Chapter 4

Chapter 4 response
I think that chapter 4 was probably the most useful chapter to me so far. Since writing is such an integral part in schooling and everyday life, it is good to know how we can use technology to help students become better writers. Going through elementary school, the only time I can really remember using technology during the writing process was to type up a paper (in 4th-5th grades). I don’t ever remember using it for concept maps, collaboration, etc… This is probably partly due to the fact that technology wasn’t nearly as widespread 10 years ago as it is now. Nonetheless, I think that different technology resources can be very useful in the writing process for elementary students. Writing is something that is normally dreaded. I think if teachers can use tools to help students make sense of writing, students will begin to have a better appreciation for it.

Concept maps are a good way to organize ideas, although personally, I didn’t really ever use them very much. I don’t think I was really ever taught how to use a concept map correctly, so they would turn out to not be very useful for me. So in teaching, I think it is important to not assume that students will know how to construct useful concept map, even though it seems like it wouldn’t be too hard to do. I will teach students about concept maps and give them the resources they need to create concept maps on their own. I will encourage them to use concept maps to organize their thoughts, but also to explore other ways of organizing their writing.
Semantica – I liked the looks and sounds of Semantica from the book, but when I went to the website, it looked like you had to buy a software, so I wasn’t able to try it for myself. I liked how you could single in on just one part of a concept map to work on that part. Some things I liked about this are that they can be shared by others, it helps students who struggle with planning their writing, and it is easy to change.
Spinscape (www.spinscape.com) is another website that I found for concept maps. I liked it because the basic version is free, which includes basic abilities for concept maps, but you can also purchase the premium for $10.00/month which allows students to share their concept maps, collaborate with other students on a map, inset attachments into nodes, along with other tools and it is very easy to use.

Presentation writing – Presentations in the elementary classroom can take on many forms. If I use PowerPoint in my classroom for my students I like the guidelines the book suggests to avoid the focus of the presentation being moved away from the writing. In my time spent in elementary classroos, I have not seen elementary students using PowerPoint, but I have seen a 3rd grade classroom use Kid-Pix, which is also a presentation format, but also more. (http://www.mackiev.com/kid_pix.html)
Creative writing, specifically poetry, has always been one of the hardest parts of writing for me. I think that using a website like Poetry Forge (www.poetryforge.org) would have been a good way to give me ideas and get me started with the ideas I had. I think that this website could be a good tool in the classroom, as long as it is scaffolded by the teacher.

Collaborative writing – I think this is important in elementary school. Collaboration is something that is done in all levels of schooling and even in the workforce. While reading the chapter I was thought of Google docs. Then I went to www.writely.com and it took me straight to Google docs, so it seems that they are one in the same. I have used Google docs several times for group projects. I have done powerpoints on there with a group, and I have had a document on there that we had to do as a group and we were able to edit it from our own computers, at the same time or not at the same time, etc… I really liked this tool and think it would be very useful in any collaborating writing effort. I also like the idea of using blogs to promote collaborative writing. Blogs are very easy to use and are definitely accessible to students. I like them for the use of collaborative writing because students can post ideas and comments on each other's blogs, or they can all post on one blog (like a class blog or something). It could be set up in different ways, and still be effective.

Peer Feedback – I agree with the textbook on the point that peer feedback is sometimes more helpful than the teacher’s feedback. Although the teacher’s feedback is still important, I definitely will be using peer feedback when possible. I think that SWoRD is a feedback program that could be used with older elementary. With younger students I think I would use more informal means/writing conferences for feedback.

Questions to ponder:
Do you think it is too much to ask elementary students to work collaboratively on a writing project? How much guidance do you think teachers need to give students? When should teachers stand back and let groups work things out on their own?