Carl Nagin in his book Because Writing Matters discusses what teaching methods best relate to improvement of student test scores in writing. Several teaching practices were highlighted: Planning, multiple drafts, teacher-student discussion and portfolios. I was thinking if these are key steps in improving writing, how could technology help teachers help students?
How better to plan writing than using a message board to share thoughts and plans. Here, students can throw out ideas as they come to them, get input from other students, and get input from the teacher at his or her convenience. There are private boards where teachers can limit outside contact, or even invite parents into the discussion. Nicenet.net is just one example of a message board in cyberspace that could benefit students and teachers in the planning of writing.
Blogs could be an excellent place for students to place drafts, get input from teachers and redraft. Think about how much students currently love to put their stuff out there, why not their school work. Has anyone noticed the popularity of myspace and facebook? Students bare their souls to the work and many would be excited about sharing their work as they create it.
Teacher-student discussions are so limited by the regular classroom. Teacher-student interaction using technology has to be one of the key opportunities for teacher-student discussion to bloom. There are two types of ways to foster communication. Sites that support chat allow for synchronous discussions between teacher and student or students. Message boards and email allow for asynchronous discussions between students and teachers with the added flexibility of scheduling.
Portfolios are the fourth way to improve writing skills and there are all types of e-portfolio options already available. Many schools and colleges are already requiring electronic portfolio and should there be any other way to save and keep these works? E-portfolios are easy to maintain and easy to recall. This is one movement in higher education that should and will filter down to public education K-12.
The National Writing Project has done much to improve writing in the schools and I am sure my suggestions have and will be implemented in more and more schools.
