AFTERWORD:
For much of my career in education, I have been motivated to give student choice with their reading. I have been running a reading workshop within my classroom for several years. I have seen the effects choice has on reading motivation and I had been slowly evolving to do the same for writing. Structuring a reading workshop within the curriculum and connecting to standards has become second nature, but a writing workshop has been another story. I, and the teachers around me, focused on the five-paragraph essay. I form that did not motivate my students and lacked creative process. I was bored and my students were bored through this writing process, and I intended to change that. I slowly entered journaling into my classroom. Then came quickwrites and other small choice assignments. Then I was assigning the use of digital platforms like infographics, but the choices offered were not broad enough to keep my students engaged. I entered the New Literacies and Global Learning program to strengthen my ability to teach writing in a way that motivated my students. This was my weakness and I intended to fix it.
In the New Literacies and Global Learning at North Carolina State, I was able to expand my knowledge of teaching writing and so much more. I can integrate technology within the writing process to make it more engaging and effective, teach my students the importance of digital ethics while publishing, blogging, and communicating online, and expand their knowledge of topics allowing them to peruse global issues that are important to them. These acquired skills of mine are being used to motivate my students to become digitally literate citizens who approach the word with a critical eye. I do not need to abandon the state standards to achieve this goal. Giving students choice in their writing and ample time to go through the prewriting steps of the writing process allows them time to develop and communicate their ideas clearly.
In the New Literacies and Global Learning at North Carolina State, I was able to expand my knowledge of teaching writing and so much more. I can integrate technology within the writing process to make it more engaging and effective, teach my students the importance of digital ethics while publishing, blogging, and communicating online, and expand their knowledge of topics allowing them to peruse global issues that are important to them. These acquired skills of mine are being used to motivate my students to become digitally literate citizens who approach the word with a critical eye. I do not need to abandon the state standards to achieve this goal. Giving students choice in their writing and ample time to go through the prewriting steps of the writing process allows them time to develop and communicate their ideas clearly.