Must. Write. More. Part III

Much to my dismay, I discovered that many of my younger students are totally unfamiliar with blogging. They don't know what blogs are nor do they know what to do with them. To get the students comfortable with blogs and to get them writing more, I started MyGeographyNews last fall. I post content and have students leave comments. As you can see, I haven't used the blog in awhile (I know, a very bad thing). Students aren't at the point where they are leaving comments on comments, nor are they writing their own posts yet.

My next step is to get students writing some reflections that can be posted at the blog, then getting their classmates to leave comments. It is slow, but steady work.

photo by: Trinitas Imaging / Udit Kulshrestha

Must. Write. More. Part II

One of the ways that I have tried to get students to write a bit more is to use Wallwisher in class. Though we haven't used it for awhile, I found that most students were receptive to the idea of writing short messages about their thought on a topic such as world hunger.

When I do this again, I'll have to set up separate Wallwishers for each class since I've got 35 in each of my geography groups. As you can see, the wall just gets too crowded.

Tom Barrett also started a Google Presentation on "Interesting Ways to Use Wallwisher." Check it out for a gold mine of ideas.

Must. Write. More.

I'm very concerned about students not writing enough. I believe they need to be able to communicate effectively through the written word using rich language. Students should not be forced to write endless five paragraph essays, but should be experimenting with numerous forms of written language. This Google Presentation gives us a place to start thinking about different ways to support writing in the classroom.

Thanks, Tom Barrett, for starting the interesting ways presentations. I get fabulous ideas here!

Schools adjust how writing is taught in text age | freep.com | Detroit Free Press

I've been wondering what is happening with handwriting instruction. My own experience was traumatic as a lefty in a righty world. My hand ached every day because of the unnatural position it was forced to assume in order to replicate the perfectly formed letters of the right-handed instructor. By fourth grade my teacher was being quite forceful in my hand position. I rebelled. When I concentrate, I have adequate handwriting, but would much rather type or print.

Students need to be able to write by hand, but they should not be forced into cursive (this article suggests that printing or modified cursive is fine).

• Schools adjust how writing is taught in text age | freep.com | Detroit Free Press

  tags: handwriting, texting, computers, writing, education, cursive

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Univseral Letter Writing Week: Top 10 Myths About Writing

• Top 10 Myths About Writing

  This would be great to share with students. Many of my struggling writers don't think they have anything to say or think that because they have difficulty writing down their thoughts, those thoughts aren't worth sharing.

  tags: writing, Annenberg Media, Universal Letter-Writing Week

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.