NCTE asks, “What are some of the most important changes you have seen in teaching and literacy education?”

Not so long ago, I was very content as my students and I wrote together with pens on paper in what Donald Murray called the daybook.  If some of my administrators hadn’t encouraged me to integrate technology, I don’t know if I ever would have tried to weave it into our writing.  The students and I are still after intellectual seeds on paper, but we’re all also typing up our drafts into blogs, customizing the looks of the virtual pages we publish, and we have much easier access to each other’s work.  Students who used to write just for the teacher now write for an authentic audience:  at least their classmates or if they choose, for thousands on public blogs or in their Facebook posts.   It used to look like the world was gravitating towards a seat on the couch watching television or playing video games, and now many of my students are daily, sometimes obsessive, writers.  I’m excited and also anxious about what all this will mean for literacy.

Author: Torg

Writing Teacher at App State, Head Women's Basketball Coach at Watauga HS in Boone NC and podcaster at Torg Stories View all posts by Torg