Literacy Now

Supporting students in their development as writers of persuasive essays can be a difficult task. There are many aspects to writing a good essay. Students need to learn how to develop a good argument, find information to support their ideas, think about alternative points of view, and do all this in a clear and structured essay.

iCivics is a worthwhile collection of online games, lesson plans, and other resources for teaching civics to middle school students. One of their resources, Drafting Board, scaffolds students’ learning to write well-constructed and well-supported essays by pulling together information from a variety of sources. There are seven civics-related topics from which to choose. The website makes it clear that this is a teacher-guided activity that works best when the teacher is available to answer questions and provide other assistance as needed.

The basic framework of each Drafting Board topic includes:

• Background—Helps students to develop background knowledge on the subject and begin to form an opinion. Students are provided various sources to read and from which to pull information to complete a fill-in-the-blank narrative.
• Claim Creator—This step in the process leads students to develop their point of view on the subject and to create the thesis for their argument.
• Paragraph Constructor—Using the resources introduced in the building background module, students are led to develop three body paragraphs supporting their point of view.
• Critic Crusher—This section gets students to consider alternative points of view and how to rebut them for an effective argument.
• Introduction & Conclusion Builder—Helps students learn to build effective introductions and conclusions. This is best done after writing the body paragraphs.

A number of supports are provided throughout these steps. For students who may struggle with decoding/fluency, there is an option to have most text read aloud. Each section begins with an explanation of that aspect of an essay and a list of the steps the student will encounter. In addition, students are shown how to use transition words effectively. Finally, at the conclusion of writing each paragraph, students are given a checklist to analyze their writing. These latter three supports, as well as the overall process, provide rich “scripts” that can help students when they are more independently writing.

As literacy educators, we are well acquainted with the gradual release of responsibility model for teaching students new skills and strategies. Drafting Board is a great example of the use of this model, with the default mode being an example of gradual release of responsibility in miniature. For the first body paragraph, students are led through the process with simple fill-in-the-blank steps called “auto-complete.” Students click on appropriate support in one of the resource texts, and it fills in the sentence in the paragraph. In the second body paragraph, students are asked to write their own text to complete sentences. In the third body paragraph, students are helped to write the introductory sentence, but then guided to write the rest of the paragraph on their own. There are five additional challenge levels that each provide a different approach to scaffolding students’ writing, from providing a lot of support to providing just a little.

My seventh-grade students worked through three of the different Drafting Boards. Then we researched the case of Korematsu v. the United States and the United States’ internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. Students then wrote a persuasive essay about the Supreme Court’s decision in that case following the format they learned through Drafting Board. The following year, I noticed that some of these students carried over what they learned about the structure of an essay, the construction of introduction and conclusion paragraphs, as well as the use of transition words in the writing they did that year. The scaffolding of Drafting Board was a valuable means to help these students learn how to write an effective persuasive essay and learn a little civics, too.

Eric MacDonald teaches in the middle school at Benchmark School in Media, PA.

Your essay, blog post, or article is due. Now you just need a topic—but what? Everyone has heard “write what you know.” But every writer knows it is not that simple.

Believe it or not, there’s a powerful idea generator out there. And it’s free. And you likely have seen it every day of your online life for more than a decade.

Predictive search, that constantly changing set of possible search queries you see in search engines, is often ignored and sometimes annoying. You know those suggested results drop down from the search bar. But sometimes it provides just the word or phrase you need when you don’t know what you’re searching for, including writing inspiration. The suggestions are based on trending or popular searches.

You already know what predictive search is even if you’ve never heard the term before. For exactly this reason, predictive search technology is also a powerful idea generator. I suggest using a natural language query. Natural language queries are put to the search engine in the way you might ask a friend. As you type, the search engine tries to guess what you might want to know. Most people read far faster than they can type, so seeing a possible result may help with the search you actually want and suggest ideas that might not have occurred to you before.

