Hyperlinked Writing in the Classroom- From Theory to Practice

This is the follow up post to the theoretical Wondering About Hyperlinked Writing. The post ended with

Now…on from the wondering, theory and resources…to the practice in the classroom.

I am ready to bring hyperlinked writing (and reading) as an important genre into the classroom!

Can one just start “throwing” hyperlinked writing” at our students (or teaches for that matter) at any time, at any age? Is hyperlinked writing part of a process? A process that starts with reading digitally, reading quality and poor samples of digital writing? Students then progress to writing comments, learning how to comment on the writing of others to learning how to write for an audience on their own blog posts. Hyperlinked writing is that next step up in writing for a an audience.

Hyperlinked writing is more than citing your sources, it is a direct manifestation of writing for an audience.

A quick check-in with my Common Core Guru, Mike Fisher, author of “Cure for the Common Core“, told me that I was on the right track.  He said:

You are actually addressing several capacities in what you’re describing:

•  Capacity 3: Students respond to varying demands of audience, task, purpose, and discipline.

• Capacity 5: They value evidence. (Citations are in this realm, along with curation, and it is highly connected to number 6…)
• Capacity 6: They use technology and digital media strategically and capably.

It shows the intent to guide the reader to:

• where the author has been
• his/her train of thought
• providing a framework and context of the content background.
• choices where to learn more

There are other reasons why we link digital content

• Linking is a form of Content Curation
  We are placing specific resources and citations in the form of a
• Filtering and refining relevant content for our readers (3C’s of Information Commerce by Brian Solis)
• “The purpose of linking is to demonstrate to your audience that you are telling the truth.
  By means of the link, you provide your reader with the means to check up on you, to verify your claims, to follow up on the sources you say buttress your case, to find out if they really do reinforce what you are saying.” (Bloodhound Blog)

In the Quality Blogging Rubric, I developed for the use during our Quad-Blogging Action Research, links are addressed under the category “Community”. Under the “Expert”column it states that the blogger

• has several links that add to the readers understanding
• has  links that are relevant and “flow” within the content.

In retrospect, this description only seems to touch briefly on the importance and quality use of hyperlinks in digital writing.  (Note to self: Need to upgrade the rubric)

I started out with composing a paragraph together with the 4th graders on…. yes… a piece of paper. I wanted them to see the limitations of the traditional canvas of writing. Traditional meaning that the majority of current writing in schools end up on paper (handwritten or typed and then printed out).

• Why do people  link in their online writing?
• How do 9 and 10 year olds understand the use of links when they read online?
• How can we translate this to their digital writing?
• Understanding of linear and non-linear reading and writing

We Surf The Globe

On our blogs, we embedded a Clustr Map. A Clustr Map is a world map on your blog, that show you the location of the visitors of our blog. The map helps us visualize there our readers are from. We have been surfing the virtual globe  to countries all around the world, such as Thailand, Switzerland, and Czech Republic, because we know that they have read our posts.

I asked the students to copy the text we had written on the paper to their blog and to now add related links to the text. We discussed how the links should “flow” within the sentence and not just be “stuck” at the end, like “Click here to go to the ClustrMap”. (Note: Next time type the text quickly and post on my blog, to a shared Google doc or email them to each student. So much time was lost in typing the few sentences, which could have been spent on linking instead!)

I am departing from the assumption that at this point, students knew HOW to create a link on their blogging platform. This usually involves typing text, selecting and highlighting that text, clicking on a visual button (usually indicated with a chain linked together) and then entering the desired URL (Web Address) to underline and make the chosen text clickable once the post is published. Alternatively students might know or learn how to handcode a link in HTML

We watched the following video clip “Ethics of Linking” from Jay Rosen from the New York University. He says very simply:

The link, which is the idea, that you are interested in this, but did you know about THAT? Or HERE is what I’m saying, you should see what THEY are saying. You are here, but there is also this over THERE.

Take a look at Jamie B’s and Yoni H’s blog post and how they accomplished the task. By looking at all of the other student entries, I realized, that hyperlinking is not a one-lesson task, but a skill that students have to continue to practice and develop.

• Some students did not add additional links beyond the one we included on the “practice paper post”.
• Students did not go beyond adding links to other (which was the fault of not having a “better” practice paragraph) Note to self- need to develop a paragraph that includes the possibility to link to a variety of sources for hyperlinks

I did notice though, that these 4th graders were exhibiting a nice range of fluency in the logistical skills of creating links. I define this fluency as the ability to easily use the following skills and be able to adapt and change the order as and if needed.

Logistical Skills
that support fluency in hyperlinked reading & writing

• pre-viewing the URL link BEFORE clicking
• selecting a link in a browser
• copying a link in a browser
• creating a link on your digital page (either with HTML code or WYSIWYG editor)
• pasting the URL into the link code
• opening up a new tab in your browser to switch easily back and forth between digital writing page and pages to be linked.

Here are further thoughts and some activities for the classroom teacher to continue supporting and guiding his/her students in hyperlinked writing.

Yarn Blogging

Another brilliant idea from Bud Hunt has been Yarn Blogging. I recently used this technique with a group of teachers in a blogging workshop in New Zealand. The first step was for teachers to write a “blog post” on large stickie notes, then read these posts and “comment” on them by writing on small colorful stickies. The third step was for teachers to take yarn pieces and connect posts with other posts, posts with comments, comments with comments, etc.

