21st Century Writing Expectations: Examining Task, Audience, and Purpose

Marci Glaus, English language arts consultant at the Wisconsin Department of Public instruction, contributed today's post.

As many of you know, the Literacy and Mathematics team at the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction provides professional learning materials on various topics based upon perceived needs from the field. Many of these resources are produced in a train-the-trainer format, allowing for a broader audience. Based on information we gathered from across the state through survey data and conversations with educators, it was apparent that there is a demand for professional learning on writing. We found that the biggest needs were around the following topics:

•      Teaching students how to use the writing process and technology to produce and distribute writing appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

•      Develop a balance of explanatory informative, argumentative, and narrative texts for different purposes and audiences.

As the Wisconsin DPI English Language Arts Consultant, I have built resources surrounding these topics and solicited feedback from some of the best English language arts educators in the state. I am thrilled to debut the finalized version of this professional learning today.

The first part of the professional learning, and the part that I write about today, focuses on 21^st century expectations, how these relate to the teaching of writing, and the examination of task, purpose, and audience with digital and print mentor texts. All of this begins and ends with educators’ beliefs about the teaching of writing to recognize and build upon their knowledge and experiences. This interactive professional learning provides the time and space for analyzing texts written for different purposes and audiences and discussion of current writing tasks from your school/classroom context.  While there is time for exploration of different technology tools for writing, the major focus of this portion of the professional learning is to first recognize the purpose for writing, the context for writing, and then the exploration of the various modes in which writing could live. You can find this part of the professional learning through the following link:

http://ela.dpi.wi.gov/ela_writing

The materials on the website include the presentation in PowerPoint and Google Slides formats, a brief facilitator’s guide, and a resources tab which includes all of the handouts. There are short videos that a facilitator may choose to play that cover the research portions of the professional learning as well. Finally, while there are mentor text examples already built into this presentation, facilitators are encouraged to replace them with texts appropriate to their context as needed. 

Later this week, I will provide an overview of the second part of the professional learning on writing.