Content Objectives:
The student will identify and reflect on purposeful word choice.
The student will explain how word choice maintains and supports tone and clarity of ideas.
The student will identify and reflect on how purposeful sentence structure enhances the effectiveness on an essay.
Pedagogy: Gretchen Bernabei and other writing instruction experts state that daily oral language practice does not integrate into student writing. Students that are taught writing conventions in isolation do not integrate those concepts into their own writing. In addition, students require opportunities to share their writing with authentic audiences.
The constructivist theory states that because the process of learning is equal to the product of learning, we must include other assessments like how well a student can communicate and defend an idea which helps to develop students’ communication and social skills.
Technology: The social affordance and interconnectivity make blogs an efficient tool for teaching and learning writing conventions. Blogs make it possible for students to have an authentic audience for their writing. Students are able to see more examples, interact with their peers and have the opportunity to explain and support their ideas.
Activity:
The simple activity integrates technology into the strategy created by Gretchen Bernabei called Sparkling Sentences. In the original activity students watch as a teacher displays a sentence from one student’s writing. The class then is asked to remark about aspects from the sentence that are well crafted. Students integrate what they see into their own writing. For example, they might take a phrase or word choice and use it as their own when writing. To extend this activity for older students, I use specific questions to lead the conversation into what connotations are created by the word choice. I also ask students to break down the sentence structure and analyze how it was used to support the writer’s idea. For example, students might explain how the sentence is very descriptive or it uses a compare and contrast structure. The conversation sometimes leads into discussions of rhetorical strategies and how they are enhanced through the writer’s sentence structure.
By integrating blogs, I can ask students to post a sentence from their own writing that they are proud of. Students would then be asked to read multiple sentences and analyze the word choice and sentence structure. As a whole class, we can discuss sentences that were particularly effective and then write them on chart paper and display them. Students will then be asked to integrate that sentence structure into their own writing.
Although it would be difficult to read all the blog posts, this activity is worthwhile because it allows for multiple opportunities to engage with the content, provides an authentic audience, helps develop independence and self-motivation and embeds technology literacy.
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This lesson is an example of how I will integrate technology into instruction. Creating this lesson and learning about different technology integration models caused me to reflect on how I had used technology in the past. I realized that I had become comfortable using programs like Revision Assistant, Google Docs and Powerpoint and had stopped trying to improve lessons with new affordances provided by innovative technology. The TPACK model also caused me to deliberately think about the affordances provided by technology in order to choose the best technology for the task.