My college students have just finished their last blogs for the semester. You can find their reflection posts here. This semester is the second one that I have required all of my undergraduate and graduate students to create and write a blog for our Teaching Writing in Middle and High School class. I first participated in the Slice of Life Writing Challenge in March 2012. I then created a two week mini-challenge in May for my freshmen with my cohort, Lee Ann Spillane. In the spring of 2013 I challenged my grad students with a range of digital writing choices. Five of them elected to do the Slice of Life Story Challenge in March with me. In the fall of 2013, I made digital writing via a blog a mandatory component of the graduate section of the class. In the spring of 2014, I made it a mandatory component for both undergrads and grads and then have continued that requirement this fall.Lessons Learned
- Even adult writers can struggle coming up with ideas for Open Posts.
- Some sites such as Tumblr and Wikis are not as easy for others to post feedback.
- Be mindful of how/when/what you require for posts.
- A discussion of audience & purpose are still invaluable.
- The lessons learned about yourself as a writer and about digital writing matter most for your future students, not the quantity of the posts or comments.
- You will learn so much more about your students than what they can reveal to you in class.
- A mini-lesson on commenting can be helpful.
- A dedicated feedback partner for each student other than the teacher ensures some writing accountability and everyone gets at least two comments.
- Students are scared to go public even the ones who seem confidant in class.
- It takes time to comment on every single student. Be sure to set aside that time each week.
This year is the fall is the first that I have been dedicated to writing weekly. I want to thank Stacey and her team for creating and continuing to host the weekly slice and the March challenge. It is truly your contribution to the world! I want to thank Lee Ann Spillane who challenged me to do this with her in 2012. I also want to thank all of my students and colleagues who have taken the writing plunge. I love every minute of this digital writing learning journey!
Insightful lessons learned. We have a large group of teachers from my district who participate in the March SOLSC, and the lessons learned for us as writers are invaluable. I think it's a really smart thing to require your students to write. There is no better way to teach them how to teach writing.
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