Common Core Standards
Grades 9-10
Writing W.9-10.6
Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products, taking advantage of technology’s capacity to link to other information and to display information flexibly and dynamically.
While this standard might give us digital immigrants the willies, it’s every student’s dream. Here students are asked to create, collaborate, and communicate in ways they’re most comfortable with—using technology. And we don’t just mean basic word processing technology here. Students should be fully engaged in the most current writing technologies, including blogs, wikis, and creating basic websites. As students move into the working world, they will definitely be expected to write and collaborate in digital environments.
Though many students might be comfortable with the basic functionality of such technology, our job now is to get them thinking critically about the use of these technologies for academic and professional purposes. Talk with your students about their digital ethos and how to best use document design and Web tools to enhance their writing. As always, keep the task, purpose, and audience central to your discussions. Feeling daunted? Check out the assignment below for an example of how students might use technology in your class.
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Teaching Guides Using this Standard
- 1984 Teacher Pass
- A Raisin in the Sun Teacher Pass
- A Rose For Emily Teacher Pass
- A View from the Bridge Teacher Pass
- Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Teacher Pass
- Animal Farm Teacher Pass
- Antigone Teacher Pass
- Beowulf Teacher Pass
- Brave New World Teacher Pass
- Fahrenheit 451 Teacher Pass
- Fences Teacher Pass
- Frankenstein Teacher Pass
- Grapes Of Wrath Teacher Pass
- Great Expectations Teacher Pass
- Hamlet Teacher Pass
- Heart of Darkness Teacher Pass
- Julius Caesar Teacher Pass
- King Lear Teacher Pass
- Macbeth Teacher Pass
- Moby Dick Teacher Pass
- Oedipus the King Teacher Pass
- Of Mice and Men Teacher Pass
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Teacher Pass
- Othello Teacher Pass
- Romeo and Juliet Teacher Pass
- Sula Teacher Pass
- The Aeneid Teacher Pass
- The As I Lay Dying Teacher Pass
- The Bluest Eye Teacher Pass
- The Canterbury Tales General Prologue Teacher Pass
- The Canterbury Tales: The Miller's Tale Teacher Pass
- The Cask of Amontillado Teacher Pass
- The Catch-22 Teacher Pass
- The Catcher in the Rye Teacher Pass
- The Crucible Teacher Pass
- The Great Gatsby Teacher Pass
- The House on Mango Street Teacher Pass
- The Iliad Teacher Pass
- The Lottery Teacher Pass
- The Metamorphosis Teacher Pass
- The Odyssey Teacher Pass
- The Old Man and the Sea Teacher Pass
- The Scarlet Letter Teacher Pass
- The Tell-Tale Heart Teacher Pass
- Their Eyes Were Watching God Teacher Pass
- Twilight Teacher Pass
- Wuthering Heights Teacher Pass
Example
Assignment Example
Woah! Finally you won’t have to detach from your cell phones and iPads for class! In fact, you can’t believe your ear buds; you can actually use all those things that run your world for this assignment. Your teacher has asked you to create a product, working with other students if you wish, and share your work with all of your classmates. You are the new journalist of today. You’re not just reading the news; you’re making it. You, my friend, are going to be published!
You’re going to study a poem called “The Ballad of Birmingham,” but before you do, your teacher has asked you to do research on the Internet for the story behind the poem. You’ll bring into play the following discussion points: What inspired Dudley Randall to write it? What was going on around the country when the poet was alive? What is racial segregation? What is a freedom march? You type in a number of topics: “Dudley Randall,” “freedom march,” and “Ballad of Burmingham.”
You find several useful sources and take notes that will be helpful in creating your product. You decide to make a PowerPoint. Your excitement builds as you cruise the Internet to find useful graphics: pictures of Randall, photographs of Birmingham, Alabama, and paintings or sketches illustrating the poem. You hit on short YouTube videos that show exactly what a freedom march is, and you even come across a documentary by Spike Lee about the four little girls mentioned in the poem. Score! You decide to add these links to your presentation. While you’re at it, why not attach one of your favorite songs about people who just can’t get along? Your presentation is going to rock!
Your teacher has made a class website at www.edmodo.com. You’re already spending way too much time on Facebook, but that’s the point; Edmodo looks JUST like Facebook without all the distracting temptations. You join the class and upload your project under your name. You see that several students have already shared their work. Pumped, you start reading their projects. Someone’s made a PowerPoint; someone else, a Prezi; another, an essay with links in the text. You post comments on their projects, noting strengths and asking questions. A few days later, you see that your classmates have commented on your project. To update your post, you answer their questions and add information that helps clarify the points you were trying to make. Yes, you’re a published author now! No autographs, please.
