Comic books used to forbidden in the English classroom, but they
are getting more respect these days.
The ability to create comics for online delivery is becoming a
highly salable skill. Students need art skills, of course, but reading
and writing skills are also essential. If comics appeal to your
students, use their appeal to hook students on reading and writing.
The blog TeachingDegree.org has an annotated list of 100
sites that will help you use comics and graphic novels as teaching
tools. If you have reluctant readers and/or reluctant writers,
check out the list. Subheads make it easy to find the sites most
likely to be useful to you.
A team of researchers at Stanford University of people who are
heavy media multitaskers. The results astounded them: the more
tasks people attempted to do, the more susceptible they were to
distractions.
As a writing teacher, those findings should suggest that your students
will learn best if they don't have competing cognitive tasks. Eliminating
competing cognitive tasks means more than just shutting of the TV
and disconnecting the headset from the iPod.
Struggling writers in particular are more likely to be successful
if they do just one thing at a time. Often they don't know what
to focus on when they have multiple options. Thus, writing techniques
that increase options, such as brainstorming, actually hamper their
writing.
Since the majority of students I've taught struggled with writing,
my teaching methods focus on one writing element at a time.
When I have students write a working thesis, that is the only writing
element we think about. When we revise, we revise for one element
at a time. When we edit, we edit for one error at a time.
If you have a student who struggles with writing, whether that
child has a learning disability or is academically talented, you
will make the writing process less painful for both of you by eliminating
distractions.
-
Teach less, but teach it better.
-
Teach in ways that allow students to complete a defined
task at one sitting.
-
Stick with one writing genre until students master it.
- Teach students how use self-talk to focus on the task
at hand.
Note: The study referred to here appeared online Aug. 24, 2009
in advance of the print issue of the Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences. An abstract
is available free.
The Library of The University of Adelaide, Australia, has compiled
a list of classic
books available free in digital format with full-search text.
The list is available four ways:
You could use titles to supplement student texts. You'll find short
author biographies to help you introduce an author. The searchable
texts also allow you or your students to locate a specific passage
you wish to cite.
If you need some authentic ELA writing prompts, this site
may suggest some questions such as
-
Why are no books published after 1955 in the lists?
-
What kinds of formatting allow lengthy material to be read
easily online?
-
What is meant by proofreading? Does anyone do it these days?
You could turn any of those questions into relevant writing prompts
for ELA students in this digital world.
Writing Points presents: new
pages
New pages cover a smattering of topics
The few new pages I posted in the last month elaborate on previous
themes. One page provides tips
for teaching introduction paragraphs.
Another describes revision
techniques specifically for writers who compose at the computer.
A third illustrates use
of ripple strategy to explore possible evidence for an essay.
With this issue of Writing Points, I'm beginning a series of articles
about teaching struggling writers. This is a topic dear to
my heart. The majority of students I have taught struggled with
writing.
In my experience, some students who struggle with writing have
a learning disability, but most simply don't learn well the way
teachers usually teach. Most struggling writers are males,
which perhaps is not surprising since most teachers are female.
I'll be looking for tools that appeal to struggling writers
(like the comic books discussed above), as well as tips for teaching
struggling writers.
Research shows that teaching in ways that help struggling writers
also make learning to write much easier for those to whom writing
comes more easily. Perhaps there is an educationally sound reason
for making learning to write competently harder than it needs to
be, but I don't know what it is.
The next issue of Writing Points should be released
October 15, no providence preventing.
Until then, keep your pencil sharp.
Linda Aragoni
