CHAPTER 3: Exploring Writing with English Learners Through the Digital Story: A Collaborative Service Learning Approach

Stubby pencils and faintly lined newsprint make up my earliest memories of writing. I loved everything about the process and continued to love it through a 25-year career as a freelance technical writer and, for the past 4 years, as a secondary teacher of English learners.

My mantra in the classroom speaks to that love of writing, allowing a process to happen that magically puts feelings onto paper and into other media. I shared that experience with a dozen students in a middle school classroom during 2010–2011 and watched as these students—from the Middle East, Africa, and Asia—developed their own writing voices.