Abstract
Literature points to a dearth of information on the use of a digital writing process with elementary children. Specific to the use of digital tools for writing is the question of how they might impact children's writing identities. Writing identity is crucial as beliefs about one's identity as a writer impacts one's writing. Addressing these concerns, this study questioned how using an iPad book creation app with a process writing approach influenced second graders' writing identities in an afterschool setting. This semester-long qualitative case study includes data from six focal children and eight undergraduate tutors. Findings revealed three factors influenced children's writing identities: use of the phrase “what good writers do,” personal perceptions on digital tools, and the bookmaking project. Four instructional considerations are shared: the value of a culturally responsive learning environment, the importance of writing feedback, the need for typing opportunities, and the impact of a bookmaking project.
TopPerspectives
Two theories ground this study: sociocultural theory and New Literacies theory. Sociocultural theory is derived from the work of Vygotsky (1978) and views literacy as “a situated social practice” (Brandt & Clinton, 2002, p. 337). This theory acknowledges that social and cultural influences affect literacy practices and events and affect those participating in these acts of literacy. Dyson (1995) states, “We cannot make sense of children's literate learning without making sense of children's interactive lives, the who, what, why, where, and when of their language use. Both individuals and contexts develop each other in substantive and dynamic ways” (p. 36). The children participating in this digital writing process brought with them social and cultural understandings of writing and of technology use, and these factors impacted their learning and perceptions of themselves as writers with the digital writing process.
New Literacies theory acknowledges the variety of ways people can communicate through technology, and therefore, is used to broaden our understanding of literacy to include more than print text. Knobel and Lankshear (2014) define the framework stating, “the idea of ‘new literacies’ focuses on ways in which meaning-making practices are evolving under contemporary conditions that include, but are in no way limited to, technological changes associated with the rise and proliferation of digital electronics” (p. 97). New Literacies theory was an essential component of this framework since the children were moving through process writing with a book creation app on an iPad. This theory acknowledges the digital technology in this literacy act and allows for consideration of the revolutionary effect technology has had on literacy and communication (Coiro et al., 2008).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Digital Tools: In this study, devices that allowed for creating alphabetic communication, displaying photographs, facilitating research via the Internet, and digitally storing lesson plans and the program e-book.
Bookmaking Project: Specific to this study, while using an iPad and the Book Creator app, children worked through a digital writing process to create an e-book that included alphabetic content and photos of hand-drawn illustrations; at the end of the program, these were published as hard copies and distributed to children, tutors, and hospital patients.
Writing Process: A process-approach to writing where the focus is on the process of learning how to write as much as it is on the product. Writers move through non-linear, recursive stages including pre-writing, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing.
Digital Writing Process: The use of digital tools, in this case specifically iPads and the Book Creator app, to write through a recursive process.
Writing Identity: A fluid concept regarding one’s beliefs in writing ability, often impacted by how others in their cultural context view their status as a writer or how the cultural context places them in a status of writing due to a socially situated practice.
New Literacies Theory: Acknowledges the variety of ways people can communicate through technology and is used as a theoretical framework to broaden one’s understanding of literacy to include more than print text.
Digital Writing: In this study, the means of forming alphabetic communication through an electronic device.