Doing this activity with students might give them a tangible way of grasping  related content and how to connect them via a (yarn) link, not only making a connection between a name or word with a person’s website or a word’s definition.

Visual Mind Mapping

Using a mind mapping tool, such as Inspiration (software), Idea Sketch (iPad app) or Popplet (iPad app) to have students create a visual of linkable words in their text. Those could be organized by connection types. Allow students to see how  a visual mind map could translate into a hyperlinked text.

Non -Linear Writing

Are you familiar with “Choose Your Own Adventure Books“? How great would it be to allow students to map out such a story and link the choices on a mind map showing the links, flow and connections between choices. What if they were to choose to write their own”choice story” with different plots and outcomes according to the links embedded in the text? Students could use mind mapping apps again to design a flowchart of their story.

What to link to?

• name –> online hub (website, blog, Twitter, Facebook profile, etc.)
• brand name –> company’s website
• word –> definition
• quote–> original source
• phrase –> content context/background
• phrase–> someone else’s perspective
• conversation –> Twitter Hashtag
• example –>example in action/ demonstration of examples
• theory –> practice
• theme/topic/concept–> previous writing
• collaborative writing pieces –> pieces of another contributor to the topic

Choosing Link Text

Use text for your link:

• one-word keywords as links
  allow readers to skim over your writing to make a decision if they will read further
• text is as descriptive as possible
  Just as the image above says, “Hyperlinked text MUST telegraph the destination”. Let readers know what content to expect when they click on the link
• keep the amount of underlined words to a minimum.
  Don’t create links with link text as long as a sentence or an entire paragraph
• embed the links within the flow of writing avoid adding a “click here”

Please share your ideas of teaching hyperlinked writing in the classroom. How have you approached the genre with your age group of students? What have you learned? What are some of your trial and errors?

Wondering About Hyperlinked Writing

Almost 4 years ago, I wrote a post on Langwitches titled Teaching Hyperlinked Writing and Reading. 4 years later, many (most?) teachers have not heard, let alone are teaching and coaching their students in the use of hyperlinked writing. The word “hyperlinked” is still being underlined in red as I am typing the word, indicating that it must be somehow misspelled or that the word does not exist.

Wes Fryer, in his post The Ethic of the Link, Hyperlinked Writing and Mainstream Media Link Hangups, states that

Hyperlinked writing is one of the most important topics we can address, share, and encourage educators to learn ABOUT and how to DO personally today.”

I agree with Wes and feel that there is very little headway being made to address the issue in Professional Development and in the classroom with our students. Again, I believe that teachers can’t teach, model and coach their students in something they have little or no experience in.

What are we waiting for? Linked reading and writing is not going away…These are skills our students need…

Bud Hunt, in a post titled Ruminations on Implications: Notes from the Thesis, also notices, in the case of classroom and student blogs, that there is merely a “substitution” of the traditional writing going on. His concern is that we are simply replacing traditional writing with digital writing without tapping into the transformational potential it holds.

The kind of writing that’s being asked of students in these spaces?  Well, it’s interesting – I can break it down into three types – daily summaries, written collectively by elementary school classes; reflective essays about various topics; and responses to teacher questions.  Lots of it is writing that doesn’t require a blog.  And it’s writing that involves very, very, very little source material.  Very few quotes.  Very few links.  And the links, when they’re present, are not  embedded in the text.  They lie naked and open in the text.  And that seems problematic to me

In another post, Thinking ’bout Linking, Bud wonders about

teaching “blogging” vs. “writing with blogs

I think Bud makes a very important distinction here. There is a difference between the two which expresses beautifully the next step I want to take in helping students become quality blog writers. It is not about substituting traditional writing, but it is about amplifying it.

I am asking:

How do we help bring hyperlinked writing (and reading) as an important genre into the classroom?

I had a brief interaction with Terry Heick on Twitter (please read in reverse order) and really was thankful for the perspective he shared.

Terry calls it “layered writing”, I have heard it called

• connected writing
• linked writing
• hyperlinked writing
• non-linear writing

and I would like to add:

• amplified writing

Please share your experience with hyperlinked writing.

• Any thoughts on how you feel about it?
• Are the links distracting to you?
• Do links empower you as the writer and reader of the digital text?
• Do no links in a digital text make you cringe?
• Feel restricted?
• How have you incorporated hyperlinked writing int your classroom?
• How are your students learning to express themselves via linked writing?
• Does linking come natural to you/them?

We can create a hyperlinked context around “Teaching Hyperlinked Writing,  if you leave a comment with a link on this post or leave a pingback from a reflection on your own blog or resources you have found valuable.

Now…on from the wondering, theory and resources…to the practice in the classroom. Stay tuned for an upcoming blog post where I share what I learned with and from students.

Further Resources:

• Definition Hyperlink from Motive Web Design Glossary
• Posts from Hyperlinks category from Bud Hunt

Quality Commenting- Student Guest Post by Zoe M.

I invite few guest bloggers to share posts on Langwitches.

This makes it especially rewarding to be able to present to my readers an incredible young lady. Zoe is growing by leaps and bounds as a blog writer and commenter. She is a fourth grader at the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School and is taking part in an International Action Research currently underway between four blogging classrooms (USA,Thailand, Switzerland, Czech Republic). The following post is a wonderful testimonial to her understanding of blog commenting as a form of communication and learning.

I am honored to be able to share Zoe’s post, since I believe many, including grown-up blogging newbies, will benefit from her advice.

How to Make A Quality Comment by Zoe