Writing & Rhetoric professors at URI are rethinking how they teach some first-year composition classes to give students an opportunity to write in new ways that incorporate technology, personal experience and public awareness. In this semester’s classes, students are offered a variety of projects, including opportunities to join citizen science projects and write about them for the public; to consider their out-of-school writing practices—such as on social media—inside the classroom; to identify fake news, fact-check those items and then write accurate accounts; and to raise awareness and create change on social justice issues they are passionate about.