Learning Focus: In this learning module, your focus is teaching and assessing writing using digital tools. Collaboratively, you will explore digital tools and some approaches to teaching writing, including planning frameworks and assessment. Each week you will be required to post a comment and comment on at least 2 other participants' posts. You also design a learning module that will go through peer review, revision and publication.

This course will be conducted in Scholar, a digital writing platform. You will be learning about teaching writing through participating in a digital writing environment where the communication and knowledge architecture is very different from the traditional classroom. We will work in the Community space where we will collaborate through discussion and active knowledge making, and in Creator where you design a learning module and submit it for review by your peers in this course. Once you have reviewed it and it is published, you will be able to implement it with your students. Find out more about Scholar and its seven affordances - ubiquitous learning, collaborative intelligence, recursive feedback, multimodal meaning, metacognition, differentiated learning, and active knowledge making. 

This course is part of a series of learning modules that can be completed individually or cumulatively.

• Module 1:Teaching Writing Digitally
• Module 2: Teaching English Through Textual Concepts
• Module 3: Teaching Grammar in Context
• Module 4: Feedback and Assessment

In this 6 week course, Teaching Writing Digitally, there are 7 updates.

• Week 1: Overview and Introductions
• Week 2: Exploring Digital Tools to Teach Writing
• Week 2: Exploring Approaches to Teach Writing
• Week 3: Frameworks for Teaching Writing
• Week 4: Creating a Learning Module
• Week 5: Assessment
• Week 6: Peer Review, Revision, Publication and Evaluation

At the end of Week 3, you will be assigned a project to create a short unit of work for one of your classes - we call them learning modules in Scholar. In this project, you will go through the writing process in Scholar - draft, peer review, revision, and publication. Start thinking about what you would like to cover in the learning module; it could be adapting something you have taught before or a completely new topic you will be teaching. 

Each week there will be a live session for 60 minutes so that you can share ideas and ask questions. This will be recorded for those who are unable to attend. The Scholar "Help" tutorials can also be accessed from the top right hand corner of the screen.

Comment: To get started and to connect to the group, in the comment box below, introduce yourself and your teaching context. Then share an experience of teaching and/or assessing writing. It could be where you were the student or the teacher. It could be a positive or negative experience. Describe what made it so. Read other participants' comments and comment on at least 2, explaining what you could relate to or what surprised or interested you and why. Start with @Name, inserting the person's name so they know that you are commenting on their comment.

Fig. 1a: Traditional didactic pedagogy

Fig. 1b: Scholar

Learning Focus: To explore a range of digital tools that could be used to teach writing.

There are so many digital tools to support writing - brainstorming tools, documenting tools, tools for collaborative writing, blogging, checking grammar and plagiarism, and using social media, tools for incorporating multimedia and creating presentations, and tools for documenting sources. See The Digital Writing Workshop,  A Selection of Digital Resources for the English Classroom and #edtech Literacies Applications for some examples.  

Another useful resource is to read Viviana Mattiello's chapter, "Supporting learning with technology" in Boas, E. & Gazis, S. (2016). The Artful English Teacher. Kensington Gardens, SA: AATE.

Through this update, we will generate a list of specific digital tools that could be used to support student writing based on your own experiences and/or investigation. You can add your example of a digital tool to the comment box below (If you'd like to add images or YouTube videos, go to the Community avatar and in the pull down menu, create your own update. This will give you access to a range of multimodal tools. See 2.8.2 and 2.8.3 in Working in Community in the Scholar Help Tools).

Comment: What are some digital tools that you have used to teach writing? Describe them and their effectiveness. Search the Internet to find out about some other tools. Describe the tool/s and what it does. Include a link so that other participants can explore it in more depth if they wish to. Read and comment on the posts of 2 other participants, explaining what interested you and, if applicable, describing your experiences or possibilities of using the tool.

Here is an example, Padlet. It can be used to brainstorm ideas, language work, collaboration, and to create an initial outline of a piece of writing or presentation using multimodal tools.

Learning Focus: To read and respond to readings about the teaching of writing.

