Blog (July17)

 The writing process is extremely demanding, and complex has the reading process. Students must follow a series of steps if they want to be effective writers. As alluded to in a previous blog … not all students learn the same. Personally, I do not enjoy writing because it requires a way to much brain energy. Unlike many of the other students, in this course, my brain contains various languages and ways of conveying information. French was my main mean of written communication for twenty plus years. It was and still is difficult for me to transmit what I am thinking and want to say in English. Everything sounds right in my head until it reaches the paper (typed format). A basic assignment such as writing a two page film review becomes a two to three day affairs (3-4 edited version of one assignment). In order to keep up with the English writing I had to rely on various tools such as the dictionary, thesaurus, spell check and grammarly.com. I cannot image, based on what we have been learning thus far about the writing process, how LD students feel when confronted with any writing task. I am so glad that there are so many Assistive technology tools (Apps and software) that LD students and/or EAL students can utilize to improve their writing skills. Students want their voice to be heard. Unfortunately, many of them are not heard because they do not have effective writing communication skills.

 During class, today, I do not understand why some people believe that using programs like co writer is cheating. How can program or software makes one less intelligent then one who do not require assistive technology? I often use grammarly.com before I submit any written work. Does it make me a cheater? I do not think so! Grammarly does not write my papers for me. This program tells me where my weaknesses are and helps me find, most of the time, alternative ways of saying what is on my mind. Co writer does the same for LD students. Prior knowledge and the ability to decode, select and organize information are still required.

What I would like to learn?  I would like to know how to decode (analyze) students’ hand writing and mine. In the past, I often assumed that some of my students wrote in illegible ways because they did not know how to spell words properly. They probably assumed that I would overlook the words that I could not read. These kids would often lose points because their poor writing skills did not allow me to understand what they were trying to say (text clarity is part of the rubric). I should have allowed these students to rewrite their text (in class) using the computer or voice to text app.

How Should We Teach Our Children To Write?

http://www.howtotutor.com/cursive.htm