DOCUMENT RESUME ED 323 556 CS 212 512 AUTHOR Zeni, Jane TITLE WritingLands: Composing with Old and Net; Writing Tools. INSTITUTION National Council of Teachers of English, Urbana, REPORT NO ISBN-0-8141-5903-6 PUB DATE 90 NOTE 212p. AVAILABLE FROMNational Council of Teachers of English, 1111 Kenyon Rd., Urbana, IL 61801 (Stock No. 59036-3020; $9.95 members, $12.95 nonmembers). PUB TYPE Books (010) -- Reports - Research/Technical (143) -- Guides - Classroom Use - Guides (For Teachers) (052) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC09 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Classroom Environment; Computer Centers; *Computers; Computer System Design; *Cooperative Learning; Design Requirements; Intermediate Grades; Secondary Education; Teacher Administrator Relationship; Teaching Methods; Writing Improvement; *Writing Instruction; Writing Research; *Writing Workshops IDENTIFIERS *Collaborative Writing; Discourse Communities; Teacher Researchers ABSTRACT Designed to help teachers, grade six through high school, overcome misgivings about computers for writing and make the most of the new technology, this book offers answers to an urgent question in language arts: how can computers be woven into the human fabric of a writina workshoo? The book is based on a five-year study of computers for writing in actual school settings and presents what skilled teachers know about using computers to enhance the teaching of writing in the less than perfect conditions of ordinary clas7;rooms. The book describes classroom environments called "Writing Lands" where computers enhance a process approach to teaching writing and makes the point that what students do with any writing tool depends less on the power of the technology than on the power of the teacher. The book also shows how teachers in the vanguard are using computers to foster collaborative writing and teacher-student dialogue, and explains how these teachers cope with the knotty practical questions computers pose in the average school. The book concludes by discussing how to design computer-equipped schools for quality writing instruction, how to choose appropriate hardware and software, and how schoolwide team leadership can support the teaching of writing. The book is organized in five major sections:(1) Portraits of Student Writers; (2The Key Variable--Good Teaching; (3) Desigr, ag WritingLands; (4) Who Rules a WritingLand? and (5) Explorations. An appendix noting contributors to the action research and a bibliography of 113 titles conclude the book. (SR) *********************************************************************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. * **************************** 1***************************************** (SI I II . 1 II I eetri s.= ik°PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS S OEPARTMENT OFEOUCATION MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY Z.:.1"-^45es- INFO:W*1'10N ED TION*, RE SOUPCES CENTER,ERC. Z v.v.? naa bee'+00,1, PCI aS fne rev, ,,s0a, :a' ea! cnandes ave twee n-ade r r m TO THE EDUCATIONALRESOURCES Ofa.n -nsvated,ttn,sdoto Pc-ma oe* reocesern ott.c,a1 INFORMATION CENTER IERICV *en! do not necesswy OEM oosdn:In of OCACy Writing Lands Composing with Old and New Writing Tools Jane Zeni University of MissouriSt. Louis National Council of Teachers of English 1111 Kenyon Road, Urbana, Illinois 61801 3 To the Members of the Gateway Writing Project NCTE Editorial Board: Richard Abrahamson, Celia Genishi, Richard Lloyd- Jones, Raymond J. Rodrigues, Brooke Workman, Charles Suhor, Chair, ex officio, Michael Spooner, ex officio Staff Editon Robert A. Heister Cover Design: Doug Burnett Interior Book Design: Tom Kovacs for TGK Design NCTE Stock Numben 59036-3020 © 1990 by the National Council of Teachers of English. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. It is the policy of NCTE in its journals and other publications to providea forum for the open discussion of ideas concerning the content and the teaching of English and the :anguage arts. Publicity accorded to any particular point of view does not imply endo.sement by the Executive Committee, the Board of Directors, or the membership at large, except in announcements of policy, where such endorsement is clearly specified. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Zeni, Jane, 1945- Writing Lands : composing with old and new writing tools / Jane Zeni. