TL;DR: Writers and writing teachers need to work on being able to help learners to adapt and become adept at new forms of writing along with the old. We need new air under our wings if we want to be relevant to the needs of the age.
NOTE: I will try to return to this “encouragement” later as I have time. I am working on an article on how to adopt new tools and the evergreen skills they represent because they drive the future of writing.
We adapted to the typewriter in the 1880s, so we’ll adapt to video in the 2010s. The transition is steeper, but the written word continues to breathe beneath its surface. https://t.co/W0V8KH7Tuv#clmooc A call to all writers and writing instructors to put new air under wing. pic.twitter.com/zXSthwgEzL
— Terry Elliott (@telliowkuwp) August 9, 2022
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Hi Terry,
I taught Middle School Language Arts as my assigned role, yet the role on which I focused was Language Arts / Media because of what you are suggesting: the world has moved on from 1880s just text and handwriting– we’ve many tools at our disposal to communicate information to our audiences.
And those tools allow for many ways to design and organize the presentation of the information, narrative, etc.
So for any of our projects, these were our essential questions [I didn’t number them– but it makes it easier to talk about them]:
Essential Questions:
1. How do researchers investigate successfully?
2. What strategies and processes do collaborators need for success?
3. How do readers and writers determine and develop relevant, accurate, and complete topics/content?
4. How do publishers design and organize content for their audience and purpose?
5. Why and how do editors and speakers use and edit with the rules for standard English grammar and language ?
Questions 1 and 2 help us how to get started and work together, and then become reflections for revisions according to their audience and purpose–and bias [theirs and the info].
Question 3 puts the team into their investigations for the information needed, and then serves as review for accepting info, finding missing info, etc. as the project progresses.
Once students get started with 1,2,3, they must consider Question 4 while they work and choose, analyze and synthesize, revise to decide the best tool, design, links, organization, etc to present a cohesive, relevant, clear, and audience-pleasing presentation.
Once they’ve got the tool, layouts, resources created, the Question 5 editing begins for clarity and easy reading/viewing/listening.
It seemed important that students consider these rather than just regurgitate information or follow exactly a template or pattern, although templates and patterns can guide learners for ideas that would help them succeed in their purpose and presentation.
The “requirements” of language arts curriculum exist within these question, but these questions put the students as the creator, producer, artist, videographer, etc. in ways that require analysis, synthesis, and evaluation — thinking about more than the facts [or the narrative], but what the message and meaning are and how to best present it for their and their audience’s needs.
It’s hard work.
I look forward to learning from your article how to improve my teaching, although I’m not teaching any more… Still, I always want to be better.
Glad you’re doing this– it’s so important. You’ve so much experience with this in your own career– glad now you have time to get it out there. ~ Sheri