Writing Points |
February 2009 | Vol. 2, No.2
Resources and tips for teaching writing
in this March issue of Writing Points
Students write better with their heads
in the clouds
My college students can verbalize that "a piece of writing
ought to be all about one thing," but many don't understand
the concept of unity in writing. The fact that repeated
words are a clue to the central point of a piece of writing
has not dawned on many of them.
Many
English teachers are having student use Wordle
to create visual representations of the repeated words in a paper,
as I did (right) for this story from Writing Points.
Word clouds show the frequency of words in a document by the size
of the type. Repeated words are a clue to the central point of
a document.
Word Clouds can be manipulated to produce artistic results, which
is cool, and it can help students find the important words in a
text. But to get real benefit from word clouds, you can't just stop
with the pretty picture.
With the Word Cloud results in hand, students can do a Find
and Replace within a document to change each of their 3-5 most
important keywords to distinctive color.
Nonfiction writers tend to put their thesis at the end of their
introductions. They tend to put their topic sentences at
beginning of their body paragraphs.
Being able to see how key words are used to create the thesis and
topic sentence and scattered throughout the document helps students
understand the concept of unity in writing.
Introduction Writing 101: 3 things students
must know
While thinking about introductions for a page I just posted about
teaching how to write
an introduction, I noticed that problems writers have preparing
introductions in paper documents seem magnified in electronic
communications.
Introductory paragraphs ought to introduce. They should never
assume the readers already knows something that is not in
that opening paragraph. In print or electronic communications,
do not start out by...........
-
Referring to the title of the paper: "This has
always been my dream."
-
Referring to the assignment topic. "I really liked
this book."
-
Copying and pasting the question you are answering at
the top of your introduction.
If you don't teach your students anything else about writing introductions,
teach them those three rules.
You might also show them that pronouns in the opening sentence
often are an indication that the introduction fails to start at
the beginning.
FYI: I also recently posted a page on how
to teach conclusions, based on some questions raised by web
page visitor. Keep those notes and suggestions coming!
If news releases can be believed, a technology based program called
WriteToLearn(TM) from Pearson Education, Inc. is getting rave reviews.
So far, I've seen only anecdotal reports, but the technology incorporates
features that needed in any writing program, namely:
-
Student writing is examined for meaning, not just grammar
errors.
-
Students get prompt feedback.
-
Students write with a purpose.
-
The program teaches all students, not just the high
achievers.
-
Students get frequent practice.
If you haven't got the big bucks for a technology program, you
can incorporate all these features into your low-tech teaching.
It takes more creativity than writing a check, but it can be done.
(Incidentally, I discuss each of these on my best
teaching practices thread in more detail than I can give here
in Writing Points.)
I have done it with 5 classes of 20 students. I gave three
writing assignments a week and guaranteed each student a minimum
of 1 hour a semester of one-on-one tutoring. (The actual amount
of time students spent with me individually averaged about two hours.)
I was a basket case by the time summer vacation rolled around,
but I live through the experience.
Look and see a dictionary for visual thinkers
If you are like me, you have some tools in your teaching tool
kit that you never use yourself. You just keep them on hand
to lend to people who can use them.
For me, Visuwords™
is that sort of tool.
Visuwords™ describes itself as an online graphical dictionary,
but it's not a dictionary in which the words are defined by pictures,
photos, and diagrams. Instead, when you enter a word you get something
that looks like a mind map of word associations.
The results use colors and shapes to show such things as:
-
Parts of speech.
-
Derivative terms.
-
Synonyms.
-
Hyponym/hypernym pairs.
-
Meronym/holonym pairs.
and other relationships. The words are not defined per se.
If you don't know the meaning of meronym, you'll have to
look it up just as I did. FYI, I have a page about online
free dictionaries you can use when you find a new word at Writing
Points. (The dictionaries don't contain my misspellings,
alas.)
Although Visuwords™ isn't a tool that fits the way I like
to learn, but it may be just perfect for you or some of your students.
I've had some who would have found this site a perfect fit for
they way they think and learn.
I've been seeing a lot of articles and conference papers about
using blogs to teach writing. Blogs, the experts say, give students
an audience, make writing relevant, are fun, blah, blah, blah.
What I've seen of blogs by students in teacher education programs
suggest to me that blogging is not improving writing skills
of people entering the teaching profession. I don't know
what it may be doing for elementary students. What I've seen suggests
-
The audience for blogs is other class members
-
The student bloggers don't respond to comments.
-
The writing on the blogs is generally poor quality.
- The students don't learn skills for online presentation
and search engine optimization that they could use outside
class.
It appears to me that students creating these blogs have no reason
to blog except that it's a class requirement.
In my view, students would be better off learning to build a
website. If they didn't learn to write, at least they'd learn
something useful. What's more, creating a web site creates a genuine
need to improve one's writing skills and to develop new ones.
SBI, the web site hosting-and-training company I use, has launched
a new program offering classes in website building. Since
I'm already neck-deep in my site, I haven't looked at the new
offering closely (my bad!). However, if any of you are interested
in this "earn while you learn" opportunity, you
can click here to take a look.
Incidentally, through March 20 if you buy
one SBI website you get a second for $100 more. If you split
the cost with a friend or family member, you both get a good deal.
I'm stingy, so I will buy my next site while SBI is offering
a discount.
The next issue of Writing Points should be released
tax day, April 15, no providence preventing.
Until then, keep your pencil sharp.
Linda
