Taking a Stand

Using the example of Taking a Stand in Cyberspace , we art iculate i s sues confront ing school , community, and higher education groups as they create onl ine discuss ions geared to deepen the leve l of s tudent discourse about l i terature. Through a col laboration between the Vermont Center for the Book, the WEB Project , and six Vermont schools , students read and discussed three books whi le teachers maintained an onl ine discuss ion about the student conversations and the degree to which the student d iscuss ions showed evidence of reaching se lected learning goals . The experiences result ing from Taking a Stand, a long with earl ier in i t iat ives , indicate that an evaluat ion of the opportuni ty to use and exhibi t cr i t ica l reading ski l l s i s as crucial to the improvement of student learning as an assessment of an individual s tudent’s attainment .