The Lowe Down

Look Ma, I’m a Writer!

November 12, 2006

I thought it was fitting to make the topic of my very first Lowe Down blog to be about writing. I’ve always been a voracious reader but never considered myself a writer. When given assignments in high school and college I never balked at writing but it was never a necessary thing that I had to do, such as, breathing. In the past few years I’ve managed to write a couple articles for techLearning.com, one for the University of Missouri concerning eMINTS and authored a workbook for the textbook, Missouri; Then & Now. Writing has become something that I find myself doing daily in some form or another. This is a good thing because I am not considered a “big talker” or a person who spins small talk easily. I speak when I have something to say, either serious or funny. Writing is an outlet that allows me to express myself without vying for time or space to enter a conversation. So many times people in verbal conversations are so busy waiting for an opportunity to say their peace or thinking about what they are going to say next that the weight of words is sometimes lost. Which brings the old “if a tree fell in the woods” quotation to mind… if someone says something important but no one hears it, is it still important? I say, “yes”, just ask any student who was not listening when their teacher gave instructions to be completed immediately. I try to convey to my fourth graders that words are powerful and for that reason alone, it is important that they learn to express themselves effectively and with care.
We all know that to express ourselves effectively, we need to write often. One way to assist students in becoming good writers is to enlist writing in their daily lessons. I recently attended a workshop conducted by Vicki Urquhart, the co-author of, Teaching Writing in the Content Areas. The book is based upon 30 years of research in order to figure out how to help student achievement. It contains very good ideas and is divided into 5 Sections: The Role of Time, Assessment, Technology, the Teacher and Strategies for Teaching Writing in the Content Areas. These are all areas of concern for teachers who want to incorporate writing into their lessons. One added benefit according to Urquhart is that teachers come to know their students, what they are thinking, and what they are or are not learning. That benefit alone is worth the effort. There was a teacher at the training who commented that her school had implemented writing in all content areas and it raised their Communication Arts scores on the Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) 20 points this past year. She said that they would be doing the same thing this year and then observing their scores closely to see if they maintained the same results. I think many people will be watching to see if they maintain or boost their Communication Arts scores again.
In the past five years I have dispersed what is now called, disciplinary literacy in my curriculum in an effort to promote higher-level thinking. It’s a natural fit, reading, writing and learning go hand-in-hand. I believe one major reason that many teachers shy away from using writing assignments or questions, is that they are time consuming to grade. The use of rubrics or scoring guides helps to make short work of grading writing assignments. I personally use Rubistar. I even ask my students to create their own scoring guides from time to time. Being a veteran eMINTS teacher and having technology available to my students has made it easier to practice writing in our curriculum. My students are allowed to be creative thinkers and this helps as they build their writing skills. One of my students’ favorite writing activities is our character education blog using Andy Griffith episodes. They enjoy writing about the character issues and typing out their thoughts. We use a scoring guide to help them stay on topic and use general writing guidelines. Their parents enjoy reading their students’ writing as well. We are using David Warlick’s, Class Blogmeister site. It allows for the teacher to have total control over what is posted online, including being able to send comments to the writer(s) asking for proofreading and rewrites or praise for a job well done. You can view our blogs (also called “The Lowe Down”) to view our progress.
There are many other sites and programs that promote writing that could be used with one or a classroom of students. Here are a few that I use with my students:
Kidspiration
PowerPoint
Microsoft Word
Writely
ReadWriteThink
Education World’s Writing Bugs
Writing Den
Scholastic’s Writing with Writers

My current project is a writing experiment using a discussion board. The initial reaction was excitement. I’ll let you know how it goes…

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