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p.). ISBN 0-8141-5903-6 1. English languageComposition and exercisesStudy and teaching (Secondary)2. English languageRhetoricStudy and teaching. I. Title. PE1404.451990 808'.042'0717don 90-6557 C1P 4 Contents Acknowledgments vii Welcome to WritingLand ix I Portraits of Student Writers 1 1. Writers at Work 3 2. A Room rull of W.iters 8 3. Mary 16 4. Bob 32 5. The Writing Process 49 II The Key VariableGood Teaching 63 6. Starting to Teach Writing with Computers 65 7. Teaching "Process" with Structure 75 8. Harry the Detective 79 9. Three Faces of "Harry" 84 III Designing Writing Lands 97 10. Maps to the Territory 99 11. Time and Access to Tools 106 12. Space, Layout, and Supervision 110 13. Hardware and Software 117 14. Teachers 129 15. Peers 140 16. Designing a Writing Land 147 13 vi Contents IV Who Rules a Writing Land? 153 17. Administrators 155 18. Writing Improvement Teams 166 19. A Community of Researchers 176 V Explorations 183 20. Methods of Action Research 185 Appendix: Contributors to the Action Research 193 Bibliography 201 Author 207 Acknowledgments This book is the product of collaborative learning. All the teachers whose classrooms I describe have participated in St. Louis's Gateway Writing Project, and most have studied with me in the Graduate Invitational Institutes. They have published articles, written grant proposals, and presented workshops in which I have played the role of editor, coach, or director. But the influence has always gone both ways. As a researcher, I have studied in their classrooms, trusted their fieldnotes, synthesized their interpretations; I have learned about Writing Lands by watching and sharing with them. These research-wise teachers are acknowledged in the Appencrix to this book. I especially thank the twelve original members of the 1984 85 research team who integrated computers into their writing work- shops: Georgia Archibald, Gloria Casey, Jacqueline Collier, Marilyn Dell'Orco, Margaret Hasse, Brad Heger, Clara McCrary, Nenna Owen, Peggy Ryan, Joan Krater Thomas, John Weiss, and Anne Wright. I also appreciate the administrators and teachers of the pilot schools (1985 87) where we developed the model of the Writing Improvement Team: Langston Middle School, Lindbergh High School, Steger Sixth Grade Center, and University City High School. Finally, I thank Joan Krater Thomas and the Webster Groves Action Research Team; since 1987 we have learned together how at-risk students can find their power as writers. The Gateway Writing Project has received generous financial sup- port, which has provided released time for me and assistantships for teachers who collaborated on the research. The Fund for Improvement of Postsecondary Education gave us a major three-year grant, which was enhanced by funding from the National Writing Project, the University of MissouriSt. Louis, and Harris-Stowe State College. My departments of English and educational studies juggled my teaching schedules to accommodate my field work, and the University of MissouriSt. Louis provided a semester's leave so that I could finish writing the book. Without such continuing support, this kind of longitudinal study would have been impossible. I am intellectually indebted to three great teachers, James Britton, vii 4, 1 7 viii Acknowledgments Frank Smith, and Lou Smith, whose seminars introduced me to the processes of writing, reading, and qualitative research respectively. My dissertation committee at the University of Missouri-St. Louis coached me during the fixst years of the research: Wallace Ramsey, Richard Burnett, David Carkeet, Chris Madigan, Jon Marshall, and George McCall. Finally, Sallyanne Fitzgerald and Sally Barr Reagan read and responded to numerous drafts of these chapters in our monthly writing group. My sons, Adam Pablo Flinn and Mark Hosteen Flinn, have grown up with this project. They began creating data when they wrote book reports, stories, and science projects on our home computers. They continue to support my writing time, to shield me from the telephone, and to prefer meals that we can microwave. Welcome to Writing Land Two twelve-year-old girls are working on "The Continuing Sagaof Suzy Shell:' They sit together at one microcomputer in their language arts classroom, holding the inspirationfor their storya seashellas they talk and type their way through the plot: Kathy: "What should we do next?" Betsy: "Let's see [composing orally). ... Someone picks her up in the Caribbean Sea... :' Kathy: "No, that doesn't make sense." Betsy: "Well, we've got to get her out of there somehow." Kathy: [composing orally] "Cautiously Suzy came out of her shell... :' Betsy: "No, she can't come out, she'd get eaten!" Kathy: "Well, she could at least look...." Betsy: "Okay, then [typing].... Suzy took a peek. .."' Although these writers were introduced to word processing just a few days ago, they are already using the computer to collaborate and to experiment with their writing. This vignette shows thepromise: the active learning envirohment we call a "WritingLand." In aWritingLand workshop, students act support from a community of peers and teachers while they write by computer as