Designing for Connection and Community in the Online Writing Classroom, An NWP CoLab

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For many teachers working to figure out remote or socially-distanced teaching, two of the biggest challenges this school year are creating trusting, mutual connections with their students and forming productive classroom student/peer communities, especially supportive writing communities. Those twin challenges are at the heart of this CoLab.

In mid-August, Matt Johnson, Michigan teacher and author of Flash Feedback: Responding to Student Writing Better and Faster — Without Burning Out, raised these exact questions in blog here at Write Now, asking “How Can We Connect with Students and Build Classroom Community from a Distance?” His questions are at the heart of this conversation.

In this CoLab, he is joined by Kim Jaxon, professor at Chico State University and director of the Northern California Writing Project, and Anna Smith, Assistant Professor of Education at Illinois State and co-author of Developing Writers: Teaching and Learning in the Digital Agefor an exploration of this topic. Both Kim and Anna are experienced online educators with lots of ideas about this topic, but both also agree that Fall 2020 is very different for them, too, and that we all will be learning from the work.

Watch the Video

Matt’s resources:

• Matt’s book: Flash Feedback: Responding to Student Writing Better and Faster — Without Burning Out
• Matt’s reflection on this CoLab (don’t miss it!) at his blog: The Re-Write Blog

Kim’s resources:

• Kim Jaxon’s “Course Design for the Now Times”
• Kim Jaxon’s “Rescuing Student Participation Through Digital Platforms”
• Kim Jaxon, Laura Sparks, and Chris Fosen’s “Epic Learning in a ‘Jumbo’ Writing Course” (building community in large classes)
• Kim’s course for future teachers: English 333

Anna’s resources:

• Article about Dr. Tisha Lewis Ellison’s work: Educators must unplug their ideas about students’ tech abilities
• Anna Smith, Autumn West & Sarah McCarthey’s “Literacies across Sponsorscapes: Mobilising Notions of Literacy Sponsorship”
• Anna Smith’s “Tips on Tech in Class: Using a Strategic Writing Framework”
• Anna Smith’s “From Positive/Negative to Affordances/Constraints”