What does it meant to teach writing in the accountability and digital eras?

First of all, before I address my response to three readings: The Right to Write by Julia Cameron, The Professional Knowledge for the Teaching of Writing by NCTE, and Argument in the Real World: Chapter 3 by Kristen Hawley Turner and Troy Hicks, I realize there are more to teach and to write at the same time. To make a point to why I said that there are more to teach and to write at the same time, I am a second-year Secondary English teacher in a deaf school and a college student taking required courses in order to get a state Secondary English certificate.

After the readings, I picture myself needing to become a digital writer first before I can teach what the students need to know to be a great digital writer. I am fully aware that I do not have to be a great digital writer. I just need to know what makes a great digital writer. As Cameron said in her article that she believed we are born to be writers. I immediately agreed with Cameron and came up with the thought about Joy Luck Club book writer, Amy Tan, what she said. I once read her biography about struggling with writing English as a second language. She said that it took a lot of determination, self-discipline, and constantly practicing to become an excellent writer and she believed anyone can do it. 

English is my second language. My first language is American Sign Language because my parents are deaf, too. Fortunately enough, I grew up reading a lot of books and wrote a lot of personal journals. My mother always believes in a good education. I am fortunate to have such a determined mother wanting the best for me because she didn’t have that opportunity herself.

Reading Cameron’s article has promoted my inspiration and motivation in writing. She used the coolest techniques to encourage me to practice in each chapter. I like her quote very much, “Writing is about getting something down, not about thinking something up.” Another point she made that I completely related to the most is when she believes that it is a myth to have more uninterrupted time to write. Do find time to write is the best advice I ever had.

Now, to teach students to become digital writers is a whole another story. That’s something I am willing to learn at the same as a new, novice digital writer, which is a great tool for me to learn before I teach my students. To teach students to become a digital writer involves more teaching than writing in both ways, myself as a teacher and them as a student. For example, in NCTE article, it emphasizes a lot on what the teachers need to know and understand in order to teach. In the Real World chapter, the authors emphasize on how important it is to understand the declarative and procedural knowledge and how they are related to each other especially how important it is to know about copyrighted sources. The authors made a point of saying that every source you find online has a home. It hits me that there is a lot of structures I need to teach before letting my students write something online.

One big issue, these articles have not discussed the privacy issue related to adolescents. Not every school allows access to social media. I can say that for my school. They are very strict and protective of students’ privacy because some parents do not want their adolescents on the internet publicly. So how can I really teach my students to be digital writers at school if there are so-called “policy” that prevents me from teaching freely?