Consider the search possibilities for writing for social studies with this stem in Ask.com: “When the Supreme Court…”

Let’s say I (or my students) need to write an article, essay, or script for a YouTube video, but I’ve encountered a bit of writer’s block. I can either wait for inspiration, or I can let technology help me to find my own inspiration. Predictive search guesses what interests me as I type my query. The results might help me zero in on a topic or suggest something I hadn’t thought of yet. Because humans use questions, natural search and predictive search are a good combination to help me develop a writing topic. Start with a query stem:

What is the
What is the best/worst
Who are the most
If [insert topic] changes/continues/stops, then

If you need a bit more refinement for your topic, just hit the search icon. Of course, be sure your writing is your own and attribute any sources you use.

Effective writers will adapt the topic to the audience and purpose for writing. Because predictive search results are derived, in part, from popular or trending searches, they will need to be adapted much of the time. But when you need inspiration, you might want to start with the tool that is right in front of you—the predictive search field in most of your favorite search engines.

If you are interested in a more whimsical view of predictive search, be sure to check out the found or accidental poems at Co.Create (warning: one of the poems at the time I wrote this post may make use of a term you may not want on your work or school computer).

Thomas DeVere Wolsey, EdD, is the CEO of the Institute to Advance International Education. Contact him at http://www.iaieus.com/contact.html. This article is part of a series from ILA’s Technology in Literacy Education Special Interest Group (TILE-SIG).

In this day and age, the fact that many children have limited or no access to books and do not know the pleasures of listening to books read aloud is hard to believe. Research suggests that access to books in the United States often varies on the basis of income levels and reading practices established in home cultures. Outside the United States, countries like Guatemala and Costa Rica have rural areas that have no access to books. Additional research demonstrates that the frequency of reading to children, regardless of income, affects brain processing and reading development.

Classroom teachers understand the importance of establishing a classroom library. As a teacher, I spent summer months collecting books, labeling them, and creating new categories to add books to my library. At that time, however, I didn’t have access to apps or to a mobile device to make the process more time efficient and productive. Today, classroom teachers, after-school programs, and anyone with a collection of books can easily use a cell phone or tablet, laptop or computer, and apps to make a book inventory, create a library, and establish a checkout system for parents and children. In this blog, I describe how I used a cell phone and laptop to create a library for children living and learning without books. I also offer Internet sites to extend access to books beyond a classroom library.

Using apps and mobile devices

Recently, I helped establish the first library in Uvita, Costa Rica, four hours south of San José on the Pacific Coast in a primary rainforest. Children’s books were not available in the community, and libraries were not in the schools. Through donations of Spanish and English children’s books brought to Uvita from the United States by volunteers, we established a library in Forjando Alas Kids’ Club, an after-school center for K–5 grade children. Within one afternoon, we easily made an inventory of 490 children’s books using a free app downloaded from Booksource Classroom Organizer to a smartphone. To do so, we held the phone over the book’s ISBN before touching the “Scan” button, which brings up book information on the phone. Next, we tapped “Add to Library” and the information entered onto the app’s spreadsheet.

We then opened Booksource on the laptop, entered the Teacher Page, and used the “My Library” option to edit and personalize the spreadsheet columns. Last, we used the “Student” option to add names of children at the center who would check out the books from the library. In addition, we provided each child with his or her own special library card and created ways to motivate the children to read books through book talks and reading incentive charts. We also modeled how to care for the books before assigning children to librarian roles. Further, we offered workshops with teachers and parents on important ways to read books with children.

The checkout process was even easier. Again using the Booksource app on the smartphone, we tapped on the “Check Out” button, scrolled to the child’s name, and touched the scan button again to enter the child’s selected book’s ISBN, which displayed on the spreadsheet. After a few quick taps on the app, children were taking books home to share with family and friends. A similar process was followed to check books back into the library. When parents downloaded the app to their cell phones, the checkout system become even simpler, freeing teachers from checking out books. The teachers needed only to open Booksource on their laptop to monitor the checkout status of books found on the “My Library” option. Any educator can follow these easy steps to make an inventory of their classroom libraries and to create an efficient checkout system for parents and students.

