Resource Topics

Teaching Writing - Writing and Technology

A Technology Toolkit That Is Really an Educational Toolkit

March 2008
Paul Oh
In her column "Technology Toolkit," Minnesota teacher-consultant Sandy Hayes examines the educational possibilities afforded by technology, sharing ways it can allow both teachers and students to view the world with a new perspective. More ›

Book Review: Three Books Frame Content Area Literacy in Discussion of 21st Century Literacies

October 2008
Ken Martin
Three books on content area literacy instruction aim to help teachers think about the literacy demands of all content areas while framing their arguments in a larger discussion of 21^st century literacies. More ›

Bringing the World to My Doorstep: A Teacher's Blog-Reading Habits

May 2008
Kevin Hodgson
A technology liaison describes how the world of blogs enriches his teaching, supports his tech liaison work, provides opportunities for his students, and keeps him connected both to his NWP network and to a wider network of educators. More ›

Dakota Writing Project Provides a Different Kind of Technology Hotline for Teachers

April 2008
Through a state initiative, teachers in South Dakota found themselves facing classrooms in which every student had a laptop. Dakota Writing Project's hands-on, online E-Marathon gave them some keys to using the laptops creatively to improve students' writing and learning. More ›

Digital Toolbox: Google Docs

August 2008
Google Docs is a useful digital tool for composing and editing text, as it combines the features of a word processing program with the option of online collaboration, editing, and publishing. More ›

Hudson Valley Conference Focuses on Teaching Writing in a Web 2.0 World

April 2008
Bonnie Kaplan
At a site's technology conference, teachers learn how to use wikis, podcasts, and other technologies to enhance their teaching, allow collaboration among students, and make the educational process more meaningful and effective. More ›

Indiana Teacher-Consultant Creates Popular Website—Web English Teacher

July 2008
Art Peterson
A popular website with a panoply of teaching resources is hosted by Indiana Writing Project teacher-consultant Carla Beard, who credits the writing project with giving her site a new, more effective direction. More ›

Maine’s Laptop Initiative Improves Student Writing

February 2008
Anne Miller
The Maine Department of Education is providing a laptop to every middle school student and teacher. And, through programs offered by Maine Writing Project teacher-consultants, teachers learn to use the laptops effectively to improve student writing skills. More ›

My New Teaching Partner? Using the Grammar Checker in Writing Instruction

English Journal, November 2008
Dorothy Fuller , Reva Potter
Reva Potter, a teacher-consultant with the Dakota Writing Project, and colleague Dorothy Fuller report on an action research project which concludes that Grammar Check instruction combined with direct instruction from the teacher can result in significant improvement in student understanding of key grammar concepts. More ›

Technology in the English Language Learner Classroom?

October 2008
Judith Rance-Roney
"English Language Learners as Writers in a Digital Age," an ELL Network-sponsored pre-conference institute held at the annual TESOL conference, engaged teachers of English language learners in filling in the following blank "For English Language Learners, technology can _____." More ›

Digital Storytelling Brings New Dimensions to Reading, Writing, and More

Spring 2007
Can digital storytelling improve reading comprehension, writing skills, and media literacy? An NWP teacher-consultant and technology liaison at Florida Gulf Coast University explores the use of digital storytelling across the grade levels and disciplines with fellow teacher-consultants, students, and colleagues. More ›

Finding a Voice in a Threaded Discussion Group: Talking about Literature Online

English Journal , September 2007
Cathie English
Cathie English, a teacher-consultant with the Nebraska Writing Project, explores the use of threaded online discussions in the literature classroom. The online discussions helped high school students develop their thoughts in greater depth than in classroom conversations. More ›

Heart and Voice: A Digital Storytelling Journey

September 2007
Kerry Ballast
With no knowledge of the genre or the technology, high school teacher Kerry Ballast took the risk of having her students create digital stories from their personal memoirs. More ›

Literacy Through Technology: The Power of Digital Storytelling

July 2007
With funding from an NWP Technology Initiative grant, the Maine Writing Project is using digital storytelling as an instructional practice to improve student writing. More ›

