Writing, Redefined

When most of us think of writing we think of pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard. Shawna Coppola would challenge us, however, to expand our thinking of writing to go beyond strictly alphabetic and consider alternative forms of composition when assigning writing to students. By allowing ourselves and our students to redefine writing, we redefine what it means to be a writer. Writing, Redefined gives teachers the power to change what “counts” as writing in schools and classrooms, opening the doorway to students who may not consider themselves to be writers, but should and can. Shawna offers alternative, engaging writing assignments that are visual, aural, and multimodal that will involve all students, specifically the following:

• who prefer to compose using a wider array of forms and modalities;
• for whom so-called “standard” English is not the norm;
• who’ve been identified as dyslexic;
• whose cultural traditions lean heavily toward more aural forms of composition; and
• who are typically considered “struggling” writers.