‘Tech FTW!!!’ Ninth Graders, Romeo and Juliet, and Digital Technologies

Abstract

This article describes an action research study in which ninth graders composed digital responses to their study of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.  Their collaborative digital projects included e-zines, presentations, digital videos and photostories.  Although meeting face to face in and outside of class, the students also used Ning (a social networking site) to share their products and to communicate about them throughout the unit.  The paper will focus on what their communications reveal about the students’ participation and understanding during the composing process, including thinking, representing, actively engaged, creating, knowing, and social - summed up in the acronym TRACKS.