Reading aloud can improve written grammar
Writing Points for May, 2011

Writing Points presents: new pages
True blog debuts at you-can-teach-writing

A true blog that permits reader comments is now up and running on this site. The blog will focus on timely content and content with a news peg. The kinds of information you can expect are represented by this list of posts that have already appeared:

• Free Shakespeare training for MS, HS teachers from the world famous Folger Shakespeare library.
• Graduate credit e-courses for teachers apply technology to classrooms.
• Click for definitions on any web page, a tool for ESL, poor readers, and students of foreign languages.
• Word choice activity source (use for yes-no-why vocabulary activities).
• Mentoring for new ESL teachers from an organization in the UK.

The blog link is at the top of the left column navigation menu.

You can get the blog content delivered to your email inbox or to your feed reader. The image at the left shows two ways to become a subscriber from the blog page.

Writing Points will continue to focus primarily on content with a long shelf life. Instead of telling you the newest trick, it will focus on reliable techniques that can be adapted to current situations.

Writing Points presents: tip for struggling writers
Reading pairs improve written grammar

You can use native English speakers' ability to hear errors to help them identify potential grammar problem areas in their writing, such as run-together sentences. Using students to give each other feedback is a powerful way to develop their skills while reducing your workload.

Although most strategies at you-can-teach-writing.com are geared toward teaching teens and adults, this activity can be done with students as young as fourth or fifth grade.

With students working in pairs, the author reads his/her work aloud while the other listens. Slowing down to read aloud may be enough for the author to spot grammatical errors that the author doesn't see when reading silently.

For a second check, the listener reads the work aloud to its author. The person who didn't write the paper is far more likely to read sentences as written instead of the way the author intended. Hearing the paper read by someone else is more likely to reveal to the writer problems he/she corrected mentally but still needs to correct on paper.

During the second reading, students may want to stop at the end of every paragraph, or more often, to see if either questions something that they read. A penciled question mark in the margin (or highlighting on the computer screen) is all that is necessary to help the author remember to check that sentence later.

Read aloud pairs is not a peer editing activity per se. The point is to get the author to focus on the words s/he put on the page.

For the activity to work, students need to be fairly well matched in respect to their reading and writing skills. Also, the reading order is important. The author gets the chance to identify needed changes before the partner can note them. If the listener has reading difficulties, reading second lets him anticipate words s/he will see in the reading.

Writing Points presents: free resource
Dropbox online document storage

Leaving at home a document you need at school, or vice versa, can be frustrating. If your document is in digital form, you can avoid that frustration by using online "cloud" storage for your files. This month, I begin a series about free online storage options teachers and students can use.

By adopting a common term for its product name, Dropbox has become almost a generic term for online storage. Dropbox offers 2 GB storage free. You can get more by paying or by encouraging other people to sign up for storage.

You begin by creating an account and downloading software that puts a Dropbox folder on your computer. Drag any file into Dropbox to make it accessible. If you have more than one computer, download to each computer so the program can synchronize the files automatically whenever the computer is connected to the Internet.

You can retrieve your materials from the Dropbox website with the account name and password you registered. You don't have to be at the computer that holds your Dropbox. The Dropbox homepage contains a short video that explains how the online storage process works.

Warning: Before you confine a must-use-today document to a Dropbox file, test to be sure your school's security settings let you download. If you want students to submit work electronically to your Dropbox, you can do that. (Upload capability should not be affected by school Internet security measures.)

Next month in Writing Points: eBackpack online storage especially for education uses.

Writing Points presents: technology tool
Text replacement tool eases grading woes

A decade ago I bought a tool I use every day that makes giving feedback on writing much easier. The tool is ShortKeys, published by Insight Software Solutions, Inc.

ShortKeys won't help you unless you require students to submit their work in digital format. If all that prevents you from requiring digital submissions is your timidity, you need to buckle up your courage before the world passes you (and your students) by.

ShortKeys is a text replacement program. You create a code to use for each block of replacement text. Type the code and ShortKeys replaces the code with the text.

One of the ways I use ShortKeys in grading is to hold my errors codes. I also have suggestions for improvements entered into ShortKeys. I have things like, "For your next assignment, try reading your paper through looking just for sentence fragments instead of trying to look for all kinds of errors. I think you can get rid of most of your fragments that way and avoid the grade cap."

ShortKeys is particularly useful for text that has to be error-free such as names of people and places, book titles, and URLs. Working from digital text, highlight the correct characters, then copy and paste them into a ShortKey. Over a year's time, just having the name of every student in two versions (Last, First and First, Last) can save hours.

One benefit to using ShortKeys is that I can develop responses before I am crabby from having written the same answer 17 times—especially when the answer is that the answer is in the syllabus.

ShortKeys can accommodate long blocks of text. Because students progress at such different speeds, Josh may need a particular explanation in October but Caitlin may not need it until January. ShortKeys lets you prepare boilerplate responses to the most common issues and misunderstandings so they are ready when you need them.

ShortKeys works with programs like Microsoft Office and Open Office, with email programs, on web pages, blogs and cloud-based programs. ShortKeys is only for Windows users, but I suspect that most writing teachers use Windows.

The full version of ShortKeys costs $24.95 for one user. (It's a one time purchase, not an annual fee.) The company has free "lite" version, which includes ads for company products, so you can test-drive before you buy. If you are a department chair or school administrator, look at site licenses to put the program on multiple machines.

Disclosure: In preparing this Writing Points article, I discovered the newest version of ShortKeys has the ability to include enhanced text such as colored type. I updated my license to replace the ShortKeys I've been using since 2005 to version 3. I also discovered the company has an affiliate marketing program, and I signed up. I'll get a percentage of sales made through clicks to ShortKeys from this site.

Writing Points presents a note from Linda
Pink slip blues? Four tips for coping

On my weekday morning news job, I see dozens of stories each week about what's going on in schools in New York State. The numbers of teaching job losses has been depressing.

If you were one of the thousands of teachers who lost your teaching job for 2011-12 school year, I'm sorry. My being sorry doesn't help much, does it? I can, however, give a tiny bit of help in your job search.

1. If you get your Writing Points at your school address, I suggest you use the address change form in your notification email to move your subscription to your personal email account. Any resource you can have free is worth a couple of keystrokes, isn't it?

2. Use the teacher forums to make a name for yourself. A few well-thought-out bylined pages about teaching will give you a publication record (each page with its own URL) that will make you stand out from other job seekers. You-Can-Teach-Writing.com has about 1,000 unique visitors a day who potentially can see your writing. If you started your own blog, you wouldn't get that kind of traffic any time soon, if ever.

3. Establish a personal learning network of people with whom you share educational interests. Go beyond colleagues with whom you've worked. Find out what other educators are doing. Use resources such as Twitter, the educator's PLN, and Linked In to connect with people who can add to your skills and knowledge. To get the full benefit of PLN membership, you have to pay your dues by participating.

4. Keep alert to free and low-cost ways to improve your skills and your teaching. The online communities named in the previous paragraph will often suggest free webinars and other professional development resources. And don't forget to document your activity so that if you're asked at a job interview about your professional development activities, you have an answer ready.

The next issue of Writing Points should be released June 15, no providence preventing.

Until then, keep your pencil sharp.

Linda Aragoni