Dave Neal. Week Five. Chapter Five, Writing and Word Processing Review.
One idea or learning from your reading that you are of interest to you:
I really like the idea of “five minutes of monitors-off writing”. I tend to have my students do the majority (aka...all) of their brainstorming using a paper/pencil method with storyboards and other worksheets. I would be interested in using technology for brainstorming and this idea of “five minutes of monitors-off writing”. I know that this would be an exciting activity for the students. I can just imagine the kids giggling during the first session. It would also provide a great opportunity to work on keyboarding skills. The key here (for me) would be to create a wide variety of brainstorming techniques, because I am sure that the kids would get burned out if this becomes a regular activity.
One new idea for integrating technology for student learning in your own classroom/content area:
Reading about the revising and editing made me think about the ‘track changes’ feature of Microsoft Word. I am not sure if this is a new program that Microsoft introduced in the past few years or if I am just behind the times. In order to use this, I would require that all of my students use Word to create their papers. Again, my students like to mix things up and this program would be an exciting new way for them to edit their peer’s papers. I believe that this program would encourage my student’s to look deeper into the papers that they are editing...just so they could see their comments on the side bar.
What is your one main concern about integrating technology for student learning after reading this chapter?
My main concern with implementing the use of word processing in my classroom is the varying keyboarding skills of fifth graders. Each week I assign a 1-2 page paper, which the students have one week to complete. Throughout the week, we work on brainstorming activities, create rough drafts, edit, and complete final drafts. I let students decide whether or not to type them. I am afraid that if I required all students to type them on a word processing program, that some students would be pecking away at their first paragraph, while others would be finishing their second page with ease.
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I also like the 'track changes' function in Word, though I've never used it with my current students. I had a college professor that utilized it for some of our writing, and while he enjoyed it, he said that it was more work for him. The key is to get the papers to you electronically, and then back to the student when you are done making comments, if it's just you making the comments. That might be the biggest struggle. I guess I'm old fashioned in this arena, though, I still like the paper/pencil for making notations.
ReplyDeleteDave, if you try the "five minutes of monitors-off writing” with your students, let us know how it goes! As for keyboarding, it has to start somewhere! How do students finally get fairly good at it if they don't have a keyboard at home? Your solution of a choice of paper or type certainly seems to be a good on!
ReplyDeleteJoan