After a
2-month hiatus, it's time to pick up the pen and compose a new post!
The
summer ended in a blur followed by a break that was all to short, but now we
are plowing along, full speed, through what has been an exciting—and
exhausting—semester already!
As we
continue to explore the ways in which technology can revolutionize teaching
practices, I am amazed by the enthusiasm, ingenuity, and creativity of the
those educators who are not only embracing that technology but diving
head-first into expanding its utility in the classroom. One fine example is former MACer, Jeff
Scheur, who recently won the Citi Innovation Challenge for his web tool No Red Ink.
Plagued by the woes—and seemingly endless task—of grading papers rife
with errors, Scheur sought a way to engage students in grammar practice without
the overtone of punishment. No Red Ink uses students’ real life
interests and social preferences (media, friends, etc.) to construct learning
opportunities and grammar lessons to strengthen literacy skills and scaffold
students’ development as writers. As a
future science teacher, I see a wealth of advantages in this tool from it’s
ability to provide the instructor with detailed output on student progress to
enabling students to practice basic skills without taking away from critical
class time.
When
dealing with literacy practices, high school teachers are continually torn
between two poles. They want to develop
students’ the higher-order skills—like finding and integrating evidence,
writing succinctly, and reasoning through an argument—but must also foster the
students’ local-level skills like grammar, word choice, and proof reading. Though teachers may wish to assume the latter
subjects have been taught in elementary and middle school, students’ often enter
high school lacking much strength in the elements of writing. When you combine this dichotomy with
ever-increasing class sizes and high-stakes testing demands it’s no wonder many
teachers are feeling overwhelmed by extensive grading and thus limit the use of
a “writing to learn” curricular approach.
A tool like No Red Ink enables
students to recall prior knowledge of basic writing skills and hone areas in
which they struggle, allowing high school teachers to focus more on
higher-order skills while continuing to support their students’ literacy
foundation.
