21st Century."
Just as the invention of the personal computer transformed writing, Yancey said, digital technologies--and especially Web 2.0 tools--have created writers of everyone, meaning that even before students learn to write personal essays, they're often writing online in many different forms.
"This is self-sponsored writing," Yancey explained. "It's on bulletin boards and in chat rooms, in eMails and in text messages, and on blogs responding to news reports and, indeed, reporting the news themselves. ... This is a writing that belongs to the writer, not to an institution."
She continued: "In much of this new composing, we are writing to share, yes; to encourage dialogue, perhaps; but mostly, I think, to participate."
The report defines this new age of writing as the Age of Composition: a period where writers become composers not through "direct and formal instruction alone (if at all), but rather through what might be called an extracurricular social co-apprenticeship."
Students who go online today and participate in the web's many forms of communication compose their writing in informal contexts, where a hierarchy of the expert-apprentice (or teacher-student) does not exist. Instead, there is a peer co-apprenticeship, where communicative knowledge is exchanged freely.
Yancey provided the recent example of a 16-year-old girl named Tiffany Monk who saved her neighborhood after Tropical Storm Fay hit Melbourne, Fla. By taking pictures and writing eMail messages, she managed to garner enough attention to her stranded neighbors--and all were rescued from the flood.
Everyone was saved because "a 16-year-old saw a need, because she knew how to compose in a 21st-century way, and because she knew her audience," said Yancey. "And what did she learn in this situation? That if you actually take action, then someone might listen to you. That's a real lesson in composition."
Yancey cited another example of composing in which Facebook users decided to write "THIS IS SPARTA" during an Advanced Placement test, then cross it out so that no points would be deducted. More than 30,000 students reportedly participated.
According to Yancey, this light prank shows that students understand the power of networking, and they understand the new audiences of 21st-century composing--their peers across the country and faceless AP graders alike.
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Academic writing
There is a significant difference between academic writing and social writing. As a former graduate level instructor I have seen the beginnings of social writing attempting to creep into even comprehensive exam writing. As has been mentioned several times already, this is unacceptable. We will place our students in serious jeopardy in the global market if we go too far in allowing social writing to mix with academic writing.
Posted By: paceterr, 2009-03-16 3:13 PM
I have to weigh in on the notion that appropriateness needs to be taken into account when considering these new forms of writing. Some content can be expressed well in shorthand, but I doubt anyone would like a mortgage agreement worded that way. The fact that a 15 year-old doesn't see the relevance of reading traditional text does not make that text irrelevant; it means the student needs to become familiar with life beyond his or her immediate world. We can learn to accomodate new forms, but that does not mean abandoning the old. As I often point out to my students, I'm training them to be language users in the professional world where precision of meaning can be vital.
Posted By: alex gruenberg, 2009-03-11 2:13 PM
Communication
I find it intriguing that we are participating in an on-line dialogue where everyone is responding by using necessary writing skills. The incorporation of the skills needs to be introduced in a 21st century format, or else we will be losing a generation because we ask them to power down instead of ramping it up. I beleive context is important; if you are required to write, a powerpoint does not necessarily cut it. But if you are asked to communicate an idea, consider the vast opportunities. I often think of it in terms of process and outcome; the incredibly visual society in which we currently reside was built upon and still exists because ideas, thoughts, and the like were first placed into words: spoken written and now visualized.
Posted By: mroth812, 2009-03-04 5:41 PM
A more balanced, 21st Century curriculum
I will be the first to argue that a strong, academic, core focused on standard written English is important. As an English teacher it is what I have always had a desire to teach to students and I feel a great sense of pride when I observe a student who finally "gets it" and can understand the construction of a five-paragraph essay. However, I believe that new forms of web 2.0 communication, blogs, text messaging, etc, should be, and according to the NCTE, must be, included in the English/writing curricula so that students can see the value of this type of communication beyond, as babies and bath water put it, "meeting at Starbucks after school". By harnessing this new form of communication, particularly peer-edited and open-comment blogs, students can gain a better understanding, in a controlled, academic environment of the power of this new-form of communication alongside the importance of being able to affectively communicate as we have all been taught.
Posted By: dgreen, 2009-03-04 4:01 PM
Babies and Bath Water...
I'd love to know what dgreen believes students are effectively communicating--meeting at Starbucks after school? As dgreen says, emphasizing the relevance and appropriateness of each form of communication is important. Of course we don't need structured paragraphs for text messages, but I doubt a coroner's report, tax code revision, or directions for performing cardio-thoracic surgery written in SMS-speak would fly.
Posted By: eyates, 2009-03-04 2:53 PM
Standard English please
It seems to me that we need to stay with the rules of standard English for prose and poetry. If we begin an acceptance of text message and email shorthand, when will the next generation ever learn how to read the past which includes some of the best literature ever written.
Posted By: hparry, 2009-03-04 2:00 PM
New Literacy
Very interesting. The issue is in defining what is clear and concise thought transfer. Some have accepted fuzzy maps for credit. Graphic novels and '? r u' seem to be making the grade. Then the question become clear and concise to whom? Oh dear! We could have a complication here. 'Scholars' will be illiterate except in communicating to themselves. The worm could turn. no wadimeen?
Posted By: wans515, 2009-03-04 1:51 PM
Writing in the 21st Century
Many students who were previously "tuned out" are now being drawn into classroom assignments by these new writing forms --- new ways of expressing themselves. An alternative to the traditional is extremely valuable. However, we should not allow our students to be placed at a disadvantage because they do not know how to adequately express themselves in more formal formats. High school seniors have asked me if they could submit research papers in Power Point format alone, because they have been allowed to do so since 5th grade. Less structured forms of writing should exist on a continuum and should not be acceptable as the dominant form of written communication. Let us also insure our students will be able to create quality theses and dissertations in the future.
Posted By: timothy.callicutt, 2009-03-04 12:59 PM
Writing in the 21st Century
I applaud this new movement toward a less structured form of writing that our students have been participating in since they were young. Everyday, in my classroom, I see students excel at written communication through a number of different forms rather than the standard five-paragraph essay. I also see a number of my students reading newly-published books that are written completely in e-mail or txt messaging format rather than standard paragraphs. My students see this as the standard form of communication and struggle to find the relevance of prior writing formats. That being said, I feel it is up to the educators and schools as a whole to emphasize not only the importance of these burgeoning forms of written communication but the usefulness of the more standard forms of written communication. By incorporating the new and emphasizing the relevance of the old, our students will leave academia with a better understanding of how to communicate effectively, network, and be able to bring these skills into the 21st Century workplace.
Posted By: dgreen, 2009-03-04 7:03 AM
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Let Context Determine The Form
If we don't investigate and address emergent forms of writing, then we risk becoming increasing irrelevant. Of course, I don't accept textSPEAK when I collect English 1 essays, but I question why most English/Writing Departments don't more vigorously address Writing Across the Curriculum/Disciplines. A 5-paragraph "academic" essay would not necessarily be an appropriate form for a chemistry or a coroner's report either. So why do so many teachers obsess on one particular form as THE appropriate one? Personally, I find most "academic" writing to be unreadable (although I recognize its importance for specific audiences and purposes). My point: we need to teach students to adapt form and content to a variety of contexts, including 21st-century digital (and informal) environments. I think the average English course dedicated to traditional academic essay structures presented solely as hard copy are going the way of the dinosaur.
Posted By: kmo, 2009-05-05 11:21 AM