Writing Reimagined: Inspiring Disengaged Writers Through Innovative Formats

Outline

1. Introduction (10 minutes)

Welcome and session goals: Introduce the objectives and outline what participants will learn.
Why reimagine writing?: Discuss the challenges educators face when traditional writing formats fail to engage students. We will share our own observations with our students as they found themselves struggling with more traditional experiences.
Description of our writers - students with unique needs, students whose primary language is not English, students who “hate” writing, etc.
We will ask our audience to share about some of their learners.
Student-driven media formats: Overview of how podcasts, videos, and TED-style presentations were incorporated into a traditional curriculum to increase engagement including information about UDL principles, reducing barriers in writing, promoting diversity, equity and inclusion.

2. Integrating Technology to Foster Engagement (15 minutes)
Empowering reluctant writers:
Share strategies for using technology to engage students who traditionally struggle or disengage from writing tasks.
Technology integration examples:
Highlight the specific technology tools and platforms used to facilitate podcasts, video production, and presentation creation
Real-world applications:
Emphasize the real-world relevance of these formats, linking writing projects to skills needed in modern digital environments.

3. Rethinking Writing with Media Formats (15 minutes)
Media formats in action:
Share examples of student projects: podcasts on perseverance, video projects on weather, and TED-style presentations on building and sustaining community.
Audience Participation: Showcase diverse writing projects and media examples that illustrate how students created content based on their tasks.The audience will have the opportunity and be encourage to share what they notice, what they wonder, and implications for further extension.

4. Action Planning & Q&A (10 minutes)
Interactive Action Plan:
Participants will brainstorm how they can implement media formats in their own writing (or any academic or content area where they want to add writing instruction) curriculum, using provided templates.
Encourage participants to think about the media formats that will work best in their own classrooms and grade levels.

5. Q&A session: Open discussion for participants to ask questions and share thoughts on using technology to reimagine writing.

Supporting research

Ferlazzo, Larry. “To Build Trust in the Classroom, Encourage Students to Share Their Stories (Opinion).”
Education Week, Education Week, 17 July 2024, www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/opinion-to-build-trust-in-the-classroom-encourage-students-to-share-their-stories/2024/07.

Gu S-H, Chang Y-S, Lee J-Y, Lin MH. Broadcasting yourself via YouTube: Developing the speech of EFL students. TESOL J. 2021; 12:e532. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesj.532

Hicks, Troy. Crafting Digital Writing: Composing Texts Across Media and Genres

Parsons, S.A., Ives, S.T., Fields, R.S., Barksdale, B., Marine, J. and Rogers, P. (2023), The Writing Engagement Scale: A Formative Assessment Tool. Read Teach, 77: 278-289. https://doi.org/10.1002/trtr.2244

Prothero, A. (2023, July 11). What podcasts did for student engagement in these schools. Education Week. https://www.edweek.org/technology/what-podcasts-did-for-student-engagement-in-these-schools/2023/07

Ruth Sylvester. (n.d.). Digital Storytelling: Extending the potential for struggling writers. Reading Rockets. https://www.readingrockets.org/topics/common-core-standards/articles/digital-storytelling-extending-potential-struggling-writers

Senatore, K. (2024), The Class Podcast: Reimagining the Literary Essay to Honor Student Identity and Agency. Read Teach, 77: 1013-1020. https://doi.org/10.1002/trtr.2313