Drill 1
Respond to the following short-answer questions.
1. What are some examples of current technologies that you might use for writing?
2. Why is it important to learn about writing within these technologies in school?
3. What are some things that Web technologies allow that are not possible in other contexts?
4. What does it mean to be aware of your digital ethos?
ANSWERS:
1. Create a multi-media project, such as a video, PowerPoint, Prezi, or Glogster interactive poster, or develop a blog, wiki, or website.
2. There are different genre conventions and tools available for writing within digital formats, and digitally-based writing and collaboration will most likely be expected of me in college and the workplace, so it’s important that I am comfortable with these methods.
3. On the Web, you can communicate with team members instantly via e-mail, instant messaging, and video conferences. You can also communicate with your audience, receiving and responding to feedback on your work. You can make real-time updates to your “finished” writing in response to this feedback. You can also combine text, images, videos, audio, interactive tools, and links for immediate access to source material into one document.
4. Most people use the Web for non-academic and non-professional purposes, and in these contexts, people are often lax about the kind of language they use and the way that language might reflect on who they are. However, since the Web is also used for many professional reasons, and in some cases, the Web may be the only means by which others know you, it’s important to consider how your choices as a Web-based writer will reflect on you.
To have a good digital ethos, you should follow the genre conventions and rules of etiquette for Web-based writing and interactions. Use proper English and professional language. Be aware of any content (photos, videos, comments you’ve posted, etc.) that can be linked to you and consider how that content might reflect on you in a professional setting. In the digital environment, it’s important to make choices that will establish that you are professional, courteous, and knowledgeable.
Aligned Resources
- Teaching King Lear: What's Up With the Ending?
- Teaching A Tale of Two Cities: Serial Publishing
- Teaching Sula: Write a Review
- Teaching A Doll's House: Nora's Secret Diary
- Teaching Macbeth: Performing Macbeth in Under Eight Minutes
- Teaching Moby-Dick: Whales Illustrated: Spicing-Up Moby-Dick with Graphics
- Teaching Dracula: Diaries and Strange News Stories
- Teaching Frankenstein: Breaking News: Stormy Weather Puts the Science Back in Fiction
- Teaching Great Expectations: Ups and Downs: Graphing Pip's Tumultuous Life
- Teaching Hamlet: The 9th-Century Danish Story of Amleth, a Major Source for Shakespeare’s Play
- Teaching Their Eyes Were Watching God: Anthropology 101
- Teaching Their Eyes Were Watching God: Getting Readers Hooked on Hurston
- Teaching Thirteen Reasons Why: The Writing on the Wall
- Teaching Treasure Island: Pirate Pink Slips
- Teaching The Aeneid: Exploring Ekphrasis
- Teaching The Grapes of Wrath: Haunted By the Ghost of Tom Joad: The Enduring Legacy of a Mythic Character
- Teaching The Grapes of Wrath: Images of the "Grape" Depression: A Picture or a Thousand Words?
- Teaching The Scarlet Letter: Create a Travel Guide to the Puritan Settlement in New England
- Teaching Romeo and Juliet: Six-Pack Abs
- Teaching Speak: To Ban or Not to Ban
- Teaching The Tell-Tale Heart: Stuck in Medias Res with You
- Teaching The Canterbury Tales: General Prologue & Frame Story: Dueling Portraits: The Canterbury Pilgrims in Art
- Teaching The Canterbury Tales: The Knight's Tale: Love Struck, Baby
- Teaching The Canterbury Tales: The Miller's Tale: Facebook in the Middle Ages
- Teaching The Catcher in the Rye: Judging a Book by Its Cover
- Teaching The Crucible: Political Cartoon
- Teaching The Diary of a Young Girl: National School-A-Graphic
- Teaching The Diary of a Young Girl: Anne Frank's History in Action
- Teaching The House on Mango Street: Adaptation and Performance of House on Mango Street
- Teaching The Lottery: A Traditional Assignment
- Teaching Antigone: Motif Slideshow
- Teaching Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: The Medieval Coat of Arms
- Teaching Tess of the D'Urbervilles: Mapping the Journeys in Tess
- Teaching The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian: Split Identities: Being Two at Once
- Teaching The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian: Your Own Absolutely True Diary