Chapter 4 Response

Writing is an everyday occurrence in elementary classrooms. Technology can enhance writing concepts and practices in many ways with concept maps, supports in how to present writing, supporting creative and collaborative writing, and peer reviews.

Concept maps require students to make a visual map between ideas. They help students identify important ideas, points, and concepts and help students visualize how they relate to other topics. While these maps can be drawn by hand, there is software that produces concept maps which are easier to read and to understand. As a teacher, having these concept maps can help with the formation or agenda relating to a lesson or the daily class schedule. The books example from Semantica seems like a handy teacher resource that can be utilized and also taught to the students to use easily. Using the concept maps will help students organize the information. Students should first identify important and main concepts and apply that/those concepts to a map that is fitting. For meaningful learning, students should generate their own maps for better understanding of what they will write as well as what they are doing and learning by creating the concept map.

PowerPoint is a tool that is used very frequently by educators. Having students create their own presentations with PowerPoint is more beneficial because it will allow students to learn the software and be able to create future presentations in a professional manner. With the positive effects of PowerPoint there are also negative aspects to it. PowerPoint stresses visual aids more so than the content. I think I will include PowerPoint in my classroom as a teacher and may introduce it to my students, depending on the grade I teach. If my students do use PowerPoint I will provide guidance with what they need to include in the presentation.

Technology can motivate students to write. One teacher had her students write a final chapter to a book they had read, The Pigman. This teacher used a book they were reading and incorporated it into writing and technology through having the students post it to the internet. I really like the idea of students coming up with their own endings – it inspires creative writing and the learning that is taking place is meaningful because students are able to interact with technology which is something most are motivated by. Other websites (scholastic.com, kidscribe.org, and poetryforge.org) provide outlets for students to have their writings “published.” When students have their work published it gives them more purpose and drive to write well. I will have my students go through a publishing system throughout the school year. I envision having a book that is published for the class with each student getting a copy. I also want my students to write their own books that will be theirs to keep. I further more believe that most writings should be published in some way to promote the love of writing. Technology is a fantastic outlet for students to use to publish their pieces.

Collaborative writing involves students bringing their own ideas to the ‘table’ and collaborating to create a piece of writing. I love the idea of having students collaborate in the classroom. Students should be assigned different roles to have a cohesive collaboration. Technology can be great in regards to collaboration because students can communicate through e-mails, chats, and instant messaging. Students can use the internet to help with brainstorming, exchange documents, and all the steps in between through finalizing the documents.

Peer editing is an incredibly important stage in the writing process. Multiple drafts are necessary in writing and having papers or projects on the computer lets students refer back to previous copies of the final document. With this students can see the progress they made throughout the process. I can see myself using SWoRD in my future classroom. Students can read, review, and respond in a confidential manner.