Technology in the Classroom: How to Reduce the Glitches

February 2007
Jeff Grinvalds
Though technology can enliven and enrich a teacher's work, its glitches can sabotage the most beautifully planned presentation; here, high school teacher Jeff Grinvalds shares six practices that help to deal with the glitches you will inevitably experience as you enter the realm of classroom technology. More ›

Technology Teams Take Different Paths Toward the Same Goal

July 2007
Technology teams at local sites can serve a variety of purposes, from developing the site's website to bringing technology into its teachers' practices. And, although a Technology Liaisons Network minigrant may help fund the team, it can also be created from resources already available at the site. More ›

Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education of the 21st Century

2006
Henry Jenkins
Educators today confront an ever-shifting landscape when it comes to Internet technologies and their potential for expanding participatory cultures. Henry Jenkins, director of the Comparative Media Studies department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, explores new frameworks for literacy through the lens of participatory culture. More ›

NWP Cyberspace Project Connects Youth Voices

The Voice, 2006
Paul Oh
An online project seeded by a Technology Matters minigrant allows students at three high schools to exchange written and audio compositions along with images; this increases their engagement and improves their writing. More ›

Students Tell Their Stories Digitally

The Voice, 2006
Joel Elliott
Digital storytelling is still very much storytelling. One difference is that when students add a visual component, they are more willing "to write long and . . . write hard." More ›

Teacher Uses Email to Teach Basics of Written Word

The Voice, 2006
Kristina Torres
A middle school teacher describes how she stepped away from traditional "skill and drill" writing exercises and started teaching students to write clear, concise emails. More ›

Writing Project Examines Technology in the Classroom

The Voice, 2006
Elyse Eidman-Aadahl
NWP's Technology Initiative and the federal government's E-Rate program allow teachers to reimagine their teaching in a digital environment and to help young people develop as writers on the read-write Web. More ›

Book Review: Ten Easy Ways to Use Technology in the English Classroom

The Quarterly, 2005
Cheryl Wozniak
Ten Easy Ways to Use Technology in the English Classroom offers techniques for using video, television, movies, and the Internet to present material in a way that engages and makes more sense to contemporary students. More ›

E-Anthology Growing as an Online Writing and Response Forum

The Voice, 2005
Larry Barton, Peter Booth, Shirley Brown, Cathie English, Frankie Mengeling
The NWP E-Anthology is evolving into the online environment that everyone hoped it could be—a virtual community that assists participants in realizing their own visions for their writing. More ›

Tech Liaisons Discover a Whole New World—and Themselves—Through Technology Matters

The Voice, 2005
Paul Oh
The coordinator of NWP's technology liaison program describes its origins, its first Technology Matters institute, and some of the exciting projects of its minigrant-funded members. More ›

Teacher Technology Toolboxes

The Quarterly, 2004
Glen L. Bledsoe
Reacting to what he sees as the increasingly standardized nature of classroom technology and computer instruction, Bledsoe establishes that standardization does not always lead to the betterment of teachers, pupils, or the broader educational picture. More ›

NWP E-Anthology: "Strangers" Talk About Writing

The Voice, March-April 2003
Beverly Simon Guillory, Peter Booth
NWP's annual E-Anthology connects summer institute participants across the country. Booth shares the benefits of responding to writing submitted online, and Guillory recounts how valuable it was to receive feedback from "strangers." More ›

The E-Anthology: A Catalyst for Professional Writing?

The Voice, 2003
Shirley Brown
How can the E-Anthology, established to encourage teachers to write about their summer institute experiences, share classroom practices, and discuss key issues in education, include more professional writing as a platform for discussion? More ›

Tackling Technology

The Voice, November-December 2001
Deana Lew
A busy teacher discovered the benefits of attending an online conference when she participated in last year's Authors and Issues Online Conference with Ralph Fletcher. More ›

Traveling with the E-Anthology: Arkansas Poem Finds Its Way to South Dakota Literary Magazine

The Voice, May-June 2001
Michelle Rogge Gannon
Michelle Rogge Gannon reflects upon the connections that NWP's summer E-Anthology encourages, following the path of one anthology submission from last summer. More ›

Where Is The Truth In Virtual Reality?

