"Writing in the Wild: Writers' Motivation in Fan-based Affinity Spaces" (Curwood)

The authors of this article engage in a very thorough analysis of the fan-based affinity space framework, as well as all of its benefits and how best to translate them into the classroom.  They write that "it is imperative for educators to value students' out-of-school writing in online spaces and understand how these experiences contribute to their academic writing," with which I completely agree.  My chief concern while reading this article was doubt that many (or any) of my students engage in such spaces.   Certainly, they engage daily with "new literacies," but I don't know that they are involved in such affinity spaces or are the ones creating transformative work.  Curwood et. al. acknowledge that their study "focuses on the exceptional cases; namely, the 1 in 5 young people who are creating and distributing transformative works in online spaces," arguing that much can still be learned "when extrapolated to the students."   I'm just not sure that their steps for implementation would speak to my students.  They suggest that teachers "attune the practices" affinity spaces, but if students aren't experienced with fan culture in online communities then you would still practically be starting from scratch in establishing such a collaborative, transformative culture in your classroom.  Not that that's not worth doing; I have no doubt that a classroom where teachers "allow writers the space to remix and transform others' work, build portfolios that demonstrate their developing writing skills, and share their writing with an authentic audience" would be one in which students engage meaningfully with content.  I'm just not sure the extent to which this would be building on my students' socio-linguistic reservoirs, whereas in a more socioeconomically advantaged school it most certainly would be.