Week 3 Assignment

I found Inspiration to be a potentially helpful tool that I could use in my classroom. It would allow me to put together an outline or turn it into a diagram and such that students could access on their own time at home to help study. Also, it may make learning not so boring for students. Instead of sitting listening to a lecture, they could periodically access the program online and learn that way.

I think that using blogs in class would be helpful. As a teacher, you must incorporate some time in class for the students to get on their blogs. This allows you to monitor if they are off task, or actually doing what is asked of them. Also, you can't assume that every student will have access to a computer or the internet once they get home.

Peer review is essential in the writing process. As a teacher with limited time, you will most likely not have time to read and make corrections to every rough draft. I think that one way to get the most out of peer reviews is to place students in groups after getting to know their strengths and weaknesses in the writing procedure. For example, in one group you may have a student who is prone to catch spelling mistakes, one that is very good at checking grammar, and one that is just good at making sense and putting words together. After doing this, have the students bring enough copies of their rough draft for each member of the group and have them take them home and review them. This is so time is not taken up in class for the papers to be reviewed and they are getting feedback from not just one person who may have missed something, but the entire group. Technology could also be used in this revision process by the students communicating through email or blogs. Also, you could have the students just type the rough draft in a blog and allow the entire class, including yourself, to go and just leave comments with suggestions or things that need to be fixed.