The Pew Internet & American Life Project and the College Board’s National Commission on Writing for America’s Families, Schools and Colleges released a report yesterday and the findings present some interesting data on teens perspective on writing. The report, “Writing, Technology and Teens,” is based on a survey conducted last year of 700 children from ages 12 to 17, each accompanied by a parent, in addition to eight focus groups in four different cities.

*93 percent of respondents said they wrote for their own pleasure outside of school, and evidence suggests that an increasing fraction of that writing is done online, either on social networking sites or in blogs. But in class, 82 percent said their assignments tend to be a paragraph to a page long. Part of the problem, the authors suggested, is finding ways to move that excitement about writing into rich, engaging assignments in the classroom.

*86% percent of respondents think that writing is important to their future success. At the same time, 85 percent of them use “some form of electronic personal communication” - such as e-mail, instant messaging and text messages - on at least an occasional basis, even though most of them don’t classify it as “writing” per se. (read pages 35-36)

Question to consider: How do we find ways to move that excitement about writing into rich, engaging assignments in the classroom?

Several of you have asked about starting a blog for your class. This is an excellent tool for students. If you are interested in learning more about how blogs work and how to use them in your classes, please let me know.

The full report can be found at:

http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/247/report_display.asp