Extending the library with online books and resources

We also extended access to children’s books beyond the Forjando Alas library by offering online sites that opened on tablets and cell phones. Any educator working with children, especially with Spanish-speaking children and English learners, will find these sites useful to extend access to books beyond the classroom or after-school learning environment.

• We Give Books offers books and filters to select titles by age range, genre, author, and so forth. Most books are available in English with a limited amount available in Spanish.
• Bookbox includes YouTube animated books written in a variety of languages. Text highlights when read.
• StoryPlace offers animated preschool stories arranged by theme in English and Spanish. Site includes activities, videos, and reading lists that accompany each book. Adobe Flash Player is required.
• Unite for Literacy offers beginning reader fiction and nonfiction books with narration in English and other languages.
• Starfall includes beginning stories and activities. Children click on an icon that highlights narrated text. Great selections that reinforce sight word recognition and fluency. 
• 123TeachMe offers games, phonics and vocabulary activities, and music and short story videos in several languages.
• Curious George is a PBS Kids site that offers games, video clips, and activities in Spanish. Adobe Flash Player is required.
• Pumarosa offers audio translations for English and Spanish terms, common phrases, and various vocabulary words.
• Dual Immersion Spanish Resources offers a wealth of resources to print, apps, e-books, and more.

To support Forjando Alas contact KidsUniting.

Tammy Ryan is happy to help others establish libraries as well. She is an associate professor of reading education at Jacksonville University, Jacksonville, FL. This article is part of a series from the Technology in Literacy Education Special Interest Group (TILE-SIG).

A noun is a person, place, thing, or idea. Read the sentence and circle any of the nouns. Do this for sentences 1–10 on your noun worksheet and turn it in.

Does this sound familiar? Worksheet after worksheet, identifying all types of grammar with limited reasons to remember any of it beyond the lesson that day. Is understanding grammar important? Yes, it definitely is.

After teaching grammar this traditional way of using worksheets, I came to the conclusion that students weren’t fully grasping the concepts because nothing was relevant to them. They were simply circling answers to complete a task, but had little engagement in doing so. If I wanted my students to retain grammar rules, I needed to come up with something different, where students could apply their understanding in a meaningful way.

To begin each grammar concept, I used LearnZillion’s free write-along lesson. These are interactive video lessons for grades 3–8 aimed toward improving student writing. Each video focuses on a specific skill by modeling the process of revising or editing a blemished piece of writing. Students followed along using a practice sheet, culminated with a formative assessment where they can apply the skill to a new draft. This is a great site to build the foundation for the grammar skill you are working on with your students.

Next, I used EarthCam, a network of live webcams around the world. The students chose a destination, and then we traveled to the site and completed a free write of what we saw, focusing on incorporating the specific skill we were working on. Students loved applying the specific grammar skill while writing creatively. After a few minutes, students traded their writing, identifying the targeted skill. Afterward, students discussed their writing and if they used the grammar correctly. This was a great way to spark interesting discussions of their writing.

For homework, I used the National Geographic Photo of the Day. Students referred to this image to write a creative story, using the targeted skill of the week and previous skills we had worked on. Prior to leaving class, we used Google Earth to travel to the destination where the photo was taken, which built excitement, as these vivid images provoked students’ imaginations to come alive. In class the next day, I separated the students into groups of four, where they conferred about their writing, focusing on the grammar.

When working on dialogue, students paired with a student in class they didn’t know too well and interviewed that student. From this interview, they created a newspaper story using Fodey. In addition to working on dialogue, our classroom community became stronger, as students shared positive things with the class they learned about their classmate.

Every quarter, students worked together to create a writing project, incorporating the grammar we had focused on using technology tools such as Movie Maker, Animoto, Emaze, and Plotagon. Students then used Weebly, a site to make free websites, to display their learning to classrooms we collaborated with around the world, allowing them an opportunity to have an authentic audience.

Besides making significant gains on the Spring Measurement of Academic Progress test, students gained a loved for grammar, retaining the material better than any of my previous classes.

