"Detail makes the difference between boring and terrific writing. It's the difference between a pencil sketch and a lush oil painting. As a writer, words are your paint. Use all the colors."
-Rhys Alexander
As a school district, one of our main focuses for school improvement is the content area of writing. Over the past two years, our overall writing scores for students in grade 4 on the MEAP, as well as our common writing assessments, were very low by our district standards and expectations in regards to all students. Upon evaluating our assessments this past year, an item analysis demonstrated that there is a deficiency in the use of supporting details in writing across genres.
Recently, I came across an article which shared an increase in 4th grade writing scores for a school district, by incorporating 21st century writing skills. I have noticed such a great response to blogging in my own classroom this past year. However, we were only blogging once a week due to the limited accessibility to technology. The authentic audience for my students was a very powerful motivator for them to write. This made me wonder how I could incorporate the use of technology in writing to build on the effectiveness of supporting details in students' writing.
I would like to see an increase in overall writing skills with a focus on the use of supporting details in informational, narrative, and persuasive writing, while also creating an engaged community of writers. By viewing ideas/concepts through multiple perspectives, we can provide a greater understanding of the concept with a more detailed picture. The use of details in our writing allows the reader to get a better understanding of what the writer is trying to express. Providing opportunity for collaboration and feedback, will hopefully stimulate an enriching writing environment.
Providing a mobile device for every student, such as an iPad, would be an ideal device that would allow them to use technology most effectively for all purposes of this content area. Students could store this device easily in their desk, as well as the portability option of taking it home or on field trips to record/ capture particular details that they could write about at a later time. Providing one device with easy access to software applications to capture, research, collaborate, organize, and synthesize would eliminate the possibility of disorganization or loss through several devices (camera, laptop), books, folders, or papers.
Recently, I came across an article which shared an increase in 4th grade writing scores for a school district, by incorporating 21st century writing skills. I have noticed such a great response to blogging in my own classroom this past year. However, we were only blogging once a week due to the limited accessibility to technology. The authentic audience for my students was a very powerful motivator for them to write. This made me wonder how I could incorporate the use of technology in writing to build on the effectiveness of supporting details in students' writing.
I would like to see an increase in overall writing skills with a focus on the use of supporting details in informational, narrative, and persuasive writing, while also creating an engaged community of writers. By viewing ideas/concepts through multiple perspectives, we can provide a greater understanding of the concept with a more detailed picture. The use of details in our writing allows the reader to get a better understanding of what the writer is trying to express. Providing opportunity for collaboration and feedback, will hopefully stimulate an enriching writing environment.
Providing a mobile device for every student, such as an iPad, would be an ideal device that would allow them to use technology most effectively for all purposes of this content area. Students could store this device easily in their desk, as well as the portability option of taking it home or on field trips to record/ capture particular details that they could write about at a later time. Providing one device with easy access to software applications to capture, research, collaborate, organize, and synthesize would eliminate the possibility of disorganization or loss through several devices (camera, laptop), books, folders, or papers.