You see, the district I teach in really pushed for improvement in writing this year due to lackluster performance by seventh graders on the state test. Obviously, the sixth graders aren't doing enough writing, ergo, you'll make them do more and we'll be checking in on you to make sure. So, along with splitting the responsibility with social studies (ELAR teachers are responsible for personal narratives while social studies handles expository essays) the district also voluntold grades 6-12 teachers to pilot a digital writing tool called PEG Writing.
Knowing how my own students reacted to and performed using this digital writing tool, I was curious to see how teachers and students across the nation felt about the tools they'd been using as well. I wondered if my sentiments matched theirs. Even though this report was 114 pages long, I downloaded the PDF to the Kindle app on my iPad mini and settled in to read it because, gosh darn-it, I'm a fast reader and 114 pages ain't nuthin'!
And 30 minutes later, I'm posting on Facebook:
So reading research reports is a little different, mainly because I was stopping to take notes and process everything completely before proceeding because when I read the Summary of Findings section, I knew that I needed to understand the whole process behind how they acquired their data. It was around page 15 that I got into the "zone" and finally started making some really good personal connections and developing some criticisms. Were I to share all the findings here, I'd surely develop carpal tunnel syndrome, but I really want to discuss what was significant to me.
First, let me give you the basics of the study. Pew researchers, via online survey, asked a sample of Advanced Placement (AP) and National Writing Project (NWP) middle and high school teachers of various ages, experience levels, content areas, across the nation their opinions about the use of digital writing tools and the impact those tools have on student learning and the means by which writing is taught. Just under 2,100 teacher surveys were completed. Students in grades nine through twelve also took part in a focus group to gather their opinions about technology, writing and their writing education.
For the most part, teachers felt the digital tools are helpful but still rated their students writing as only "good" or "fair". Keep in mind these are your high-achieving students, enrolled in AP classes or being taught by teachers who have been trained in the arts of National Writing Project techniques and the majority are only being rated as average in writing skills? The actual "normal" kids' writing must be atrocious! I think the researchers were taken aback by these ratings as well because they brought it up a few times. I'd be curious to see who ranked students how, whether it was the AP teachers or the NWP teachers who tended to rank their students lower. Unfortunately these individualized results were not available in this report. On the other hand, I do feel like this is consistent even with my own students. I teach the gifted and talented students. At the end of the year, all the sixth grade ELAR teachers met and rated the last narrative that the students wrote so that we could send a writing sample for each student to the junior high campus to provide seventh grade teachers a glimpse of the students' writing abilities. I noticed that in my own classes (much to my surprise) that only a handful of students ranked in what would be the excellent category, and a few more than that in the very good area, with the majority falling into the good to fair range. Next year, I think I'd like to take down some data for the entire grade level when we do this just to see how the non-advanced kids rate.
In section of the report that defined writing, it was shared that many students don't feel that what they do on social media or via text or blogging is "writing". Rather students tend to think that writing is just "what they do for school." Teachers on the other hand consider formal writing, creative writing, and blogging to be "writing". There was some discussion of teachers capitalizing on the the "micro-blogging" that students write via social media postings as pre-writing, encouraging students to start with that seed idea posted on Twitter or Facebook and expanding on it. I felt like this was a great way to create an idea bank for students for all genres of writing. It's as if using social media is a way to trick kids into writing. When teachers become cognizant of the value of students' interactions on social media, it could so totally be used to their advantage.
An overwhelming majority of teachers ranked writing effectively and judging the quality of information among the most essential skills that students need for the future. These teachers also feel that the inclusion of formal writing assignments is necessary to offset all the informal writing that happens outside of school (texting, social media) and that they must "master all styles of writing in order to be successful across social domains and to communicate with different audiences" (p. 21). However, when you look at the data regarding how much and what type of writing they assign in their classrooms, it doesn't appear that they place an emphasis on writing to learn in their own classrooms (and this mostly applies to teachers of content areas other than English, more so science and math than social studies). I feel like this is hypocritical. "Yes, yes, writing is SO IMPORTANT, but they ain't doin' none of that in my class." My fifth and sixth grade campus is really trying to push for writing in all content areas (including electives) but we still need math and music on board. Baby steps, I guess.
