Troy Hicks

The suggestions that Troy Hicks mentioned in Crafting Digital Writing will be extremely useful when I try to incorporate more digital writing into my lessons.  Troy Hicks reports that the most important factor and strategy when trying to improve students' writing is the fact that teachers should model by writing when he or she asks the students to write.  He mentions that the teacher should "think out loud while writing--in front of the class" (Hicks 8).  When I did my student teaching in a fourth grade classroom I learned early on that I should be writing while my students write.  In the past I have made an attempt to do that, but lately I have made no effort to write with them, which is unfortunate on my part.  Although this is not an excuse, I seem to get bogged down with classroom logistics and everyday mundane tasks such as; taking attendance, getting handouts together, setting up technology (as needed), answering the phone, and responding to questions my students ask, etc.  Now that I realize that research shows that this is one of the single most important predictors of improving student's writing I will definitely make a conscious effort  to write with my students everyday whether on traditional paper and pencil or digital writing.  I especially enjoyed reading about how several national writing organizations, including the National Writing Project also emphasize that importance of developing eight "habits of mind" to prepare students for post secondary schooling and the 21st century workplace.  The following "habits of mind" attributes help students to attain college and career readiness whether they are writing with pen and paper or digital texts; curiosity, openness, engagement, creativity, persistence, responsibility, flexibility, and meta-cognition.  I also like the idea about my students creating and designing their own web page for the class.  This web page could be designed so that the teacher can post assignments, important messages, send reminders for due dates, etc.  This could also be useful for opening up the communication between the teacher, parent(s), and students (home and school).  After reading about several student examples regarding multi-genre projects I now want to incorporate this into my classroom.  This will be a fun and creative way for my students to do research, which is something they often struggle with.  I like this because students are doing research using mentor, web and/or media texts, and other various research and resources.  Students can also be creative by adding video clips, pictures, clip art, and hyperlinks to enhance their digital writing.

Here is a You Tube video about about teaching and learning in the 21st century that I think is worth watching. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A-ZVCjfWf8