Rationale

Identity Texts

         The interest for a project based around identity stems from Cummins, Hu, Markus and Montero’s (2015) work on identity texts and the ways they assist with both the identify formation and literacy development of language learners. Identity texts are products that can be written, spoken, visual, musical, dramatic or multimodal combinations and are positive statements that students make about themselves (Cummins & Early, 2011). As Norton (2010) explains, when given the opportunity to make meaning, learners will have enhanced identities and participate more actively in literacy activities.

         Using their own names as a springboard for writing and sharing of writing, students would bring in their full range of cultural and linguistic resources and conditions would be created for students to invest themselves into classroom activities and therefore support their language learning. Cope et al.(2009) maintain that students are engaged visually, physically, and mentally through new communication practices—including new literacies practices (i.e. referencing websites, writing blogs) and they argue that new literacies positively affect how children communicate as well as how they negotiate literate identities.

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Webquest

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            A Webquest is an inquiry-oriented lesson where the learners’ information comes from the internet. Typically, Webquests are designed by teachers to be used in classrooms; they include questions and pre-selected resources to be studied by learners during the guided lessons. “A WebQuest is designed to use learners’ time well, to focus on using information rather than looking for it, and to support learners’ thinking at the levels of analysis, synthesis, and evaluation” (Dodge, 2001). Therefore, there are two major purposes which drive the use of WebQuests in classrooms: (1) making use of Web resources, and (2) developing higher-order thinking. Web resources are researched and provided as hyperlinks by the teacher, so that students can focus on the task without time consuming web-searching. The teacher who creates the WebQuest examines and carefully selects the websites. This also enables avoidance

of inappropriate materials, privacy issues, copyright and plagiarism, and malware. Therefore, teachers need the skills to search and evaluate online resources skills.

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Blogging

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           Blogs were chosen as they allow users with no advanced programming skills to create an online space through posting, editing, and publishing articles composed of text, images, audio, video, and hyperlinks (Papastergiou, Gerodimos, & Antoniou, 2011). In blog-supported environments, learners begin to appreciate information sharing, idea exchange, and collaboration, which in turn contributes to student learning or professional development (Top, 2012). Research has indicated that blogs can serve as effective teaching and learning tools to support students’active participation through collaboration in a class (Kiliç, & Gökdaş, 2014) increase students’motivation to learn the subject content (Shana & Abulibdehb, 2015), and to develop students’critical thinking and reflective skills (Li, Bado, Smith, & Moore, 2013).

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