NCTE Beliefs about the Teaching of Writing: Double Journal #5

3 Things I Learned

•  Talk is important to writing, and Writing Conferences can help students reorganize their thoughts to allow them to write better.  
•  Ways to implement multi-modal literacies without the availability of up-to-date technologies. (ex. posters, performance writing, illustrated stories) 

2 Things I Found Interesting

• By starting with the dialect that is comfortable for the student, the teacher can move him into more flexibility in writing. 
• The idea that literacy and its definition are always expanding due to the increase of technology.

1 Question I Have

•  If all these high technology skills and social support relationships are needed to benefit writing, why do we not see these things being executed in the classrooms?  Does it take extra work, or is it the fact that the previous generation of teachers have never been trained to rethink like this in making lesson plans? 

 Here is an article in response to NCTE's writing skills in the 21st century. It is written very informally, so that the public can understand and relate.  I personally feel that the comments are worth reading to see how people are responding to technology, as well as just what they think.  This last paragraph I couldn't help but giggle.  As much as I don't like the texting language, I don't find it to be the end of the world.

"In other words, a little less fretting about lolspeak such as "srsly" or the shortcuts texters use, please, and more help for young composers to develop lifelong skills in effective communication and information sifting. Purists may sigh at the memory of writing classes of yore, but if the change results in smarter, clearer-thinking Net citizens, who would say it nay?"

Resources:

NCTE Beliefs About the Teaching of Writing. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://docs.google.com/document/d/1kBob4rwoBfMr5KibZlGhE7RopH9ZVrXij2XWhbNzeVk/edit?hl=en_US&pli=1#

http://betanews.com/2009/03/02/english-teachers-embrace-21st-century-composition-skills/