When I look back, it all came down to me changing my approach to how I taught grammar, and writing in general. Students didn’t need rote memorization, the way I was taught grammar growing up. They needed meaning, knowing why they were learning the specific skill and how it could be applied in their everyday lives. Every one of my students was capable of being successful; I just needed to offer them the right opportunities. If you are printing worksheets or pulling out those grammar workbooks, are your students engaged? Are you teaching grammar in isolation? Do students see meaning in what they are doing? Maybe it is time to reflect, finding ways for grammar to be more relevant for your students.

Brandi Leggett is a National Board Certified Teacher as a Middle Childhood Generalist. She received her master’s in Elementary Education from Arcadia University in Glenside, PA. She currently teaches third grade at Prairie Ridge Elementary in Shawnee, KS. Follow her class during the school year at Team Leggett.

Many struggling middle school–age readers are still developing their reading skills even when explicit reading instruction is usually no longer part of their general education curriculum. Strategies to overcome this challenge are summarized in publications including Organizing Instruction and Study to Improve Student Learning, ILA Resolutions and Position Statements for Adolescent Literacy, and Writing to Read. These summaries stress the importance of providing students with opportunities to interact with texts through discussion and writing. With the advent of social media and other digital tools, written discussions now occur online. As these environments become more prevalent in classrooms, ensuring that struggling readers have access to the scaffolds and supports that make possible their successful participation is important.  

Universal Design for Learning (UDL), a framework based on the neurosciences, holds as a core belief that learner variability is the given. The UDL framework has been used recently to inform the development of an online reading environment for struggling adolescent readers, called Udio. Udio provides opportunities for students to participate in rich online discussions in support of reading comprehension.

I (Lori, a middle school teacher) had the opportunity to use Udio as part of a pilot study to support student interest and motivation in reading. I was excited about providing my students an opportunity to use online discussion as a way to interact more deeply with texts. Right from the beginning, students made it clear that they wanted to make their reading a social event, inviting others to read the same article so that they could engage in a conversation. However, the early online discussions consisted of short statements like “Yeah, I liked that, too” or “I agree.” Students needed additional supports and structures to develop meaningful discussions.

I began by reminding students that they had read folk tales in ELA, and we were going to read a folk tale on Udio. I asked students to read the folk tale article and then post a comment. We had been working on using evidence in our responses, and I was disappointed to see that students hadn’t posted much on Udio. I saw also that some students hadn’t understood the folk tale, so I printed the article, and students read it again, silently. We then had a face-to-face discussion about the article, discussing what happened to the main character and what is the moral of the story. I then asked students to read it one more time, online, and respond to each other using the sentence starters “First I thought…” “Now, I think…” suggested by Steve Graham.

This time, students engaged in a rich online discussion and deepened their understanding of the article. They were able to agree or disagree with each other online and used evidence to support their thinking. 

After this experience, students engaged in a conversation about the differences between online and offline discussion. For this conversation, students used their extensive knowledge of online discussions from gaming environments in addition to our class work.

Students’ reported benefits of online discussions included

• You don’t have to be in the room with the person
• If you can’t pronounce a word, you can type it
• You don’t have to respond quickly, you can think about your answer

Students’ reported benefits of face-to-face discussions included

• You are with other people
• You can clarify in person
• You can show people what you mean

Students found that both types of discussions improved their understanding; however, the online discussions connected with their out of school literacy life online and was very motivating.

Udio is still under research and development. The following are links to tools and environments that support online discussions:

Ensure students have access to texts with Text-to-Speech readers

• MAC: Directions to access TTS directly from the system
• PC: Directions to download Natural Reader, which will read text on the PC

Provide interesting age-relevant texts

• Wonderopolis
• Word Generation Project

Provide ways for students to share their thinking through online discussions

• Glogster
• Google Docs 
• Padlet
• VoiceThread

The contents of this article were developed under a grant from the U.S. Department of Education (#H327M11000). However, those contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the federal government.

Lori DiGisi is an administrator for Framingham Public Schools and a member of the ILA Board of Directors. Peggy Coyne is a research scientist at CAST, Inc.
This article is part of a series from ILA’s Technology in Literacy Education Special Interest Group (TILE-SIG).