This report is filled with quotes from the teacher participants and I really enjoyed reading these. One quote in particular made me say aloud, "Ohmigod, that's so good" and made my husband stop what he was doing and look at me funny before asking what. Some genius teacher said:
"Inability to write formal texts potentially robs students of voice and power." (p. 22)
Immediately I jotted this gospel down and made a personal note to put this on a giant poster to hang in my classroom. What a powerful statement and true, so true! I don't think we as teachers (and students certainly don't or they'd be begging to learn how to write better) realize the truth in those words. It doesn't occur to us. I'm so glad it occurred to the teacher that said it. Another astute teacher posited that all the many skills involved in research and writing "help students become more critical citizens, more discerning consumers, and better problem-solvers" (p. 22). I am forever encouraging my students to problem solve BECAUSE. THEY. CAN'T. And won't for that matter. "I don't have a pencil!" "Problem solve." "My part of the project is sitting on my kitchen table." "Problem solve." Most of the time they figure it out. Sometimes a classmate has to help them, but unless they are just completely helpless (::eye roll::) they can manage, some even holding up their solution and exclaiming, "Look! I problem solved!"The teachers did acknowledge that digital writing tools provide many benefits for students. These range from allowing students to share their work with a "wider and more varied audience", greater opportunities to express creativity and collaborate with peers and the ability to do so outside the classroom. Something that was alluded to in the report and something that I have witnessed in my own classroom using PEG Writing is that students tend to be more conscientious about the work they produce knowing their classmates will have the ability to view and provide feedback on their writing. You should have seen the excitement when I enabled "peer review" for the first time on PEG Writing. They were so excited to read one another's work and make suggestions. I suppose the novelty of doing it online made it better than trading their handwritten essays with a partner.
Negative aspects of using digital writing tools include the distractability factors involved with technology and that students are more likely to take shortcuts by copying and pasting (thereby committing plagiarism) and put little effort into their writing. I can see both sides of this issue. Depending on the student, technology can be either distracting or engaging. I've offered a laptop to some students to compose on and they've written more than they ever have before, others just sit and play with the cursor. I think it's all about knowing your students and giving them the tools they need to be successful. In regards to plagiarism, I agree with what many teachers stated in the report: explicit instruction about plagiarism and citing sources needs to happen. But this instruction needs to be delivered through meaningful activities that engage the student, not just a lecture of "do this, do that." One teacher asserts that he/she beats plagiarism by designing assignments or projects that make is difficult to plagiarize (p. 44). I think that's the key right there. If your students are working at the most rigorous levels of higher-order thinking skills, plagiarism won't be an option. There's no room for copy-and-paste when you are CREATING FROM SCRATCH.
A section of the report disclosed information about the ages of the teachers who were members of the sample as well as the electronic devices they possess and use both personally and in the classroom. I was surprised to see that many senior-aged teachers (55+) use a wide variety of devices. It has been my experience (at least in my district anyways) that the older teachers are not as comfortable with or willing to learn to use technology. So this is encouraging. Perhaps because technology has become so ingrained in essentially every aspect of our lives that they've decided to stop fighting it and become one with the tech.
Something else curious about age and digital writing tools use is, according to the report's data, the middle school students are using the tools more than the high school students are. I have to wonder if this has something to do with high stakes testing and the focus of prepping those younger students for the tests they'll take in high school. Another reason could be an engagement factor. Middle school kids are typically hormonal messes and maybe sticking a keyboard in their hands is the only way to get them to be productive when it comes to writing.
Another concern with writing instruction concerns digital literacy. We expect students to come to us knowing all about how to use computers (surely they know at least as much as us, right?) but the reality is, the differences in technology experience vary greatly. This, of course, directly correlates to the access students have to technology. Those who haven't grown up with technology in their hands from a very young age are at a disadvantage. They'll have to be taught explicitly how to navigate the features of writing programs because it's very possible that their only experience with technology has been limited to what they've done at school. This school year I had a set of super-smart, exceedingly creative twin girls who DID NOT KNOW HOW TO COPY AND PASTE. I was floored, but I taught them how and they finished their infographics, but not as well as some of the other more tech-savvy kids. My opinion is, if the nation truly wants its schools to produce 21st century learners, they better make sure ALL students have access. Some of the teachers in the report stated their rural locations didn't get internet. How is that a thing in this day and age?
Another access issue referred to in the report was that of district policies regarding prohibiting the possession and/or use of cell phones at school and the web filtering of social media or other sites that can be used free-of-charge (like Google Docs) to support writing instruction via digital tools. This last school year, my district rolled out Bring Your Own Device to the junior high and high schools. According to the superintendent, this was a successful endeavor and it may even trickle down to the intermediate level. I look forward to allowing students to use their devices for learning in my classroom, but I know some of my co-workers feel the complete opposite (insisting that it's just asking for trouble). My district has not yet opened the web filters to social media use for students (or teachers for that matter, in fact, if someone posts on Facebook during school, people get all crazy). I think they are afraid of giving them too much of a voice, but I don't think they realize how much of a benefit this could be for student writing.
Armed with the knowledge I've gained in this report, I feel I can start a conversation with administration about making these sorts of changes. Included at the end of the report was the survey the researchers used in the focus group with the students. I really liked the questions they asked and felt the information collected from the students would be useful in assessing the frame of mind about writing the sixth grade students at my campus possess. My plan is to modify their survey and have students take it at the beginning of the school year to collect data to improve the methods we use for teaching writing.
References:
Purcell, K. (2013). The impact of digital tools on student writing and how writing is taught in schools (Research Report). Retrieved from Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project website: http://www.pewinternet.org/files/old-media//Files/Reports/2013/PIP_NWP%20Writing%20and%20Tech.pdf
You make your points very succinctly. Do you have any ideas about why your GT kids didn't score as well as you would have predicted? This is a very timely study.
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