Hi, my name is Janet Ilko, and I am excited to be part of this discussion group. I am a fellow in the San Diego Area Writing Project, and I currently teach middle school youth in grades 7 and 8. I have 3 classes of English Language learners who need extra support in reading and/or writing. I also teach two AVID leadership classes that also will focus on technology in the fall.
I am currently working with middle school students through a partnership with the San Diego Area Writing Project. Our camp is called Writing for Change Academy. The focus of this work has taken an interesting turn this year, we are creating blogs with a writing group based in Australia and using that blog space to house our work so students can collaborate, comment, and eventually curate that space. We are also going to work on some projects using the work of Youth Voices, inspiring students to hopefully create some digital work to share on that site as well.
I am focusing this work on exploring how student blogging impacts their writing process. How or will students revise in different ways if the work is published for a larger audience? We are also creating a space for students to continue the work into the school year, in the hopes of tracking who stays part of the project long after the academy fades.
Looking forward to working with everyton.