Using Technology to Improve Adolescent Writing: Digital Make-Overs for Writing Lessons

Middle and high school teachers are provided with ideas for making good inquiry-based reading and writing lessons better with the addition of Web 2.0 tools, including Wikipedia. After a discussion of the ideas of educational theorists and well-known names in writing studies, lessons in four areas are presented: pre-writing or invention, responsive writing, purposeful writing cutting across different kinds of texts and media objects, and social action writing. Each lesson plan includes a list of materials, goal and rationale, connections to curriculum standards, student objectives, and step-by-step activities. Lessons also provide suggestions for adapting elements of the makeover for other content areas, and suggestions for teaching ELLs. Chapter summaries, discussion questions, and b&w photos are included. The book ends with lists of terms every teacher should know, people to Google, professional organizations, books, journals, and web sites for teachers, and free online tools. Stephens teaches graduate courses in educational technology at Texas State University-San Marcos. Ballast is a teacher consultant for the Central Texas Writing Project. Annotation c2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Liz Campbell Stephens teaches graduate courses in Educational Technology and is Director of the Office of Educator Preparation at Texas State University-San Marcos. She serves on the National Writing Project's Board of Directors and was Director of the Central Texas Writing Project for 11 years. She co-authored Technology, Reading, and Language Arts and has written numerous chapters and papers on technology and literacy. Liz is former high school English teacher and brings that experience to her work as a teacher educator, federal programs director, and consultant. Her research has centered on literacy, technology, and teacher education.

Kerry Ballast is a Teacher Consultant for the Central Texas Writing Project and a secondary English language arts teacher with 14 years classroom experience. She has worked with students in grades 6-12 to explore various forms of writing, both traditional and digital.