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To claim that there is now such a thing as “Web 2.0 storytelling” invites risks. For one, some media reports suggest that this type of storytelling could be either hype or a danger. In addition, trying to pin down such a moving target can result in creating terminology that becomes obsolete in short order. Moreover, claiming that storytelling is happening online and is developing in interesting ways contradicts some current assertions about a decline in reading.Accepting these risks, we suggest there is most certainly a new form of expression that is compelling to educators. Starting from our definitions, we should expect Web 2.0 storytelling to consist of Web 2.0 practices.

Lonelygirl15 (http://www.lonelygirl15.com/), which started as a series of short videos on YouTube, grew to include a large number of comments, blog posts, wiki pages, parody videos, response videos, and a body of criticism. In each of these cases, the relative ease of creating web content enabled social connections around and to story materials.

Web 2.0 narratives can follow that timeline, and podcasts in particular must do so. But they can also link in multiple directions. Consider the possibilities facing a reader (or a viewer or a listener) who approaches Postmodern Sass. One timeline follows blog posts in chronological order. Another follows comments to a single post. A third follows links between posts, such as when the author refers to an earlier situation or references an old joke. Web 2.0 creators have many options about the paths to set before their users. Web 2.0 storytelling can be fully hypertextual in its multilinearity.

Welcome to the Google Sites version of my e-portfolio. I am exploring the capabilities of using this system to maintain electronic portfolios as part of my research on implementation of online electronic portfolio systems. Of all the systems that I have tried, this Google Site as my presentation portfolio, with my own domain name, with my Blogger blog as my reflective journal, is my favorite example, and the one that I will continue to update.

It is teaching towards each student's strengths, and allowing their weaknesses to develop into future strong points.

Quite frankly, the course of action begins with the very basics of how you run your classroom. Begin the year by getting a grasp of the strengths and weaknesses of your students through the use of the available data, like benchmark testing results, standardized test scores, pre-tests, student inventories, portfolios, guidance folders, and/or classroom grades from the previous year; although those important items are just the beginning of your learning process. They give results and information, but they do not tell you how the student got there.

a responsive classroom that differentiates is one where the teacher prides him or herself on getting to know the students as individuals. From my own experience, once you tap into that resource, you can more easily find ways to connect with everyone in the classroom.

'In other words,'' says Dr Sue Thomson, of the Australian Council for Educational Research, ''larger proportions of students can be described as 'strong performers' in the digital medium than in the print medium.''

If anything, what the new technologies will do is provide more opportunities to engage with long-form texts. The distribution mechanism will allow greater access. If you wanted to read almost anything on anything, I can almost guarantee there'll be 5000 words that someone's written about it somewhere, that you can get your hands on in an instant.'

''Everybody's either on a Kindle, emailing, texting, reading the news on their iPads. The digital revolution is not destroying reading. It's changing the shape, the form, the context and maybe how we do it, but I don't think it's diminishing it.''

what is a writer?" (I must admit I didn't come up with this brilliant idea, but adapted it from a suggestion from another instructor.) Students would always come up with different ideas about what that meant, but more often than not they never talked about themselves as writers. They thought of published authors as writers. They thought of people who sat in a sunlit room all day with a stack of white pages (or in front of a computer) as writers. They thought of people who were paid to write as writers. My students often did not think of themselves, or their instructors, as writers.

tell students on a regular basis that writing isn't only important because they need to graduate or pass a class but because it is the key to engaging other scholars in conversation. Even in informal media such as Twitter or Facebook we write to get our ideas across or to interact with other academics. And even though we can argue that academic writing is not the same as tweeting, the rules of engagement are similar: we value clear, well-argued writing in each case. We value thoughts that are well articulated. We value creative, interesting posts that steer away from the clichés. Therefore, I think the most important advice I can share with my writers is this: think of yourselves as writers.

I believe that thinking of yourself as a writer can change the way you feel about writing in general

Rubrics provide clear criteria for evaluating a product or performance on a continuum of quality.  Rubrics are not simply checklists with point distributions or lists of requirements.  Well designed rubrics have the following in common: 1. They are task specific: The more specific a rubric is to a particular task, the more useful it is to the students and the teacher.  The descriptors associated with the criteria should reference specific requirements of the assigned task and clearly describe the quality of work at each level on the rubric. The rubrics to the left are all posted as Word documents so that teachers can tailor them to a particular task. 2. They are accompanied by exemplars: The levels of quality described in the rubric need to be illustrated with models or exemplars.  These anchor papers help both the students and the teacher to see and understand what quality work looks like as it is described in the rubric.  These models or exemplars can come from past student work or the teacher can create a model to share with the class. 3.  They are used throughout the instructional process: The criteria used to evaluate student work should be shared as the task is introduced to help students begin with the end in mind.  Rubrics and models should also be referenced while the task is being completed to help students revise their work.  They should also be used after the task is complete, not only to evaluate the product or performance, but also to engage students in reflection on the work they have produced. Ideally, students should be involved in the process of generating rubrics through the careful analysis of exemplars; by studying the models, students draw inferences about the criteria that are important to a successful product and then describe different levels of performance for each criterion.

What is an analogy? The definition of analogy is an expression of similarity between two unlike things. Usually the comparison involves two or more comparison points. In real life, analogies are used to explain and teach. Their most common uses are to Explain something unknown in terms of something known. Explain something unfamiliar in terms of something familiar. Explain something unseen in terms of something seen. An analogy usually does more than describe the appearance of something; it explains how something works. Analogies usually oversimplify to give an frame of reference in which detail may be understood.

Middle School & High School GamesEngaging teens in anything that smacks of grammar is usually a difficult task. To teach grammar and hopefully have some fun, try these games. Games are a fun way to engage students in tasks where they do not even know they are learning. Plus, they encourage teamwork and allow for kinesthetic learning. Students can play Stick it the Quickest and word sorts, which require Post-Its and chart paper. Some games require cards and larger teams. One grammar game requires baskets and balls to show correct grammar use. Whatever game you select for your students, they will enjoy this type of grammar practice over a worksheet any day. Choose the game for the grammar topic: Eight Parts of Speech Game Eight Parts of Speech Sentence Sort Grammar Lesson: Action Verbs and Verbs of Being Lesson Identify Noun Case Activity Identifying Parts of Speech Review Game Variety is Important in English Grammar Lessons

If your students struggle with passive voice, contractions, run-ons, comma splices, or pronouns in their writing, try one of the following lessons.