Assessing Students' Digital Writing

In this book, Troy Hicks – a leader in the teaching of digital writing – collaborates with seven National Writing Project teacher consultants to provide a protocol for assessing students’ digital writing. This collection highlights six case studies centered on evidence the authors have uncovered through teacher inquiry and structured conversations about students’ digital writing. Beginning with a digital writing sample, each teacher offers an analysis of a student’s work and a reflection on how collaborative assessment affected his or her teaching. Because the authors include teachers from kindergarten to college, this book provides opportunities for vertical discussions of digital writing development, as well as grade-level conversations about high-quality digital writing. The collection also includes an introduction and conclusion that provides context for the inquiry group’s work and recommendations for assessment of digital writing.

Book Features:

• An adaptation of the Collaborative Assessment Conference protocol to help professional learning communities examine students’ digital work.
• Detailed descriptions of students’ digital writing, including the assessment process and implications for instruction.
• Links to the samples of student digital writing available online for further review and to be used as digital mentor texts.

Troy Hicks is an associate professor of English at Central Michigan University and director of the Chippewa River Writing Project. Follow him on Twitter: @hickstro.

"Ultimately, Hicks provides teachers with a text that should spark collaborative conversation around the assessment of students' digital writing. Ideally, teachers would implement one of the protocols discussed early in the book and examine their own students' writing. Nonetheless, all teachers who read this text will gain valuable information about how to conduct careful and detailed analyses of students' digital writing." - Michigan Reading Journal

"The book is interesting because the voices of the teachers in conversation about student learning are present throughout the book." - Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion

"This book documents the value of teachers’ collaborative online sharing of perceptions about their students’ digital writing practices, serving as a model for groups of teachers interested in improving their teaching through online interaction."
—Richard Beach, professor emeritus, University of Minnesota

“Building on his foundational work in helping us to embrace digital writing in the classroom, Hicks and his collaborators help us take the next step to becoming teachers who practice authentic assessment that supports students to learn through digital writing. This is the book (and the thinking) that advances our field."
—Sara Kajder, clinical assistant professor, Department of Language and Literacy Education, University of Georgia

Troy Hicks has won the 2021 Initiative for 21st Century Literacies Research Divergent Award for Excellence