Here are readings about the teaching of writing:

Graham, S., & Perin, D. (2007). Writing next: Effective strategies to improve writing of adolescents in middle and high schools—A report to Carnegie Corporation of New York. Washington, DC: Alliance for Excellent Education.

Gyenes, T. & Wilks. J. (2014). Is the Essay Dead? Revitalising Argument in the Era of Multiliteracies. English in Australia. 49,(1),7-15. (http://www.actate.org.au/documents/item/723 - still need to check access)

Lammers, J.C., Magnifico, A, & Scott Curwood, J.( 2014). Exploring Tools, Places, and Ways of Being: Audience Matters for Developing Writers. Pp. 186-201 in Exploring Technology for Writing and Writing Instruction, edited by K. E. Pytash and R. E. Ferdig. Hershey PA: IGI Global. 

Manuel, J. & Carter, D. (2016). Teaching writing in secondary English: Approaches to building confidence, enjoyment and achievement.  Sydney: NSW Teachers' Federation Centre for Professional Learning.

There is also a series of video mini lectures by Bill Cope and Mary Kalantzis on Making Meaning by Writing. These are based on Kalantzis, M., Cope, B. Chan, E. & Dalley-Trim, L. (2016). Literacies (2nd ed). Port Melbourne: Cambridge University Press.

Comment: Based on your own experiences and ideas, respond to at least 1 of the above texts. What did you relate to? What struck you as important or interesting? What did you disagree with?  Find another reading or video and post a link. Read at least 2 other participants' comments and comment, explaining points of agreement and disagreement.

Fig. 2: Writing digitally

Learning Focus: To identify the key features of frameworks to teach writing and to theorise about their strengths and weaknesses.

There are many learning frameworks that can be used to teach writing. This learning module has been designed using the Learning by Design (Kalantzis and Cope, 2015) framework and English Textual Concepts (State of NSW, Department of Education, 2016). Other popular frameworks include Understanding by Design (Wiggins and McTighe), Gradual Release of Responsibility (Fisher and Frey, 2007), Inquiry and Design (Wilhelm, 2007), and New Pedagogies for Deep Learning (Fullan and Langworthy, 2014).

A useful resource is to read Eva Gold and Prue Greene's chapter, "Teaching English through textual concepts", Daniel Howard's chapter, "Gradual Release of Responsibility", and Erika Boas' chapter, "Developing an inquiry approach" in Boas, E. & Gazis, S. (2016). The Artful English Teacher. Kensington Gardens, SA: AATE.

Comment: Explore a framework that you use or could be used to teach writing. Use one of the frameworks mentioned above or find another. Create an update (see Help: 2.2: Working in a Community) where you provide an overview of the framework and provide a link and/or YouTube video about it. Then theorise about its strengths and weakness in teaching writing. Read at least 2 updates posted by other participants, and comment on their analysis, adding more strengths and/or weaknesses that you know and/or can theorise about.

Learning Focus: To understand the communication and knowledge architecture of Scholar and apply what you have learned about teaching writing by creating your own learning module.

This week's update has 2 parts:

Part 1: To read/view the rationale of the learning module in Scholar.

As a pedagogical design, the Learning Module is not a textbook. It is not a syllabus. It is not a lesson plan. And it is all of these things, or it does the job of all of these things, but does all these things differently.

•  A textbook summarizes the world, transmitting content to learners in the single voice of the textbook writer. The Learning Module curates the world—web links to textual content, videos and other embedded media. It is multimodal. And it uses a variety of sources, requiring students to think critically, not just to memorize content that has been delivered to them to consume.
• A syllabus outlines content and topics to be covered. A Learning Module prompts dialogue—an update prompts class discussion; a project sets in train a peer reviewed work; a survey elicits a student response. It is a medium to facilitate active and collaborative learning, rather than individualized content acquisition.
• A lesson plan is the teacher’s private activity outline. The Learning Module can be shared with the class, and optionally published to the web, within a school or beyond, for other teachers to use, so building a school-based pedagogical knowledge bank. For professional collaboration and learning, a Learning Module can be jointly written and also peer reviewed before publication.

