William Kist Workshops
Writing in a Digital Age
Overview
What’s new in adolescent literacy?
—Kids are still reading books
—Kids are also doing a lot of reading and writing online
Fanfiction sites
Chat rooms
Instant messaging
Quick overview of trends in helping struggling writers be better writers
—Motivating struggling writers
—Activities to do Before Writing
—Activities to do During Writing
—Activities to do After Writing
What are “reading” and “writing” in the 21st century?
—Literacy will probably be more “screen-based” than “page-based.”
—People will still need to be good at reading and writing print.
—Writing will also include being able to create in media other than print:
graphic design, music, video and still photography
What are some assignments that teachers can give that will tap into these new literacies?
—Examples from my book, New Literacies in Action
Video clips from documentary footage shot on location
—Examples of digital portfolio management systems
Breakout Sessions with Smaller Groups (60-90 minutes?)
During these small-group sessions, I would train teachers on how to use some very simple activities to help struggling writers.
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Before Writing Activities
- Building/accessing prior
knowledge
- Connecting to personal experiences
- Developing vocabulary
- List/Group/Label
- Using props as story starters
- Writing activities to do in a computer lab
- Tea Party Game
- “I Wish” Poetry Activity
- Found Poetry
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During Writing Activities
- Peer Conferencing
- Teaching Conferencing
- Authors’ Chair
- Writers’ Club groups
- Listing Questions Activity
- Imagery Building Activities
- Using Simulations
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After Writing Activities
- Talking about writing conventions with students
- Text-Messaging English versus Standard English
- Publishing venues (new and old)
- Internet, Digital Portfolios, School performances
- Readers’ Theatre Formats for Sharing Student Writing
- Parent/Student Writing Clubs
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New Literacies in Action
Audiences: Teachers (Grades 5-Adult), Administrators, Literacy Coaches
Building on over ten years of research in classrooms, Dr. Kist will demonstrate a variety of strategies for engaging adolescents in a time of broadening literacies. Collected from classrooms across North America, these strategies can be implemented in a wide range of classrooms, from the technologically barren to the technologically advanced.
Assignments and assessments will be demonstrated that can be used in conjunction with: Blogging, Video Sharing, Sound File Sharing, Instant Messaging, Text Messaging, Podcasting, Using Games, Graffiti, Visual Art, Drama, and Dance.
Video clips from documentary footage shot on location in classrooms in Canada and the United States will be shown to provide real-world examples of students and teachers co-learning in new media environments.
Motivating the Unmotivated Adolescent Reader
Audiences: Teachers (Grades 5-Adult), Administrators, Literacy Coaches
In a single-day or multiple-day workshop, teachers will read about and discuss trends and strategies used in adolescent literacy education. A key component of the workshop will be strategies to motivate struggling readers, both those “a-literates” who just don’t like to read and those who struggling with decoding and comprehension. Strategies will be divided into those done before, during, and after reading. These strategies are hands-on, and can be implemented quickly and easy in language arts classrooms and across content areas.
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Before Reading Activities:
- Building/accessing prior knowledge
- Connecting to personal experiences
- Developing vocabulary
- Making predictions
- Setting purposes for reading
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During Reading Activities:
- Choral reading
- Echo reading
- Shared reading
- Partner reading
- Book club groups
- ERT (Everyone-
Read-To)
- Listing Questions Activity
- Post-it Note Reading
- Helping kids use imagery
- Using Simulations
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After Reading Activities:
- Discussing text/literature
- Following up predictions
- Using drama
- Completing graphic organizers or KWL chart
- Sequencing Games
- Traveling Sentences Activity
- “The 32-Second Macbeth”
- Beach Ball Game
- Readers’ Theatre
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Participants will leave the workshop with a thick file of ideas and strategies that should help motivate even the most unmotivated reader. A list of popular new and older Young Adolescent book titles will be shared as well as new multimodal venues for literacy such as fanfiction and video file-sharing sites.
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