Tai Reichle, author of the novel \u201cTriangles of Applesauce Logic,\u201d recently received his first royalty check from Amazon. His book sold had more than 100 copies so far\u2014not bad for a novel he wrote when he was 11.<\/p>\n
Reichle wrote his book last year as part of National Novel Writing Month<\/a>, or NaNoWriMo. The initiative challenges \u201canyone who has ever thought fleetingly about writing a novel\u201d to write 50,000 words\u2014approximately the length of \u201cThe Great Gatsby\u201d\u2014in the 30 days of November.<\/p>\n The challenge uniquely uses online tools and social media, through which writers share their progress, document stumbles and bumps in the road, and find needed encouragement from fellow bloodshot-eyed writers.<\/p>\n NaNoWriMo\u2019s Young Writer\u2019s curriculum<\/a> helps educators like those from the Black Pine Circle School in Berkeley, California, where Reichle wrote his novel. Fourth-to-eighth-graders write together and share their work with peers using tools like Google Docs that allow them to comment on each other\u2019s work.<\/p>\n Educators say that digital platforms like these allow today\u2019s students to understand the power of publication, circulation, and their own writing.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the beginning, students kept asking over and over, \u2018Am I allowed to do this?\u2019\u201d said Kira Del Mar, a seventh-grade English teacher. \u201cIt took them a long time to get that they could tell any story that they wanted to tell.\u201d<\/p>\n Del Mar said that being able to tell any story they imagined, whatever bizarre path it took, instilled a new sense of agency and ownership in student writing. In 2013, students from fourth to eighth grade at her school wrote a total of 725,743 words.<\/p>\n Laura Bradley said that taking part in NaNoWriMo\u2019s online writing community has helped her middle school students at Kenilworth Junior High School in Petaluma, California, get support for their writing projects and learn to be good digital citizens. Writing for Edutopia<\/a>, she said students had to \u201ccreate their own author page, upload a book cover they have designed themselves, share their book\u2019s title, genre, summary and an excerpt, connect with other young writers, compete in \u2018word wars,\u2019 track their daily progress towards their goals, and read tips from published authors.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, over at Figment<\/a>, young writers publish their work year round. They jump into story contests, review other writers\u2019 pieces, and even participate in live chats with published authors.<\/p>\n Educators say that learning to write online and in multiple formats is a key to literacy today\u2019s students are going to need in the future.<\/p>\n \u201cGoing public and writing for an audience is something we always cared about,\u201d said Elyse Eidman-Aadahl, executive director of the National Writing Project, in a recent interview<\/a>. \u201cMaybe the real shift is that now it\u2019s easier and more expansive.\u201d<\/p>\n Throughout the country, educators are finding new ways to harness this shift.<\/p>\n \u201cWhere I felt like there was a niche to fill was in the area of audience,\u201d said Johanna Paraiso, a teacher at Fremont High School in Oakland, California, in an Educator Innovator webinar<\/a>. \u201cHow do you bring the student\u2019s writing to a more public space, beyond peer editing?\u201d<\/p>\n