Social Media in Middle School Literacy Instruction

Abstract

This qualitative case study took place in an 8th-grade classroom and was considered practitioner research which explored an innovative approach to writing instruction utilizing a social media platform. Participants included six, 8th-grade students who were all students in a writing class and helped to seek the answers to the following questions: (a) how do middle school students use Twiducate for academic writing in the classroom?; (b) what is my role as the teacher related to writing instruction using Twiducate?; (c) how do middle school students collaborate and give peer feedback for writing purposes? Formative data analysis was used throughout this study and I used coding to find patterns in my data and develop themes. This study shows how students used social media to write and collaborate and what the teacher’s roles are during those events. Findings include the teacher transitions between four roles: discussion facilitator, feedback coach, writing teacher, and supporter to improve student writing. Students used Twiducate to engage in the writing process and created a class developed artifact to refer to for learning, while collaborating and giving peer feedback throughout the process. Twiducate empowered students to be independent writers and built a community of learners invested in each other’s writing. Findings extend knowledge about middle school writing and ways to integrate social media into classroom settings, while engaging students.