MISD Digital Strategies I

Digital Strategies for Teaching Writing

(2016 Workshop Activities)


Part I: Invention/Collaboration/Drafting 

Using the writing assignment you brought as an example,

  • What skills do you want students to gain when you assign writing?  
  • What activities do you normally ask students to engage in?
  • What would you like to do better or differently?
  • How can multimodal strategies enhance the teaching and learning of writing?

Multimodal = textual, aural, linguistic, spatial, and visual resources — or modes — used to compose messages.

  • appeals to different learning styles/preferences
  • variety increases engagement
  • the predominance of multimodal composing/texts in students’ lives

Multimodal Strategies for Invention

An example of Jackie’s Coggles.

Activity: Modes of Invention

Chose one invention tool (LucidchartBubbl.usCoggle, or Post-its)  and use it to brainstorm ways to revise/create an assignment. Consider mapping your learning outcomes for the assignment, the process you want students to engage in, what you think students can learn in each stage of the process, the kinds of work they’ll submit, etc.

Which tool did you try? Benefits? Limitations?

Digital strategies for drafting/collaboration

Start with “Fostering Student Collaboration with Google Docs.

Check out Carrie’s comments on a collaborative draft (for Intermediate Composition) submitted in a Google doc or these collaborative annotations (for Writing for Publication).

Activity: Collaborative Writing Practice with Google Docs

  1. In teams, create a new Google doc for your team (rename it with your team name).
  2. Then choose one of the assignment prompts to revise as a team and copy and paste it into the team Google doc. Share the Google doc with your team member. (Team members should open the document.)
  3. Individually, respond to the writing prompt draft using the comment feature (be sure to hit “Enter” to see the comment), noting the things you like and things you want to change. (You’ll see the comments each other is making as you work.)
  4. Then take turns working collaboratively revising the prompt.