The Quarterly, winter 2001
Roxanne Barber
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From a High-Tech to a Low-Tech Writing Classroom: You Can't Go Home Again

The Quarterly, Summer 2000
Charles Moran
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My Laptop Ambivalence: Some Speed Bumps on the High-Tech Road to Writing

The Quarterly, Summer 2000
Susan Cvengros Mortensen
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Striking It Rich: Finding My Digital Story in Northern California

The Voice, November-December 2000
Corey Harbaugh
Joining the digital storytelling team for a week-long summer institute gave Corey Harbaugh a new medium to develop and tell a story. More ›

Talking Through Technology: NYCWP Builds Community Online

The Voice, November-December 2000
Ed Osterman
Managing the New York City Writing Project's email listserv became the most satisfying and important aspect of Ed Osterman's work as associate director. More ›

Teachers' Stories Come to Life with Technology

The Voice, November-December 2000
Six teachers from the Rural Voices Country Schools network participated in a one-week storytelling workshop in Berkeley, California, producing digital stories of their classroom research. More ›

Technology Transforms Stories of Teaching

The Voice, November-December 2000
Sue Willis
Although she had no experience with digital storytelling, Sue Willis discovered a new way to describe of the work of Rural Voices Country Schools team in Central Washington. More ›

Why 2K Is OK

The Voice, January-February 2000
Julia Tucker-Lloyd
Juia Tucker-Lloyd discusses the impact of technology on the classroom. More ›

Assessing Computers for Writing: Stepping Back to Move Forward

The Quarterly, Spring 1999
Stephen Marcus
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Where's the Beef? Mississippi's Tech-Prep Initiative in Action

The Quarterly, Summer 1999
John Dorroh
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Book Review: Exchanging Lives: Middle School Writers Online, by Scott Christian

The Quarterly, Fall 1998
Lacinda Files
Files is impressed by Christian's students, who participate in an online discussion and write with more voice, flavor, and attention to content than one would expect of eighth-graders. More ›

NWP E-Journal

The Voice, Winter/Spring 1998
Christina Cantrill, Gary Obermeyer
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Teacherless Talk: Impressions from Electronic Literacy Conversations

The Quarterly, Summer 1998
Karen Murar, Elaine Ware
An online cross-grade conversation about literature encourages students to develop and hone thinking skills such as questioning, clarifying, connecting, interpreting, and evaluating. More ›

Virtual Reality: Evaluating Online Information

The Quarterly, Summer 1998
Holly Littlefield
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Book Review: Link/ Age: Composing in the Online Classroom, by Joan Turnow

The Quarterly, Summer 1997
Paul Molinelli
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Kids Publish On Line at KidPub: www.kidpub.org/kidpub/

The Voice, Spring/Summer 1997
Peggy Trump Loofbourrow
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Surfing the 'Net: A Writing Workshop for Middle School

The Quarterly, Summer 1997
Jean Boreen
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Worth a Thousand Words

The Quarterly, Winter 1997
Stephen Marcus
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Clicking on the Icon: How Technology Helped Amplify Some “Micro-Voices”

The Quarterly, Summer 1996
Jabari Mahiri
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Picture This!

The Quarterly, Fall 1996
Stephen Marcus
Marcus writes about the uses of photography both to prompt and to supplement writing. More ›

Revisited article: The Wall

The Quarterly, Winter 1995
Jane Juska
In 1989, Bay Area Writing Project consultant Jane Juska became a teacher-researcher, asking the question, "What happens when students who can't read and write like other kids are turned loose in a computer lab?" In this article she describes in detail the plight of her remedial students and the improvement that using computers brought about, and offers a list of her insights to assist other teachers. More ›