Conducting primary research through digital video (DV) can allow students to experience meaning-making firsthand, gaining empathy and understanding for their subjects. Two practical reasons for encouraging students to use DV are that students are already using the technology outside of school and that the digital culture demands digital literacy.…

This article discusses one teacher's efforts to give their students a mentor text for a persuasive, research-based writing project. The author's shift from assigning predominantly fiction to focusing more on nonfiction came as a result of their efforts to help their students move from students' current writing style -- that of a five-paragraph…