Category: Week 6

Week 6 Discussion

I want to comment on the Curwood, Magnifico, Lammers piece, “Writing in the Wild: Writers’ motivation in fan-based affinity spaces.” Overall, I greatly enjoyed this piece, especially in relation to my user interviewing and testing. My child gave me the feedback that she wanted the writing kit to shift in perspective. Instead of being her journal, she wanted… Read more Week 6 Discussion

Week 6 Discussion

The authors of Writing in the Wild posit that writing in online affinity spaces “motivate young people to write through self-directed and interest-based opportunities to share their work with an authentic audience” (p. 678). While I agree that there are many opportunities for informal learning in these affinity spaces, I worry that we are not seeing the… Read more Week 6 Discussion

Week 6 Discussion

“Writing in the Wild” came to powerful conclusions yet caused me to question the application in practice. Currwood et al. argue that contemporary affinity spaces include a passionate, public audience for content. However, this caused me to question the negative and perhaps unwarranted criticism that could arise from this passionate public audience. Sheena mentions that she… Read more Week 6 Discussion

Week 6: Writing is fundamental

This week’s reading focused on the role that storytelling and writing can have on a child. It’s so important to consider how and why someone wants to tell a story–sometimes it’s just a matter of giving a person the right tools in order to create a master storyteller. That might be a robot toy like… Read more Week 6: Writing is fundamental

Week 6 Response

In reading the Cassell (2004) article, one section stood out to me in particular: “Despite descriptions of the multicultural aspects of storytelling activities, and some descriptions of their link to children’s literacy and other aspects of development (Labov, 1972; Lee, 1992; Miller & Hoogstra, 1992), virtually no attempt has been made to integrate their benefits into… Read more Week 6 Response

Week 6 Discussion - Juan G

It is clear that peer interactions enhance children and adolescents creative writing abilities. Children and adolescents tend to build on each other’s ideas and get motivated by having an audience. However, I am thinking about the role of parents in this area; I wonder that if instead of enhancing creative writing, parents might limit it because they may have the impulse of… Read more Week 6 Discussion - Juan G

Week 6 - We are STILL social creatures

When reading the article “Writing in the Wild”, I couldn’t help but notice the striking similarity between fan-based and affinity spaces in promoting writing, growth and creativity. We are social creatures at heart, and these examples show the power of social interaction and feedback in empowering kids to become writers. The article does touch upon… Read more Week 6 - We are STILL social creatures

Week 6 response

I liked the Rogoff (1991) and Doise (1990) citations in Cassell (p. 78), where Cassell writes: “When two peers collaborate, the simple juxtaposition of their actions allows the peers to modify their understanding of their own actions, through appropriating the perspective of the other peer. That is, to apply Rogoff’s notion to emergent literacy, the… Read more Week 6 response

DQC Week 6 - Writing in the Wild

I’m curious about if and how the anonymity of the virtual affinity spaces affect motivation of children who use these spaces. Curwood et al. noted that motivation was increased when Sheena received “in-depth criticism”; however, I wonder for the general population- how often do these in-depth criticisms occur? I think these virtual forums do provide… Read more DQC Week 6 - Writing in the Wild

Week 6: Adults' role in guiding storytelling

Both articles mentioned the importance of peers in storytelling, both as co-creators and as audience. I was wondering what’s the role of adults, including parents and teachers, in guiding and teaching storytelling. It seems to me that storytelling happens so naturally that kids don’t need much guidance – but how might we design interventions can… Read more Week 6: Adults' role in guiding storytelling