Tricks of the Trade: Infusing Technology in the Middle School Writing Process

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Tricks of the Trade Infusing Technology in the
Middle School Writing Process

• Erica Hartman, Sparta Middle School

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Task
Your task today is to explore all of the uses of
technology in the writing process, including
concept mapping software, digital editing, and
online publishing. Using a writing sample, you
will use the above technology to brainstorm,
edit, proofread, revise, and finally publish a
completed piece of prose on the Internet.
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The Writing Process
Brainstorming the process of generating ideas
about a particular idea Prewriting the process
of organizing ideas in preparation for writing
Composing turning the ideas into prose Peer
Editing gaining feedback from another reader on
style, construction, ideas, etc. Revising
creating a second draft of the writing piece
based on feedback Editing identifying and
correcting errors in grammar, spelling, etc.
Publishing presenting your writing piece to an
appropriate audience
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Brainstorming/Pre-Writing
Go to the Inspiration Web site to download a
trial copy if you do not have the software. You
can kick brainstorming up a notch by teaching
students to attach particular graphics and colors
to their ideas. As students make higher order
decisions about depicting their thoughts in the
diagram, their ideas are clarified and they are
closer to being able to write.
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Writing the Rough Draft
Composing the draft using Microsoft Word gives
the writer the option of saving the rough draft,
2nd draft, and final draft as the same document,
but different versions to show progression

• Save the current state of a document by using
  versioning
• On the File menu, click Versions.
• In the Comments on version box, type descriptive
  information about the version you're saving.
• Note   Because you are archiving document
  versions, you cannot go back and modify a saved
  version of a document. Before you can modify an
  earlier version, you must open that version and
  use the Save As command to save it as a separate
  file.

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Editing
A great feature of Microsoft Word is Insert
Comment. Students can email you or a peer
their rough drafts and you can insert a comment.
Click Here for an example.

• Type a comment
• Select the text or item you want to comment on,
  or click at the end of the text.
• On the Reviewing toolbar, click Insert Comment .
• Type the comment text in the comment pane at the
  bottom of the screen.
• Tip   After you've inserted a comment, you can
  click Close to close the comment pane.

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Editing

• If you or your students are collaborating with
  other individuals or classes or if you want to
  see how often they actually revise,
• you may want to track changes. This lets you
  see how many times they went back to revisit
  their work.

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AUTO SUMMARIZE

• This feature will automatically highlight key
  points or topic sentences.

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How to Check Readability Level

• Highlight the text you would like to check.
• Before you run Spellcheck, go to Tools, Options,
  and click on Spelling and Grammar Tab.
• Check the box that says, Show readability
  statistics

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Proofreading and Revision
Using a Smartboard and an LCD Projector, ask
students to anonymously volunteer to have their
draft projected on the screen. They can get
simultaneous feedback from teachers and peers in
MUGS (mechanics, usage, grammar, and spelling),
word choice, sentence structure, etc.
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Other uses for a Smartboard in the Writing
Curriculum
Smartboard Stuff Choose Your Own
Adventure Teachers Guide Magnetic Poetry
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Digital Publishing
Visit one of the sites below to publish your work
on-line. Some charge a small, one-time fee, but
you can now call yourself a PUBLISHED author! You
can create your own web site and publish anything
you want for free!
http//www.kidpub.org/kidpub/ http//www.writersar
ea.com/ http//www.cyberkids.com/cw/ http//www.ge
ocities.com/phsmedia/pub.html
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Any Questions?

• Contact me at
• erica_hartman1_at_hotmail.com