Learning Modules have a two column format: a ‘for the member’ side where the teacher speaks directly to the student, and a ‘for the admin’ side where the teacher speaks the professional discourse of education, articulating learning aims, curriculum standards and teaching tips.

A Learning Module offers three modes of interaction with and between students:

1. Updates that can be pushed into the student’s activity stream, including a wide range of multimedia formats. Each update prompts comments from students and class discussion.
2. Projects, including instructions to students and a rubric for peer, self and/or teacher review.
3. Surveys, including knowledge surveys that anticipate right and wrong answers, and information surveys that do not have right or wrong answers (such as an opinion survey).

Also watch From Didactic Pedagogy to New Learning (below) where Bill Cope from the University of Illinois explains the communication and knowledge architecture underpinning Scholar. 

Before you start to create your Learning Module, we recommend you view section 5.1, Using Learning Modules from the Scholar Bookstore—this will give you an idea of how they work.

Also see Scholar's Learning Module for more detailed information, including Curating Web Content, From Knowledge Consumers to Knowledge Makers, Personalized and Social, Feedback, Feedback, Feedback, Documenting Your Learning Designs, and The Writer's Toolkit.

Part 2: To start your learning module

You will receive a "Work Request" via email and through Scholar Notifications to create a peer-reviewed learning module. Take the link in the request and you will reach a blank learning module. 

Check "AboutThis Work" in the Toolbar to see information about the project. Change the title of your work in Info/Title so that your work has a unique title. Check "Feedback" to see the rubric that should guide you as you create your learning module. Check the Help Tutorial 5.2: Creating a Learning Module to set up the two-sided sections using the Structure Tool.

Comment:  Do you have any questions about how Scholar works? Make a comment in this update. If you think you have an answer to another person's question, please answer it - be sure to name the person you are replying to in your comment by starting with @Name.

Learning Focus: To explore assessment practices in writing.

Researchers such as Hattie and Timperley (2007) and William (2014) have established the importance of formative assessment to improve student learning. Assessment for learning, including student self-assessment and rubrics have become established practices in schools. 

Using a rubric that sets explicit criteria (what is important in the assessment of a piece of writing) and describes the expected quality (what does it look like when it is done well) can support students to improve their writing. Look at an example of a rubric used in Scholar that is aligned with the Australian Curriculum English in year 9. 

Note that the above rubric is prospective (formative) rather than retrospective (summative). The expectation is that students will use the rubric as they draft, give and receive feedback to their peers, and revise their writing. The rubric can also be used for self-assessment and for teacher feedback.

A useful resource is Adam Kealley's chapter, "Effective formative assessment in English" in Boas, E. & Gazis, S. (2016). The Artful English Teacher. Kensington Gardens, SA: AATE.

To create your own rubric, see Working with Rubrics in the help tutorials. To access the above rubric, your moderator will invite you to become an admin in the Australian Curriculum Publisher in Scholar. You can then copy the rubric to the Publisher you set up for your learning module project, and modify it for your project.

Comment: What is an effective assessment strategy you have used for writing? It may be a rubric or another strategy. Describe its strengths and weaknesses (if any). Comment on 2 other participants' comments/updates. You can create your own update if you would like to include any multimedia to demonstrate your assessment strategy.

Learning Focus: To complete the feedback and revision phases of your learning module project and evaluate the course.

After you have submitted the first draft of your learning module, you will receive 2-3 "Feedback Requests". Try to submit your feedback by the due date because your peers will be counting on your feedback to improve their drafts. Once you have received feedback, you will be ready to revise your learning module and submit your revision. If you need help at the feedback and revision phases, access the Scholar Help tutorials, especially 3.8-3.11.

The diagram below explains the writing process in Scholar. Note how the rubric is critical to developing student metacognition of what is quality writing. Developing this metacognition enables students to apply what they have learned to future writing tasks. 

After you submit your revision, your moderator will publish your learning module to your personal profile and to the class community where you will be able to look at other participants' learning modules. 

Complete the survey where you evaluate your experience of this course.

Comment: What has been the most important learning for you as you completed your learning module project? Read other participants comments and comment on 1-2.

Fig. 3: Metacognition in Scholar