Part of a group presentation given at NCTE 2012

1. ng A
ndi it y:
Ex pa m un
Co m
i ng yo nd
r it Be
W
o v in g
W alls
M oo m
as sr
Cl Tony Keefer
@tonykeefer
Dublin City Schools
Dublin, Ohio

2. What Makes a Writing Community?

3. What Makes a Writing Community?

4. What Makes a Writing Community?
Critical Conversations

5. What Makes a Writing Community?

6. What Makes a Writing Community?

7. A Writing Community ...

8. A Writing Community ...

9. Why?

10. If they have access, our kids now have an easy
connection between an individual’s passion to
learn and the people and resources to learn it.
-John Seely Brown, A New Culture of Learning.

11. “As writing has changed with computer-mediated,
networked environments, so too have our
conceptions about what it means to be literate.”
-Troy Hicks,The Digital Writing Workshop

12. “Thin walls expand the classroom”
-Will Richardson, weblogg-ed.com

13. Blogging as Building Community

14. Blogging as Building Community

15. Ilyas, Peter and Hayden are a Writing Community

19. On their own, these 3 fifth grade boys have
built a writing community that (I believe) values ...
Time
Commitment
Critical Conversations
Trust
Joy

20. What Do We Want?

21. What Do We Want?
NCTE Definition of 21st Century Literacies
Adopted by the NCTE Executive Committee, February 15, 2008
Literacy has always been a collection of cultural and communicative practices shared among
members of particular groups. As society and technology change, so does literacy. Because
technology has increased the intensity and complexity of literate environments, the twenty-
first century demands that a literate person possess a wide range of abilities and
competencies, many literacies. These literacies—from reading online newspapers to
participating in virtual classrooms—are multiple, dynamic, and malleable. As in the past, they
are inextricably linked with particular histories, life possibilities and social trajectories of
individuals and groups. Twenty-first century readers and writers need to
• Develop proficiency with the tools of technology
• Build relationships with others to pose and solve problems collaboratively and cross-
culturally
• Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes
• Manage, analyze and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information
• Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multi-media texts
• Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments

32. On their own, these 3 teenagers have
built a writing community that (I believe ) values ...
Time
Commitment
Critical Conversations
Trust
Joy

33. What Next?

34. “Blogs can be really interesting containers – you
can put pretty much any digital stuff into a blog
that you’d ever want to – but they should also be
playful playgroundy spaces. Blogs are much better
as places of play rather than places of expectation.”
-Bud Hunt, budtheteacher.com

35. “Be the big learner.”
-Will Richardson

36. “Be the big learner.”
-Will Richardson
“Learning is awesome”
-Hank Keefer

37. Photo Credits:
Photos are licensed through Creative Commons
“hourglass” by Tamas Meszaras
“Talking to a Brick Wall” by Joriel “Joz” Jimennez
“Trust” by thoringside
“Commitment” by eschipul
“Joy” by Nutmeg Designs
“Possum Trot School” by holdit
“Stata Center, Cambridge, MA (4)” by Sebastia Giralt
“A Slight Flaw in the Picture Pointed Out” by Liz Henry
“Writing Assignment” by Enokson
“Brainstorm” by TheImageGroup
Website Screenshots:
Reading Writing Breathing : http://readingwritingbreathing.com
The Sporting Journal : http://sportingjournal.com.au
Mark Klassen Cinematographer : http://markaklassen.com/site/?page_id=575515448